using ssb to obtain navtex weather reports

[kanaka]

hi folks
new member here,living in wales uk,hoping to go cruising long term soon ,in rival 34.
anyone know how [in laymans terms]to obtain navtex weather reports,useing an ssb radio and laptop ,keep it simple ,ta

[georgelewisray]

Wx-Fax on your computer requires a SSB (single side band) radio receiver, a patch cord from radio headphone jack to computer microphone input and some SW to turn sound data into a picture. Assuming you can figure out the fax transmission schedule and how to tune the SSB radio.

My radio: Sangean ATS-909 and Radio Shack DX-398


Good Luck!!!

Some tech stuff from internet:

HF-Fax

First at all you need a Single Side Band (SSB) Receiver, tune in to a Fax
signal, in the Upper Side Band (USB), at a frequency 1.9 KHz lower as given in theFrequencies lists.
Example to tune in Northwood on 11.086.5 KHz set your Receiver to 11.084,6 KHz.

The most Fax transmissions are send with a LPM (RPM) of 120 and a IOC (sometimes called Module) of 576.
Only stations with Russian equipment sometimes use RPM 60 or 90 and sometimes a IOC of 288.
Photofax transmissions such as from north Korea use RPM 60 and a IOC 352 with gray tones, and satellite rebroadcast use also RPM 120 IOC 576, with gray tones (4 or more bit Depth)

For software decoding best way is to decode with Black and White (2 bit Depth).

The Start-tone is 95 % black and 5 % white with tones with a duration of 15 to 20 seconds (called phasing) (300 Hz), the stopsignal is 450 Hz, and this is called Automatic Picture Transmission ( APT).

Now you should heard the typical "Scratch" sound from a Fax signal, with white-tones are send with 2300 Hz, and black-tones are send with 1500 Hz.

If you use Software for decoding Fax transmissions, use B&W with 2 bit Depth for the B&W weather charts

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http://www.cruisingclub.org/pdfs/dl....ts_wxsched.pdf