Navtex

[Refueler]

lots of useful info here ,, many who doubt its value seem to be relying on either internet ( which is fine if available ) or more expensive systems ( which is fine if somebody else is paying for it ) ,, as a cheap easy system it looks like it has its uses .. ty all .

Apologies if wrong .... but you seem to have already made your own mind up anyway - seemingly before we posted. Possibly looking for 'support' of your own decision ?

Nothing wrong with that at all .....

As I said - BOTH avenues have their place.

 

[franksingleton]

Apologies if wrong .... but you seem to have already made your own mind up anyway - seemingly before we posted. Possibly looking for 'support' of your own decision ?

Nothing wrong with that at all .....

As I said - BOTH avenues have their place.

Very much so although it must be uncertain how long NAVTEX can continue. The USCG would clearly like to ditch it as they would SITOR and radiofax. There are problems with maintains out of date technology. For many leisure sailors, satellite systems such a Iridium GO! Will become standard.

 

[dunedin]

Having had one in the last boat, but not bothered to fit on the current boat, I would certainly not bother with fitting a Navtex, as very low down what I would consider as investment & safety priorities (way below AIS, MOB AIS beacons etc, and below radar)

However……

Slight problem, my boat is a ‘wi-fi’ desert, I don’t even have a smart phone.

…… I would now put a smartphone (or better 2-3) as very high up the safety critical essentials for on board.

This can be used to get MUCH better span of weather forecasts than just a single /short term weather source (I want to review multiple weather models and look beyond 36 hours). Can also be used to research a wide variety of other safety and navigational data, review satellite images of rocky anchorages, backup chart plotter, access to all ships manuals, etc etc.
Also useful safety / distress communication tool - there are some locations where phone signal is better than VHF Ch16, so I ended up swapping to mobile commas when first boat on scene on a Mayday earlier this year.
Occasionally also used to speak to somebody, but more often WhatsApp or video call.

 

[Refueler]

Very much so although it must be uncertain how long NAVTEX can continue. The USCG would clearly like to ditch it as they would SITOR and radiofax. There are problems with maintains out of date technology. For many leisure sailors, satellite systems such a Iridium GO! Will become standard.

USCG seems to want to ditch anything that means they may have to do something !!

 

[Praxinoscope]

Sorry dunedin, but a smart phone is not high on my essential safety devices, , in fact it’s about the last thing I want, and really wouldn’t rate it as a safety device on board, too many black spots around.
My paper charts, chart plotter and pilot books give me all the navigational info’ I need and I’m not reliant upon the great Gods of Apple, Samsung and God Forbid Huawei, Vodaphone, EE et al.
VHF/DCS, EPIRB or PLB, flares (pyrotechnic or electronic) are my preferred option, the Navtex keeps me up to date with the weather forecasts, as well as the barometer and visual weather signs.

 

[Amlov]

I have an ICS Nav 6 that I will almost certainly replace if it dies. This is mainly because it would leave a big hole that I have no idea what to do with at the chart table. If I didn't have the hole I very much doubt that it would bother with one.

The weather and coastal station reports are interesting, but whether they are useful is debatable. Prior to roaming charges being dropped we did use it much more when abroad, but all of the information is available on the Internet. However, with the direction of travel being towards greater difficulty/cost in accessing Internet information when abroad, perhaps it sensible to hold on to our Navtex for a while.

 

[cherod]

Apologies if wrong .... but you seem to have already made your own mind up anyway - seemingly before we posted. Possibly looking for 'support' of your own decision ?

Nothing wrong with that at all .....

As I said - BOTH avenues have their place.

 

[dunedin]

Sorry dunedin, but a smart phone is not high on my essential safety devices, , in fact it’s about the last thing I want, and really wouldn’t rate it as a safety device on board, too many black spots around.
My paper charts, chart plotter and pilot books give me all the navigational info’ I need and I’m not reliant upon the great Gods of Apple, Samsung and God Forbid Huawei, Vodaphone, EE et al.
VHF/DCS, EPIRB or PLB, flares (pyrotechnic or electronic) are my preferred option, the Navtex keeps me up to date with the weather forecasts, as well as the barometer and visual weather signs.

Each to their own. But as far as I am aware, in UK waters Navtex gives you only the Inshore Waters and Shipping Forecast - ie only the MetOffice model and only 36-48 hours.
With our very variable weather, and sailing in an area without massive marinas, I want
(1) A much longer view of the weather so that I can passage plan ahead, and if necessary start to position into safer waters ahead of serious weather. Hence a 7 day view is important, albeit used with common sense recognition that indicative only (this would have helped people who bailed out of the Isles of Scilly before the recent storm)
(2) Ability to compare the various models, including MetOffice, GFS, ECMWF, BBC/Meteo etc - often recently these have been very divergent, which gives a warning to be on guard for surprises, and again to better plan a route and strategy
Clearly nobody should rely on mobile phone plus data signal. But as noted the variety of important uses makes a smart phone an important addition to safety. And as noted, I had to use to assist in a Mayday situation when poor VHF signal prevented the Coastguard from communicating with the casualty so we used mobile

 

[stu9000]

you seem to have already made your own mind up anyway - seemingly before we posted. Possibly looking for 'support' of your own decision ?
Nothing wrong with that at all ....

Not sure this post adds much value.

 

[franksingleton]

Each to their own. But as far as I am aware, in UK waters Navtex gives you only the Inshore Waters and Shipping Forecast - ie only the MetOffice model and only 36-48 hours.
With our very variable weather, and sailing in an area without massive marinas, I want
(1) A much longer view of the weather so that I can passage plan ahead, and if necessary start to position into safer waters ahead of serious weather. Hence a 7 day view is important, albeit used with common sense recognition that indicative only (this would have helped people who bailed out of the Isles of Scilly before the recent storm)
(2) Ability to compare the various models, including MetOffice, GFS, ECMWF, BBC/Meteo etc - often recently these have been very divergent, which gives a warning to be on guard for surprises, and again to better plan a route and strategy
Clearly nobody should rely on mobile phone plus data signal. But as noted the variety of important uses makes a smart phone an important addition to safety. And as noted, I had to use to assist in a Mayday situation when poor VHF signal prevented the Coastguard from communicating with the casualty so we used mobile

GMDSS forecasts are-essentially warnings/headlines. They can be little else. The internet has really become a must have for many.

 

[Refueler]

Not sure this post adds much value.

So ?? Reading the OP's replies to most posts - that is the impression given. It was also posted in good order and not to insult ...

Maybe I should submit further posts to you for checking ?

 

[franksingleton]

For those not venturing out on the High Seas, the decision to have NAVTEX comes down to how long you are without internet access for browsing or just email. I would suggest that if you are without internet access - and out of VHF range - for more than 2 days, then NAVTEX is a sensible bit of kit for safety purposes. Maybe 3 days but, I suggest, no more.

 

[doug748]

Slight problem, my boat is a ‘wi-fi’ desert, I don’t even have a smart phone.

I never really bonded with smartphones either. The more effective they are as mobile internet devices the less use they are as telephones. I do have one for weather but tend to only switch it on when I want to use it.

I continue to use Navtex because it is very handy for monitoring stuff on a day to day basis when away from home. It's a waste of time for day sailing on the Solent, but would be very worth having on longer sea passages, There are still inshore/land places without phone signals, let alone WiFi, Navtex fills in these gaps without having to make a special trip just to see a forecast.

.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Each to their own. But as far as I am aware, in UK waters Navtex gives you only the Inshore Waters and Shipping Forecast - ie only the MetOffice model and only 36-48 hours.
With our very variable weather, and sailing in an area without massive marinas, I want
(1) A much longer view of the weather so that I can passage plan ahead, and if necessary start to position into safer waters ahead of serious weather. Hence a 7 day view is important, albeit used with common sense recognition that indicative only (this would have helped people who bailed out of the Isles of Scilly before the recent storm)
(2) Ability to compare the various models, including MetOffice, GFS, ECMWF, BBC/Meteo etc - often recently these have been very divergent, which gives a warning to be on guard for surprises, and again to better plan a route and strategy
Clearly nobody should rely on mobile phone plus data signal. But as noted the variety of important uses makes a smart phone an important addition to safety. And as noted, I had to use to assist in a Mayday situation when poor VHF signal prevented the Coastguard from communicating with the casualty so we used mobile

Just to point out that weather information is a small part of what NAVTEX provides. I had a look at the current listing for the East Coast of England, and found (amongst others) notes of military exercises that might include GPS jamming, buoys out of action or off station, oil rigs with failed navigation lights and AIS, and much more. Yes, it's all in NToM, but NAVTEX provides access to them when you're more than 15 or so miles offshore. I was particularly interested in the notice of military maneuvers - I knew they jammed GPS from time to time up in the NW of Scotland, but off the East Coast was a bit of a surprise; I didn't check the lat/long, but presume its in the northern North Sea.

My current NASA Navtex is on the blink; is there a replacement that can send data via NMEA2000 to a Garmin 1223sx plotter?

 

[cpedw]

Each to their own. But as far as I am aware, in UK waters Navtex gives you only the Inshore Waters and Shipping Forecast - ie only the MetOffice model and only 36-48 hours.

There's the daily Extended Outlook which gives a broad brush view of the next 5 days with a judgement on how reliable it is. Not many sources are so honest.
If you've got phone signal then it doesn't add much but there are places that NAVTEX reaches but phone and VHF don't.

 

[franksingleton]

Having an eyesight problem, I access the internet using a tablet and a dongle that I can raise to get a stronger signal in a marina. At sea, it works well, at cabin ceiling level, a few miles out to sea. Around France and Spain, at least.

 

[Gary Fox]

Just to point out that weather information is a small part of what NAVTEX provides. I had a look at the current listing for the East Coast of England, and found (amongst others) notes of military exercises that might include GPS jamming, buoys out of action or off station, oil rigs with failed navigation lights and AIS, and much more. Yes, it's all in NToM, but NAVTEX provides access to them when you're more than 15 or so miles offshore. I was particularly interested in the notice of military maneuvers - I knew they jammed GPS from time to time up in the NW of Scotland, but off the East Coast was a bit of a surprise; I didn't check the lat/long, but presume its in the northern North Sea.

My current NASA Navtex is on the blink; is there a replacement that can send data via NMEA2000 to a Garmin 1223sx plotter?

That's an interesting Q about the data. I use my ICS-6 Navtex screen as a repeater screen, it shows basic GPS info in very large and clear letters. Coordinates, heading speed etc.
The ICS-6 has an NMEA input to get basic GPS info from a plotter, which lets you program it to choose appropriate Navtex stations by geographical location, a great feature.
What do you want to send *to* your plotter, from the Navtex? Or just use it as a repeater screen? You have whetted my curiosity.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

That's an interesting Q about the data. I use my ICS-6 Navtex screen as a repeater screen, it shows basic GPS info in very large and clear letters. Coordinates, heading speed etc.
The ICS-6 has an NMEA input to get basic GPS info from a plotter, which lets you program it to choose appropriate Navtex stations by geographical location, a great feature.
What do you want to send *to* your plotter, from the Navtex? Or just use it as a repeater screen? You have whetted my curiosity.

Many, if not all, notifications include a location. Displaying the location associated with a message and being able to then display the associated message would be great. However, I suspect it isn't possible - the position isn't a part of the message format, but merely part of the text of the message, so the format isn't guaranteed
I think I may be asking too much, but Garmin did have an old product that could send Navtex to some of their plotters.

 

[Gary Fox]

Many, if not all, notifications include a location. Displaying the location associated with a message and being able to then display the associated message would be great. However, I suspect it isn't possible - the position isn't a part of the message format, but merely part of the text of the message, so the format isn't guaranteed
I think I may be asking too much, but Garmin did have an old product that could send Navtex to some of their plotters.

I'm not a plotter user really but that sounds like a good idea, adding buoys out of position, missing ships, military exercises and all the other good Navtex info to your plotter screen (if it's big and capable enough..),
although I suspect that big tech companies like Garmin think the Navtex systen isn't worth any R'n'D to integrate with, and wouldn't be a selling point for this year's latest model..

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I'm not a plotter user really but that sounds like a good idea, adding buoys out of position, missing ships, military exercises and all the other good Navtex info to your plotter screen (if it's big and capable enough..),
although I suspect that big tech companies like Garmin think the Navtex systen isn't worth any R'n'D to integrate with, and wouldn't be a selling point for this year's latest model..

Unfortunately, I checked and it doesn't look as if it's possible. Shame - it would be a nice (and useful) facility.