Using Nasa Marine HF3-SSB with Navtex weather.

[carl170]

Hi All.

I have a Nasa HF3 (without the weather software) that I bought a while ago and was wondering what software might work with it to get Navtex, weather maps etc?

Also, it mentions an external antenna you can buy for it, but looking on their website, there are a couple of different ones and I'm not too sure which one to get. Does anyone know? Or even better using one?

Thanks for any pointers anyone can give.

Regards

Carl

 

[Pye_End]

There are a couple of android apps which are excellent. One is HF Weather Fax and the other is Droid Navtex. There are various pc programs, but the apps give impressive quality.

I have been using the NASA H-Vector antenna on their bluetooth receiver this year which has been impressive. Huge range. Works in the marina. No idea if it is suitable for the HF3.

 

[Yngmar]

was wondering what software might work with it to get Navtex, weather maps etc?

fldigi will decode both Navtex and Weatherfax. Unfortunately it was written by space aliens, err, amateur radio enthusiasts, so the interface is a bit difficult, but once you figure it out, the software is very good, and free. It simply uses an audio input on the computer to get the signal from the radio. If your computer is lacking a line-level input, you can use something like this.

 

[Neil_Y]

It was a while ago but I used a long length of wire as an aerial and it worked fine, used coax from the back of the set to the back of the boat and then took wire connected to core up the backstay. It wasn't so good in marinas but once in open water worked really well.