Navtex - still relevant?

Tintin

Tintin

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A while back a Nasa Target Navtex Pro came along on the for sale board here, and it got me thinking about Navtex, whether to get one, and whether it is still relevant for the coastal / cross channel sailor in this modern age of 3g, tablets, smartphones, internet, and good old radio 4 LW and VHF.

What do you think? Is Navtex on its way to the history books?
 
Comrade Red said:
Navtex.....whether it is still relevant for the coastal / cross channel sailor in this modern age of 3g, tablets, smartphones, internet, and good old radio 4 LW and VHF.

What do you think? Is Navtex on its way to the history books?
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It may be on the way out for the coastal/cross channel sailor, but I suspect it will be around for a while yet.

This is straight from Wikipedia:

NAVTEX is a component of the International Maritime Organization/International Hydrographic Organization Worldwide Navigation Warning Service (WWNWS). NAVTEX is also a major element of the Global Maritime Distress Safety System (GMDSS). International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) mandated certain classes of vessels must carry NAVTEX, beginning August 1, 1993
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.
 
Navtex

We

regard Navtex as essential, no need to set your alarm for 05:20 to catch full shipping forecast on R4 or sit up at midnight. All the detail you need to make your own assessment and no need to write anything down as you can look back at details. Similarly, to R4 broadcast, you are not quite the slave to Coast Guard updates with inshore forecast either. Very low running cost and battery demand keep it in background.

Now we do enjoy internet access, but soon get out of signal range.

Aurai
 
Reverend Ludd said:
I think very relevant.
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To some people.

That's the point - depending on the type of sailing someone does, Navtex could be vital or nearly worthless to them.

I sold the navtex that came with KS, because I sail inshore on the South Coast and always have mobile-phone signal. I can get the latest forecast whenever I want, from the Met Office web site or various weather apps. A navtex does nothing for me.

By contrast, when I sailed in the Baltic ten years ago, the navtex was our only source of weather forecasts (if there were local voice broadcasts in other than Swedish or Danish, we didn't know about them). It would also be useful if you were sailing in the UK but not in an area as blanketed with mobile phone masts as my patch, because unlike a voice broadcast it doesn't need to be listened to at specific times or carefully written down.

Pete
 
Aurai said:
We

regard Navtex as essential, no need to set your alarm for 05:20 to catch full shipping forecast on R4 or sit up at midnight. All the detail you need to make your own assessment and no need to write anything down as you can look back at details. Similarly, to R4 broadcast, you are not quite the slave to Coast Guard updates with inshore forecast either. Very low running cost and battery demand keep it in background.

Now we do enjoy internet access, but soon get out of signal range.

Aurai
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+1

A low stress way to collect weather & shipping hazard information.
Check at your leisure..

Graeme
 
Comrade Red said:
A while back a Nasa Target Navtex Pro came along on the for sale board here, and it got me thinking about Navtex, whether to get one, and whether it is still relevant for the coastal / cross channel sailor in this modern age of 3g, tablets, smartphones, internet, and good old radio 4 LW and VHF.

What do you think? Is Navtex on its way to the history books?
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Do not think it is heading for the history books just yet.. As for relevance?
Do you go out of internet range for long periods of time? or sail in places where internet is going to cost you lots of money?

Call me old fashioned I would rather have one that printed out than on screen.
 
I live in Lee on Solent, and many CG stations are under threat, and I suspect so are some of the services they provide.

Whilst the Navtex may be almost the same vintage as the weather fax, it is still relevant, and free, and long range, and unlikely to be cut by Govt
 
simon14b said:
I wonder what proportion of Navtex users have units which print to paper rather than displaying them on a screen?
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Don't know how many people have them but we have an ICS Nav4 plus, printing navtex. Find it invaluable, not just for weather but for nav warnings and firing range dates and positions in Bay of Cadiz. For UK coastal sailing only, I doubt if I would bother again with easy access via other mediums.
 
NAVTEX - has it a future?

NAVTEX is a conundrum. The technology is 1950s, 50 baud is a stone age speed, incredibly slow by current standards. Anyone designing a system today would take a quite different route, probably satellite based.

The problem is that NAVTEX has become a victim of its own success. Many vessels have it; it is a requirement on SOLAS convention vessels. I think that IMO is between a rock and a hard [lace. How do they introduce a modern system that will be affordable to many small vessel owner both leisure and professional while ensuring sufficient overlap for safety? You have only to look at the number of stations worldwide to get a measure of the problem. See http://www.dxinfocentre.com/navtex.htm.

Is NAVTEX useful? If you are out of VHF range it may be the only way of getting weather information. That may mean little to the many people who rarely go that far offshore. However, it has great value as a source of NAV warnings, especially when in another country. Listening to NAV warnings on VHF in two or more languages waiting for something that might affect you can be tedious and, therefore, dangerous. It is all too easy to miss that rare bit of vital information. Much easier to scan down NAVTEX texts on a screen. You quickly recognise numbers of messages that you have seen before and are not relevant..

I do not think that IMO can cease this service but have seen no indication that they are grasping the nettle.
 
Twister_Ken said:
Unnecessary I think for coastal sailing, but if you're going to be out of range of CG met rebroadcasts for more than a few hours, worth having. Although if you have long wave reception and can get BBC shipping forecasts, that may suffice.
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Remember though that the BBC director general announced that no LW equipment would be replaced when it broke.
 
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