Nasa BT3 Bluetooth Navtex Receiver With H Vector Antenna With iOS app

[robbieg]

Afternoon,

Is anyone using this navtex receiver? Is so I would be interested in experience of the set up particularly is using the iOS app rather than the android app.

Also the H Vector Antenna looks interesting and about £25 more than the standard antenna-if it works materially better it may be worth the extra. Anyone any experience they can share?

Thanks.

Robert

 

[Andrew41]

+1 me too

 

[Pye_End]

My set turned up at lunchtime and is currently trundling away in the shed!

I went for the more expensive antenna - so far quite impressed. Messages so far from Niton, Oostende, Den Helder, Cullercoates, Portpatrick.

Using Android App. Not much to it - can't think what else you would want to do with it. You can select by station, frequency and type of message. Duplicate messages can be kept of automatically deleted.

One thing I havn't quite got my head around - it works on one frequency or the other, but not both at the same time. The app allows for a timer system between the two frequencies if necessary.

 

[Andrew41]

Thanks, useful feedback

 

[Pye_End]

Just to add that I ran it overnight and have transmissions also now from Malin Head, Norway (L and M), Germany (S) and France (A).

Will try 490kHz next.

 

[Pye_End]

Left the set on last night on 490 and picked up:

E Corsen (France)
P Kerkyra (Greece)
N Piombino (Italy)
W - Coruna (Spain)

Is this normal or high pressure related?

 

[rszemeti]

Left the set on last night on 490 and picked up:

<snip>

Is this normal or high pressure related?

This is not high pressure related, this is typical of the "lift" you get on medium wave during the night. It is caused by changes to the height of the Heavyside Layer in the ionosphere, which rises during the night and lowers during the day. It is a fairly predictable occurrence.

The VHF lift you get, often during high pressure, occurs in the troposphere and is fairly unpredictable.

 

[PaulRainbow]

For anyone wanting a way of doing this via Windows. https://www.yachtingsoftware.com/wib2-navtex-for-pc-and-notebook_p437.aspx

A little more money than the NASA one, but no external antenna to fit and simultaneously receives on both frequencies.

 

[tudorsailor]

For anyone wanting a way of doing this via Windows. https://www.yachtingsoftware.com/wib2-navtex-for-pc-and-notebook_p437.aspx

A little more money than the NASA one, but no external antenna to fit and simultaneously receives on both frequencies.

Whats the reception like with just the internal antenna?

TudorSailor

 

[Ric]

I played around with the apps and a bit disappointed to be honest. OK, the apps work fine - but just display the text of the Navtex message and nothing more. They would be much more useful if they had a graphic interface with the GPS coordinates of location messages overlaid over a map.