How to get a weather forecast offshore?

[temptress]

We lost it (Navtex) about 20 miles off the Norfolk coast. I've no idea how far we were from the transmitter. The aerial is on the pushpit though, not up the mast.

If you are not getting Navtext betweek Norfolk and Scotland/Norway/Belgium then it's probably the setup or configuration of th ereciever. You should not need the aeiral on the mast pushpit should be fine.. What stations are you receiving? Is you receiver configured to pick up the right stations for your Navarea?

 

[Koeketiene]

IMO thei ssue will be too many sources of information each giving a slightly different forecast.

Exactly.
A man with a watch knows the time.
A man with two watches is never sure.

 

[prv]

Thanks all for the info, looks like SW radio and pooter

What, the bonglike device for collecting insects for biological study?

Pete

 

[Fascadale]

Sailing from Dublin to Galicia we "saw" this fine vessel on the AIS
A very well spoken young gentleman was very happy to give us the latest forecast

I spoke to an equally charming gentleman on a Liberian registered vessel further south but his accent and use of Spanish names for sea areas left me none the wiser

 

[franksingleton]

NAVTEX is designed and intended for use out to about 200 nm. Reception from long distance is usually at night and dues to reflection off high layers in the ionosphere. See http://weather.mailasail.com/Franks-Weather/Navtex-Reception-Problems-And-Cures and, in particular the diagram at http://weather.mailasail.com/w/uploads/Franks-Weather/navtex-signals-1.jpg.

Such long distance reception is the main problem and a curse with NAVTEX. There seems no way of finding a frequency that will allow reception up to 200 nm or so and that will not be prone to sky wave effects.

How to get forecasts when at sea? NAVTEX out to 200 nm; HF/SSB beyond whether by voice, wefax or RTTY. If you can afford it, Iridium is probably the best. To keep costs down use email for GNDSS texts and for GRIBs. Use these in conjunction. Back up with Wefax.

 

[DipperToo]

We lost it (Navtex) about 20 miles off the Norfolk coast. I've no idea how far we were from the transmitter. The aerial is on the pushpit though, not up the mast.

I have an ICS Nav6 with pushpit active antenna and get navtex messages for Niton (N France) even in the marina. One website quotes "On passage, messages will normally be received from stations at least 200 nm away and often more, as long as the signal has passed mainly over the sea."

To quote the UK Coastguard brochure, NAVTEX is the prime method of disseminating full MSI (Marine Safety Information) including weather forecasts and warnings. As a component of the GMDSS. NAVTEX is intended to be used "from the fairway buoy to about 250 Nautical miles offshore". The main characteristics of NAVTEX for this purpose are that stations broadcast
in English, in 10 minute slots, in succession within a METAREA, in alphabetical order of the station indicator letters using a common frequency of 518 kHz.
IMO requires each NAVTEX station to have a GUARANTEED range of 250 NM - however, many achieve 400 NM - with transmission power of 1 kW by day and 300 W by night.

A google will show many area coverage maps.

Maybe your receiver setup does not have automatic reception from any station in range?

 

[Twister_Ken]

I have an ICS Nav6 with pushpit active antenna and get navtex messages for Niton (N France) even in the marina.

Err - are you in N France? Coz Niton is slap bang in the middle of the Isle of Wight.

 

[prv]

Err - are you in N France? Coz Niton is slap bang in the middle of the Isle of Wight.

Indeed

Although one of their Navtex broadcasts is of French information, because geographically it's difficult to cover the French Channel coast from somewhere in France itself.

Pete

 

[AllanR]

If you expect to journey beyond UK and European waters, you will need a modern marine HF/SSB radio with DSC for low-cost general communications between yachts and for safety and distress calling using the worldwide marine distress network. This creates the opportunity to add email via the same HF/SSB radio - at a relatively small additional cost - by adding a Pactor controller. The Pactor controller and free software can also receive and display NAVTEX and weather fax; no need to spend on a dedicated receiver.

In low latitudes, GRIB weather charts via email are far more useful than weatherfax, because the GRIB charts normally have wind speed and direction arrows, along with wave height information and rain areas. Most of us find it relatively easy to reasonably predict wind direction and strengths in higher latitudes by looking at the pressure systems. But in low latitudes, only small changes in pressure occur, and isobars are usually far apart, so it becomes very difficult for most of us amateur meteorologists to predict the wind from a weather fax in equatorial regions. Small changes in pressure create very significant changes in wind speed in these regions. This is where the wind speed and direction information provided on GRIB charts becomes extremely valuable.

GRIB weather charts and spot forecasts, along with a large list of coastal forecasts for many popular cruising destinations around the world, and high-seas METAREA forecasts for the entire world, come free with the software that is used on-board to manage, store, create, send and receive emails with a SailMail membership. This software can manage email connections via HF/SSB radio (cheap) or via satphone (expensive).