Navtex

[Richard D]

I have a old boat and have been attending to more serious things that needed sorting, so now to the getting the toys working. It has an old Navtex unit by Nasa, the paper wont chunk out and it writes over the same spot, they say it will cost over £200 just to put a new printer in it and I dont even know if it works ok as they seem to think the aerial may be goosed. So can anyone give me a clue, dont want to spend fortunes as i will be only going costal up the west of scotland, no ocean stuff. Is this old unit worth fixing, has anyone got an old one I could use to fix my printer or do I get a new one and if so what. I see from past posts people dont seem to rate ISC units but these comments were made in 2009 so maybe things have changed. Would like to spend £250 to say £350 on a new unit or am i kidding myself I can get a worthwhile piece of kit new for this, all comments welcome.

Regards Richard

 

[Cloven]

I have a NASA Clipper navtex which you just read off the screen. Works fine and not expensive.

 

[davidej]

I have the same but wish had not wasted my money - for us average coast -hoppers and the occasional cross-Channel or North Sea, there are plenty of other ways of getting forecasts thesedays.

 

[Tranona]

The NASA receiver is fine, but probably better to go down the PC route as you can store and read the messages when you want. Not particularly useful for local coastal sailing - as suggested there are other easier ways of getting acceptable forecasts and the Nav warnings are mostly not relevant to leisure sailors. Useful, however if you are cruising around the northern coast of Europe as the forecasts are in English.

 

[jbweston]

I have a NASA Clipper navtex which you just read off the screen. Works fine and not expensive.

+1

But I agree with davewarburton it's up to you to decide if it's worth having navtex at all. If you do only short trips, a mix of VHF and wifi internet might be plenty - depends on VHF reception and internet availability where you are, I guess.

Anyway navtex is designed to use at sea not in harbour. The transmitter power is deliberately low. If you mainly want forecasts in harbour it isn't the best technology as reception is patchy. There are various threads on here with posters praising/complaining about navtex.

Frank Singleton's website is a very good source of information about navtex and other sources of weather information: http://weather.mailasail.com/Franks-Weather/Home

 

[vyv_cox]

I agree with the other comments. I have a Nasa Clipper that is extremely useful in Europe, although it is not our only source of weather info. In UK we have an old Nasa on the motor sailer in Milford Haven but we rarely use it as the Met iPad app is far more convenient.

 

[neil1967]

Thanks for the link to Frank's page - I have not seen it before and it looks to be excellent.

Neil

 

[MAURICE]

I wouldnt waste my money on a navtex. Honestly you will get better weather on the tinternet its only any good if you are going offshore for extended periods. Ive found Its not very good in marinas and since ive bought mine last year I dont look at it at all.
Maurice

 

[[10753]]

I personally use mine all the time for monitoring the weather and nav Warnings. The station reports are particularly handy tracking the pressure movements and to see if the weather is behaving as expected.

I have the Nasa Navtex Pro and can't complain at all - great piece of kit

 

[jbweston]

I wouldnt waste my money on a navtex. Honestly you will get better weather on the tinternet its only any good if you are going offshore for extended periods. Ive found Its not very good in marinas and since ive bought mine last year I dont look at it at all.
Maurice

If you are mainly day sailing in UK, I agree with you Maurice. It does depend a bit what you mean by 'going offshore for extended periods' - one guy's short trip is another's voyage of a lifetime.

There are two things that are really good about navtex (assuming you can get reception):
(1) It 'writes the forecast down for you' - that is stores it electronically for you to scroll back on when convenient - so you don't have to sit with a pencil or set an alarm clock to remember to listen to VHF. Very useful if you are short- or single-handed as I usually am.

(2) The language on the 518 kHz is always English, even if the VHF or land radio forecasts are in Foreign like they are in France and many other places. Very useful if you don't speak the particular variety of Foreign used wherever you are, or only have a few words of it and it doesn't run to met bulletins.

But as I said in my previous post, VHF and internet might be all you need.

 

[NormanS]

I wouldnt waste my money on a navtex. Honestly you will get better weather on the tinternet its only any good if you are going offshore for extended periods. Ive found Its not very good in marinas and since ive bought mine last year I dont look at it at all.
Maurice

If the OP is sailing on the west coast of Scotland, he will get Navtex a lot easier than reliable internet access.
Navtex here is now good and reliable, and is now transmitted from Malin Head as well as Portpatrick. I use it primarily for the Inshore Forecast - the same one as the CG give out when they are not dealing with incidents.

 

[nigelmercier]

What seems to be overlooked is that there is a lot more to Navtex than just the weather.

 

[cimo]

I got the clipper also (& I don't recall paying alot for it).
Each station has a 10 minute broadcast window every 4 hours (in theory), switch it on & go about your business.
All there on screen when you need it.

 

[Oldhairy]

If you have a MF/HF radio with an earphone jack and a laptop with a mike jack you can just hook up directly and use a cheap or free decoder. Google "seatty"
I don't really understand the whole thing, but it works. Weather fax as well.

 

[franksingleton]

What seems to be overlooked is that there is a lot more to Navtex than just the weather.

Absolutely. In my opinion, for those keeping fairly close inshore, NAVTEX is most valuable as a source of Nav warnings.

 

[cimo]

If you have a MF/HF radio with an earphone jack and a laptop with a mike jack you can just hook up directly and use a cheap or free decoder. Google "seatty"
I don't really understand the whole thing, but it works. Weather fax as well.

thats v. interesting, I'll give it a go. thanks for posting.

From the blurb -

A program to receive weather reports, navigational warnings and weather charts transmitted in RTTY, NAVTEX and HF-FAX (WEFAX) modes on longwave and shortwave bands. It can decode GMDSS DSC (HF and VHF) messages. Software also can automatically save NOAA Weather Radio SAME voice messages (NWR SAME) and them digital headers. No additional hardware is required — you need only a receiver and computer with a sound card.

 

[jerrytug]

If you have a MF/HF radio with an earphone jack and a laptop with a mike jack you can just hook up directly and use a cheap or free decoder. Google "seatty"
I don't really understand the whole thing, but it works. Weather fax as well.

I was going to get a laptop to do just that but I've just been given an iPad. I wonder if it's possible to do it with apple gear? No mike jack who can I ask? Cheers Jerry.

 

[prv]

I was going to get a laptop to do just that but I've just been given an iPad. I wonder if it's possible to do it with apple gear? No mike jack who can I ask?

On an iPad, any given task is usually either easy or impossible - either someone has made a proper app to do it which you download from the app store, or it cannot be done. This is in the nature of the platform, there is no lifting the lid and tinkering. So I suggest a search of the app store for "Navtex", and if you don't get any sensible results then it's likely that the answer is no.

Pete

 

[franksingleton]

If you have a MF/HF radio with an earphone jack and a laptop with a mike jack you can just hook up directly and use a cheap or free decoder. Google "seatty"
I don't really understand the whole thing, but it works. Weather fax as well.

I think that you mean the external loudspeaker jack. It is the sound outpit that is decoded.

 

[nigelmercier]

I wonder if it's possible to do it with apple gear? No mike jack :

Why do you say no mic jack? www.speechrecsolutions.com/assets/iPad_and_microphones.pdf

I think that you mean the external loudspeaker jack. It is the sound outpit that is decoded.

Surely the line-in or mic socket on the PC?