Navtex or Weatherman

[Altair]

I am heading off in 2 weeks from NW England bound for the Med and Sardinia where I plan to be based for 2/3 years. Having procrastinated long enough, I have to decide whether to buy a Navtex or a Nasa Weatherman.

I would appreciate any comments regarding the advantage of one over the other, particularly in Italian and Greek waters where I have had difficulty in getting reliable forecasts in the past. Will either receive forecasts crossing Biscay and down the Portuguese coast?

Thanks

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[kgi]

I don't know about the weatherman but we experienced no probs with the navtex on a trans atlantic trip, we did find the aerial needs to be as high as possible......keith

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[Gerry]

We have Navtex, works great down the portuguese coast, n africa and spain don't know about further east though

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[CPN]

My Navtex seems to work fine on the Ligurian coast.
However the Italian authorities transmit continuous weather forecast in Italian and English on VHF 68, which may be more useful than Navtex. Synopsis covers all the Med, with detailled forecast of italian waters.
I'm new to the area, so haven't had enough experience to compare one against the other.



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[DavidJ]

I'm based in Alghero Sardinia and outside of the marina I pick up Navtex well, mainly from Meteo France which covers most of the Med. The problem with Navtex is that the signals are weak and lots of vertical masts tend to reduce the signal (somehow??)
You will need to move the arial around to get the best signal but more important is the earth. In the marina I use the mains earth for the earth side of my set and it's quite good.
You can look at Meteo France Navtex on the internet, try:
http://www.meteo.fr/marine/naviweb/bulletins/MED_NVTX.html

best of luck..Sardinia is spectacular...where will you be based.
David

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[bryantee]

get navtex ok in the ionian.k corfu. and malta no problem.

the italian ones are now on line i understand but have not tried them

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[HenryB]

I use Navtex in Greek and Turkish waters and get excellent results. I also find the German RTTY forecasts (up to 5 days) very useful for passage planning. I receive these with an SSB and laptop computer. If my options were Navtex and no RTTY or Weatherman with RTTY then I would go for the Weatherman as all the Navtex weather information can be heard on VHF anyway.


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[Gunfleet]

I have a lot of trouble getting these German RTTYs on my HF radio. Could you post your settings by any chance?

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[HenryB]

John,
I use TrueTTY to decode the signals and set it to
Speed = 50 Baud
Shift = 425 Hz
Polarity = Reverse
I tune the receiver to USB and, depending on the time of day and location use the nominal freqiencies 7646, 10100.8 or 11039 KHz. Actually I have to tune to a slightly lower frequency (about 1 KHz from memory) but the settings are on my boat and that is 2,000 miles away!
The TrueTTY program is a HAM program and I think the author has now produced one for yachties called SeaTTY. I find it easy to use. It can be downloaded and used for 30 days but then cuts off completely unless it is registered.
Get back to me if you want more info.

Best regards,

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[Gunfleet]

Thanks Henry. I do get it with Sea tty as you suggest (viz just now YRYRYRY
CQ CQ CQ DE DDK2 DDH7 DDK9
FREQUENCIES 4583 KHZ 7646 KHZ 10100.8 KHZ
RYRYRYRYRY) - couldn't be clearer - but have had absolutely naff all luck with my registered copy of JVcomm32. I can feel another software purchase coming on. Groan!

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[Trevor_Smith]

We have Navtex, works well Spain and Portugal once out of harbour.


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[Birdseye]

if you can get navtex signals, you will get a more detailed and area specific forecast than you will on the weatherman. however, the weatherman works on hf rather than long wave, and you are more likely to be able to pick up its signal, particularly offshore. it also gives german produced weather forecasts which should be, i imagine, rather more reliable than greek ones.

i have both navtex and weatherman. the best forecasts i get are from the maritime mobile nets on ham radio!

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[davidbains]

Will someone explain what Weatherman is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've never heard of it and all these posts leave me none the wiser!!
And has anybody tried the forecasts now available on World Space radio?
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by david_brighton on 06/05/2003 20:02 (server time).</FONT></P>