NASA ssb radio

[svtriumph77]

Originally Posted by james pask

Hi - Im new to SSB and curious to understand how they operate and if they are useful in Northern Europe , I'm based in Scotland with plans to head over to the Baltic and Europe - has anyone experience and views of the NASA TARGET HF3/W RECEIVER that they might share ?
Thanks in advance.
James

Hi James, I found this thread because my boat had an old Si-tex/Nasa/Target HF3 SSB receiver. I just bought a new one with an active Nasa Marine antenna to replace the old one that I thought was not working. It now looks like the problem may not have been the unit but my lack of knowledge of how to use it AND the issues with noise in receiving weatherfaxes. I now have to decide if I want to return it. What did you end up deciding to do? The Nasa unit or a portable or ?? I am also most likely going to install an Iridium Go with PredictWind Offshore despite the high cost ($1,000 in HW and $180/month service charge).

Cheers, Joseph

[barnakiel]

1) The Baltic is a biggish lake and you do not need ssb radio for weather. You simply use plain radio on MW, LW and UHF frequencies. But I doubt you know the local languages to make use of their forecasts.


2) The antena you got (if it is the stub active one) is next to useless for radiofax. Neither am I certain there is a good wefax forecast for the area (there used to be half-decent one from (I think) Offenbach, Germany).


(use plain wire for antenna, it works much better)



3) You need decent weather skills to translate a weather fax into a local forecast.


4) Other than the above, NAVTEXT used to work very well there and was available from many stations, in English (but it was ages since we moved out, so check this).


Etc.


Plain radio and VHF plus a smartphone with a data ability is probably all you need in the Baltic. You can always ask any fisher or small cargo for forecast relay and they do.


Cheers,
b.