Which navtex do i need?

[wklein]

I read about a guy in the yachting press who sailed single handed and had set up his navtex to print off his position sog and heading every hour instead of writing up a log. Seemed like a great idea.

My boat came with a nasa clipper navtex which i understand is a pretty basic piece of kit. So my question is can i get a printer for it which will print such data or failing that what would kit would i need to buy? Presumably something with nmea input from plotter.

 

[pappaecho]

You would need a slow RS232 type printer, or one as you say running NMEA, which is basically current loop.
think that your best bet is to speak to NASA, who are helpful and may know an answer, as how to interface a printer

 

[colvic987]

I read about a guy in the yachting press who sailed single handed and had set up his navtex to print off his position sog and heading every hour instead of writing up a log. Seemed like a great idea.

My boat came with a nasa clipper navtex which i understand is a pretty basic piece of kit. So my question is can i get a printer for it which will print such data or failing that what would kit would i need to buy? Presumably something with nmea input from plotter.

your clipper navtex, just gives you the navtex reports not your position, there are other navtex's, http://www.icselectronics.co.uk/leisure/nav6 which will interface with the gps and give position readings, but not the nasa.

a cheap way is to buy a pc chartplotter program which plots your positon and logs it...which can be stored and printed off at the later date....

for instance one of these http://www.tideplotter.co.uk/

 

[25931]

Convenient but potentially hazardous if tha system should fail when you have come to rely on it.

 

[wklein]

Convenient but potentially hazardous if tha system should fail when you have come to rely on it.

I suppose if the paper ran out a few hours before the navigation system went down i would have an older fix. I am not about to forget how to do a log entry though. I guess you would need to check that the printouts were reasonable quite often. More likely a tired person would miss read a lat long though.

 

[DipperToo]

I fitted an ICS NAV6+ a couple of years ago - great piece of kit. You can interface thermal printers (I got one off EBay), but the unit does have an internal memory and can keep a huge number of position log entries internally which you can review/retrieve. You will need to interface it as a 'listener' on an NMEA circuit.

An added bonus is that the unit can act as an instrument repeater for the usual things such as SOG, COG, Wind, Depth etc etc.

Remember that if you get a small printer that they are usually thermal types and the printout may not last that long - especially if the paper is exposed to warmth!