what radio for weatherfax?

The most obvious is the NASA SSB receiver. But if you want something a bit more versatile, I crossed the Atlantic, downloading fax charts, with a portable Sony which did broadcast as well. Can't remember which model but I think they call it their 'World Receiver.'
Anyway, it's the only set they do (I think) which does SSB.
For weatherfax you need a set that receives Upper Side Band

Just googled- Here it is http://tinyurl.com/ljyzts
 
I have bought a DEGEN 1103, on E Bay, which I use with a very basic laptop. It gave me superb weather chart reception, from both Northwood and Germany, throughout this year's Fastnet Race. Although I had a short length of coax cable connected from the antenna socket to a shroud, this made little difference as the reception was excellent throughout. It uses rechargeable batteries, which last more than 8 days - including passage to and from the race - of shipping forecast and chart reception duty. It can also take non-rechargeable batteries.


No connection etc.
 
I had a Siny Pro80 that had excellent SSB reception for wefax (and Navtex), that covered (IIRC) 150KHz to 108MHZ, and with an addon that could receive marine band.

After a flood I replaced the Sony with a wide band receiver (AOR 8000 50Khz -1900MHz) that was supposed to cover everything, but struggles with lower frequencies for wefax and I've never been able to receive navtex with it.

I now use a Nasa HF3, but I ended up tapping the audio output to feed laptop soundcard because the serial output was poor, and I still have problems with navtex though.

I still miss the Sony.
 
I would look on E-Bay and buy almost any communications receiver from the recognised names Yaesu, Icom Ten-Tec Kenwood,

So long as it receives USB

Choose one with digital readout tuning which usually indicates sythesiser which will give you the sort of stability you need for receiving digital stuff.
 
Sangean 909 is a top performer though the build quality is a bit cheap.

Icom IC-R1500 is a fantastic receiver if the money will stretch .
 
My father wants to sell his yaesu ft-817. It has a very low power transmitter - practically useless for HF at sea - but a very nice receiver. Not sure what it is worth, I was about to do a bit of research.

Anyone think there would be interest in it for this sort of application ? Any idea what would be a fair price ?
 
I used the NASA one and talking to other sailors it seems like pretty much any of the ssb receivers are OK.

Just don't expect them to recieve very much or very clearly ashore or in a busy harbour, wait until you are well offshore where you will get the best reception and clearest pictures. Sometimes they do but most of the time there is just too much noise.
 
Be aware with NASA that it is not as good as radios from the various ham radio manufacturers.
Also, over the years there have been a number of variations in outputs:
- some do not have any output (though I believe some owners have opened them up and edded a speaker jack)
- some have a serial port output which only works with NASA's bundled weatherfax software, you cannot use any of the better 3rd party packages with it as far as I know
- some have an audio jack, which can be used with 3rd party software, which is the best bet
 
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