VHF/ weather info

[mestrezat]

The September issue of Ocean Navigator has an article on getting weather info. They say that you can get downloadable info for my computer off a VHF radio. I have a Raymarine model 220. I'm looking for information on how this can be done. Any hints or sugestions?

[GordMay]

The author appears to be referring to High Frequency radio (HF - SSB/Ham) to computer downloads, not to VHF (Very High Frequency).

Weather data sources ~ by Chris Parker
Weather data sources | Articles | Ocean Navigator

[mestrezat]

On page 38, it says"Simply tune in an inexpensive HF reciever to the desired frequency at the appropriate time to listen to the forcast for your area. Connect the radio to a computer to recieve images (weather charts) in addition to voice forcasts". The artilce goes on to discuss SSB/Ham as a source. SSB is not inexpensive as VHF so I figured it had to be VHF not SSB.

Have contacted Raymarine and they tell me it can't be done on any of their radios.

Not sure where the autor got his info but sure would be handy if it can be done.

[cal40john]

Originally Posted by mestrezat

On page 38, it says"Simply tune in an inexpensive HF reciever to the desired frequency at the appropriate time to listen to the forcast for your area. Connect the radio to a computer to recieve images (weather charts) in addition to voice forcasts". The artilce goes on to discuss SSB/Ham as a source. SSB is not inexpensive as VHF so I figured it had to be VHF not SSB.

Have contacted Raymarine and they tell me it can't be done on any of their radios.

Not sure where the autor got his info but sure would be handy if it can be done.

The key word is REceiver, not TRANSceiver.
Here's an example from Radio Shack. I think that I've seen an HF receiver as low as $60.

RadioShack.com - Phones & Radio Communications: Shortwave & multiband radios: Grundig G5 AM/FM/SW Radio

[cal40john]

I keep getting invalid thread errors and the thread doesn't update on the home portal page (move up), but when I look at the thread, my post is there.

Testing again.

John

[mestrezat]

Is it possible to connect to this receiver? They have closed most of the Radio Shacks here in Colorado and those that are left don't have the most intellegent staff as to what their products will do. Guess i will just have to ask them and see what they say.
Appreciate the help. Just bought a Liberty 458 and am trying to get it ready to take from Seattle area to Astoria.

[GordMay]

The Grundig G5 has a Line Output jack (to feed a tape recorder); and an ear-phone jack.
I don’t believe the Line Out will support data transfer.

[cal40john]

Originally Posted by mestrezat

Is it possible to connect to this receiver? They have closed most of the Radio Shacks here in Colorado and those that are left don't have the most intellegent staff as to what their products will do. Guess i will just have to ask them and see what they say.
Appreciate the help. Just bought a Liberty 458 and am trying to get it ready to take from Seattle area to Astoria.

As long as the radio has an earphone jack, which this one does, and your computer has an audio in jack you're good. You'll need a program for your computer, there was freeware even back when we first used it. Here's the first one I found just now.

SeaTTY free download. A program to receive weather reports, navigational warnings and weather charts transmitted on longwave and shortwave bands in RTTY, NAVTEX and HF-FAX ...

We got weather fax on our trip back from Hawaii to Seattle back in 85 with a HAM SSb transceiver connected to a Radio Shack trash -80 (TRS-80). The owner had bypassed the power supply in the computer, so we just plugged the computer right into the boat batteries, and had a 4.5" black and white monitor out of some instrument, so a case was made out of cardboard and duct tape. I'm pretty sure I remember, no hard drive, just 2 5.25" floppy drives.

John

[cal40john]

Originally Posted by GordMay

The Grundig G5 has a Line Output jack (to feed a tape recorder); and an ear-phone jack.
I don’t believe the Line Out will support data transfer.

I didn't see the line out. Either should work fine, you're just sending audio, but you could confuse yourself by having the volume turned all the way down on the earphone jack and wonder why it's not working. .

Tech Tips: Headphone outputs used as line outputs for line level gear | Sweetwater.com


But I think this came up in another thread, since you're just going down along the coast, you probably don't need weather fax, the VHF weather reports should be adequate.


John

[btrayfors]

I think most have missed the principal point: to my knowledge there are NO VHF broadcasts of weather DATA, i.e., fax or text transmissions. Yes, of course you can gather fax info and navtex and other DATA info using HF radio, but these are not available on VHF...at least not to my knowledge.

Thus, in this respect, the article in Offshore Navigator was misleading.

Bill

[Vasco]

I skimmed the article, Gord is right. It only mentions HF radio. original poster must have got it wrong.

[cal40john]

Originally Posted by btrayfors

I think most have missed the principal point: to my knowledge there are NO VHF broadcasts of weather DATA, i.e., fax or text transmissions. Yes, of course you can gather fax info and navtex and other DATA info using HF radio, but these are not available on VHF...at least not to my knowledge.

Thus, in this respect, the article in Offshore Navigator was misleading.

Bill

Read the thread more carefully. There is even a link to the article.

Summary of thread: Article is about receiving HF weather fax. Poster assumed article was mistaken since HF transceivers are expensive, so he substituted VHF, he even posted that he did this. Gord pointed out that article was correct, I pointed out that they were referring to REceivers and therefore can be had cheap.

John

[fairbank56]

Originally Posted by mestrezat

Have contacted Raymarine and they tell me it can't be done on any of their radios.

That's because Raymarine doesn't sell any HF radio's.

Eric

[senormechanico]

<Rant alert!>

IMHO Radio Shack should change its name to Radio Toys and Telephone Shack.

It was bad enough when they discontinued 99% of their electronic parts, but now they no longer carry (or even special order) marine coax. When I asked, the zitfaced kid behind the counter almost laughed at me.
(I bet he drives a beater primer painted rice burner with chrome wheels.)

GRR!!
<Rant off>
Steve B.

[mestrezat]

I looked at the Grundig G5 at Radio Shack and it has both the line out and the ear phone jack for downloading to my computer. Seemed ok. After installing a program is it difficult to download the info and if so, are there any hints you can give as to how to do the download. The article was quite vague.