Weatherfax software

[Andrew_B]

Any ideas where I can buy the C-Map + Mscan Meteo pro software at a reasonable price.The best I can come up with is 135 pounds.Is that a good deal?

Thanks

Andrew

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[vyv_cox]

I bought my Mscan Meteo direct from the supplier and went to his place for him to set it up. The listed price for M-Scan Meteo Pro is 195 Euros. See <A target="_blank" HREF=http://mscan.com/products.html>here</A> for details. I'm not familiar with the C-Map part of your query.

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[AlanPound]

Tiny objects of desire...

I was about to post on this subject... I have at long last (ok, mainly for lack of really trying) managed to get this short wave weather fax stuff working on my laptop PC.

The tiny object of desire is the SONY SW100 radio, and I'm not certain whether that, or the SONY minidisk player is #1 on my TOOD list, but they are both right up there... I did look at the Roberts R861/Sangean ATS-909/Radio Shack receiver... it has wonderful audio quality via the speaker, but it is (relatively) huge, and battery life is not too great compared to the SONY... and the SONY is about the size of a packet of 20 fags, and only a bit more costly... ;~)

I have been using the JVComm software - basically free from www.jvcomm.de, although in that form it puts 'nag' watermarks on received faxes. You can register it for 60 Euros, and get rid of the nags... I cannot compare it to MScan Meteo, but as far as I am concerned JV Comm does the job, and does it rather well. It will use external MODEMs, but works extremely well via a PC microphone or line input to a soundcard or laptop equivalent... It has a nice little on-screen spectrum analyser kind of display that makes freqnecy and level setting a doddle.

I sucessfully received a whole 24 hours of weather faxes from both Northwood RN and Hamburg (very pleased I was).

JVComm also does a whole load of other stuff like SSTV and deals with direct weather satellite downlinks (given the appropriate receivers) - I haven;t tried any of this, and probably won't.

The latest version (1.3) also has settings to receive and demodulate NAVTEX, although thus far I haven't managed to get a signal good enough to produce any text (not surprising really, being around 100 miles from the sea in every direction).

The associated help files mention the german weather broadcast, presumably the one that little NASA box of tricks uses, but neither of the SW receivers I looked at will go down that low (around 135kHz from memory), although I would guess that a 'proper' SSB set probably would.

... so in my book, both the SW100 receiver, and JVComm "do what they say on the tin".... although the basic plan of PC+radio might be considered to be less convenient (and certainly more 12V intensive) than dedicated units. Not necessarily a problem when in a marina, but probably comparatively impractical whilst at sea....

However, it is probably *more* practical to get weatherfax this way than Navtex, as you can get forecasts, MSLP, sea state forecasts for several days ahead, downloaded overnight, and in most cases have all you need for a passage of several days..... whereas Navtex, you really need to be receiving that continuously...

Alan

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[david]

Andrew PM, Nigel C Luther and ask him your questions. I'm sure he will point you in the right direction. Alternatively go to his web BB and ask there, at <A target="_blank" HREF=http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gps-navigator>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gps-navigator</A>

<hr width=100% size=1>David<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by david on 02/09/2003 19:17 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[chriscallender]

Re: Tiny objects of desire...

I've also used wxsat which is free and doesn't put any banners on the fax. It has a lot more options to recieve faxes from different sources, so what you need to know is that weatherfaxes are in "FM120" format if I remember rightly...

I also use SeaTTy for receiving navtex and rtty transmissions but that requires a registration fee $30 ish from memory.



Chris

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[MainlySteam]

Re: Tiny objects of desire...

Back you up completely for Alan on WxSat Chris.

It is a little known gem for weatherfax, is a free gift to private users and educational institutions and doesn't use a modem (audio straight into sound card - so do need a sound card). A little tricky to set up for different screen resolutions, but apart from that choose FM120, as you say, and away one goes.

John

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