Navtex stations - database problems

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alanwilson

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Trying to update my ICS Navtext for stations in areas 1, 2 & 4: between the ICS website and those of PCNavtex & CXInfoCentre there are 40 differences! Different names and locations, in some cases wildly different. Is there a definite authoritative list somewhere, eg produced by the group that moderates Navtex stations?
 
Try Reeds Almanac. I haven't got mine to hand (not surprisingly, it's on the boat) but I recall that Navtex stations are fully covered in one of the up front sections.
 
alanwilson said:
Trying to update my ICS Navtext for stations in areas 1, 2 & 4: between the ICS website and those of PCNavtex & CXInfoCentre there are 40 differences! Different names and locations, in some cases wildly different. Is there a definite authoritative list somewhere, eg produced by the group that moderates Navtex stations?
Click to expand...

This is from the USA and based on IMO

http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=NAVTEX
 
That gives a comprehensive list, but unfortunately it is 2009: there have been a number of changes since then. Somewhere there must be available a list that is maintained up-to-date - but where?
 
this is (sort of) official gmdss web site for Metarea1, the others are available too, the navtex station letters are indicated half page down

http://weather.gmdss.org/I.html


MetareaIV messages are very related to the US coast so useful if you sail there, there should be Curacao for a limited part of the Caribbean. Hardly useful for a general Caribbean cruise

Metarea II, once south of Gib there is nothing until around the Canaries, after the Canaries nothing again.

Not the most useful piece of kit outside European waters..
 
Unfortunately weather.gmdss.org lists only 512, not 490; only lists a few of area 4 512, and introduces a further 15 differences between it and other lists (names different, positions different, stations extra or missing and even one that is in a different area altogether to the other lists); it also doesn't show ranges, which are essential for programming the receiver.
Between 3 websites (all of which look authoritative) and a report from the Navtex Panel, I now have a total of 77 differences, just in areas 1, 2 & 4. This is ridiculous! Surely there must be a definitely definitive correct list somewhere, without having to buy ALRS (which, being a paper book, may be out of date as soon as it's published).
 
nigelmercier said:
I didn't know you could do this. What model ICS do you have?
Click to expand...

Prompted by this thread, I was doing the same last night to the ICS Nav6 Plus I've just bought. You can program in the list of stations for both 518 and 490, with name, position, and range. As far as I can see, all this really achieves is to label the messages (and let you select what to receive) by station name rather than navtex letter. The range and position is so that when an "A" message comes in, for instance, the receiver can guess using your position whether it came from Norway or Spain, and attach the appropriate name.

The unit appears to have come pre-programmed with the whole world's list of stations, but of course ten years out of date, so I was checking and occasionally correcting the Northern European ones. Still the same uncertainty as the OP over which list is correct, but I was making some educated guesses.

Pete
 
It is an ICS Navtex Nav6 Plus. You have to either play with buttons at random until you find the right page, or have the menu map, because the (soft) buttons are labelled with the current function, not the next function: so selecting a particular function is more by luck than judgement.
To edit the station databases, change buttons from R to L:
RH button: set to Setup Mode
Next button: set to Navtex
Next button (2nd from L): set to 490 Names; then you can scroll & see the complete data for the highlighted station; keys are labelled to allow editing, entering new station, saving etc
Same button: set to 518 Names: ditto, for those.
Don't forget to Save before Exit.
 
No, programming in the stations data doesn't just label the messages by station name: as I understand it, it tells the Navtex what stations to listen for and when, depending on the current GPS position, the positions of the stations programmed and their ranges. So it will filter out messages from stations that it knows you are not in range of. That is to stop messages that happen to be received (by good atmospheric conditions) from far afield. Can anyone confirm whether this is definitely the case?
 
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