Weatherfax reception

[ColinR]

I have a Nasa HF3 with active antenna and I'm using Mscan Meteo. Everything seems to be working, I am picking up lots of distant stations on the radio, but I cant seem to get weatherfaxes. I have the most recent list of frequencies for Northwood and Offenbach I can find and I'm tuning just below the published frquency (eg 4608 when it says 4610) but no joy. Could the problem be my location, my boat is in a yard up the Dart which has quite deep valleys. I have tried quite a few times over the last couple of seasons but the only time it really worked well was out in Biscay. Any advice please. Thanks Colin

 

[TigaWave]

It's almost certainly the location, Mine works fine when at sea but in some marinas there was often nothing.

I've always just used the bit of wire as an aerial and even dangled out of the office window I get good faxes down here in Devon, but I think that marinas have too much electrical interference. I've noticed its better when on the outside pontoons down at Mylor and Falmouth but still know where near as good as 5-10 miles offshore.

 

[Beadle]

One or two thoughts:

I'm not a fan of "active" aerials, perhaps try a length of wire slung as high up the mast as may be convenient.

OK tuning 2 kc/s lf -

can you actually hear the fax or rtty signal?
I'm sure you have the set switched to USB

Perhaps try the German rtty station, Hamburg I think, on 10.01 MHz I think. Its usually very strong.

JVComm32 is an alternative programme if you have problems with Mscan. Its free off the net.

Good luck.

 

[matelot]

HF radio signals go up into the atmosphere annd bounce down - different frequencies bounce different distances so you have to adjust frequency to suit location

I'm not familiar with the nasa but on my ham radios I can hear the weatherfax signal out of the speaker. try listening for yours - it will help you tune in, and if you cant hear it then you will know the problem is radio reception rather than a decoding problem. and vice versa if you can hear it.

there's nothing wrong with an active aerial if its working. all it is is an aerial coupled to an amplifier.