Testing Navtex Aerial

[dgadee]

I was going to pull out the Navtex receiver on my boat but you persuaded me to keep it. I haven't used it since the south coast when it worked, but now - about to go round the top of the country - thought I would set it up. Nothing received. I presume it is the active aerial because everything else seems to work. Can I check this? Only with a replacement (at 200 Euros)?

The device seems a bit upmarket for me - http://www.kreiger.eu/fmd15.html - but for the minimal usage it would get I am not sure a replacement aerial is value for money.

 

[antares]

I was going to pull out the Navtex receiver on my boat but you persuaded me to keep it. I haven't used it since the south coast when it worked, but now - about to go round the top of the country - thought I would set it up. Nothing received. I presume it is the active aerial because everything else seems to work. Can I check this? Only with a replacement (at 200 Euros)?

The device seems a bit upmarket for me - http://www.kreiger.eu/fmd15.html - but for the minimal usage it would get I am not sure a replacement aerial is value for


If you have the Furuno NX 300 you can find on Ebay what is claimed to be a replacement active antenna for that model. Price is somewhere in the region of £35 ,considerably less than the Furuno item. Can't vouch for the efficiency of it But I was considering it when my set appeared to be dead. Fiddling around with the antenna siting has brought it back to life and seems now to be working perfectly so that is always worth a go.

 

[Eygthene]

If your Navtex was receiving well on the south coast, but not now in the north of Scotland, it could well be that you are out of range of the transmitter for southern England? I think you may need to set it to listen to a different station. For southern England, we use Niton (station E on 518kHz, or station I on 490kHz) which is located near Southampton. You could try Portpatrick (O or C), Malin head (Q) or Cullercoats (G or U).

Portpatrick is meant to cover the west side of the UK as far as Cape Wrath and Cullercoats the east side. However, Reeds (6.3) reports that off western Scotland, many yachtsmen have reported reception problems and it is hoped that a new Navtex station in the Faeroes will solve the problem. Actually, this comment was taken from my 2010 copy of Reeds, so perhaps by now the Faeroes transmitter is up and running. I'm afraid my current copy of Reeds is on board, so I can't quote the Station code letter for Faeroes.

 

[dgadee]

If your Navtex was receiving well on the south coast, but not now in the north of Scotland, it could well be that you are out of range of the transmitter for southern England? I think you may need to set it to listen to a different station. For southern England, we use Niton (station E on 518kHz, or station I on 490kHz) which is located near Southampton. You could try Portpatrick (O or C), Malin head (Q) or Cullercoats (G or U).

Portpatrick is meant to cover the west side of the UK as far as Cape Wrath and Cullercoats the east side. However, Reeds (6.3) reports that off western Scotland, many yachtsmen have reported reception problems and it is hoped that a new Navtex station in the Faeroes will solve the problem. Actually, this comment was taken from my 2010 copy of Reeds, so perhaps by now the Faeroes transmitter is up and running. I'm afraid my current copy of Reeds is on board, so I can't quote the Station code letter for Faeroes.

Yes, have done all this. I have looked at manual and it seems I can remove fuse to cut power to aerial and connect to a long piece of wire. Will try this at some point. I think having a whip aerial on pushpit id asking for damage.

 

[Jabs]

On my previous boat, I just used a shroud and got great reception.

Good luck

Tony.

 

[Bilgediver]

Yes, have done all this. I have looked at manual and it seems I can remove fuse to cut power to aerial and connect to a long piece of wire. Will try this at some point. I think having a whip aerial on pushpit id asking for damage.

This should work well. Are you sure the device is in the right mode? Not set for RTTY. Also set it to receive Cullercoats and Portpatrick. I have been checking NAvtex recently from home and reception has been weak in Edinburgh but some stations are readable on both frequencies.

 

[Hypocacculus]

Have you been testing it whilst out or in harbour? I'm no expert but I found an interesting website some time ago http://weather.mailasail.com/Franks-Weather/Navtex-Reception-Problems-And-Cures

It has lots of interesting information (although I would say I'm not an expert so if it's not right I'm sure someone will say). This is a small except:

"NAVTEX is not intended for reception in harbour; the low transmission power, sources of electro-magnetic radiation from machines etc, screening by buildings and other vessels all contribute to block or distort signals. Military and commercial ports are particularly bad. You may well get satisfactory reception in harbour: but don’t expect it.

Reception near the coast

Weakening where the signal has come over land is likely to give poor reception. Particularly poor reception will be when under steep cliffs in the direction of the transmitter. Go further offshore and the signals may well improve. Day time inter-station interference

As far as possible station IDs, determining times of broadcast, are chosen to minimise interference between stations. Sometimes a station over-runs its slot and, if near enough, interferes with the next station in sequence, making the message unintelligible. In high pressure weather situations, there may be interference between stations in an adjacent

Both effects should be rare occurrences but are difficult to avoid totally. NAVTEX transmissions are continuously monitored and failures to transmit are exceedingly rare. "

Incidentally, the missing words are a fault of the website.