Earlier this week we posted a note from John who only recently took a deep dive into the world of Radiofax transmissions, inspired by Carlos Latuff‘s recent posts.
I mentioned to John that he’ll hone his skills the more he captures these Radiofax transmissions. John just sent the following update:
Thanks, Thomas!
Indeed you are correct.
Having more luck decoding the Boston service… remembered I have a Sony AN-LP1 external antenna and so I unpacked and unraveled it and plugged in to the D-808 … drop that noise floor and…
12179kc USB Fine Tune +50
Above is the best example I have so far with HF FAX.
I guess it’s rather easy to decode these overall once you get the noise floor down, and fine tune the signal. These transmissions can take several minutes to complete which allows for a great deal of fade during that time.
Here is the original version [via the OPC Mobile Website – Atlantic]:
Radio has filled my off-hours for the best part of 50 years now. I should no longer be surprised to find something I had overlooked like this that just adds to the fun and challenge of it.
72s and 3s.
John Johnson
N8ELK
Thank you so much, John, for sharing this with us! That is a brilliant decode, indeed!
Nice job, John, congrats.
Usually, here in Brazil, mostly of times, I get good radiofax signals from USCG Boston and Japan Meteorological Agency.
Kyodo News around 07h00 UTC.
Nice WEFAX intercepts John, they don’t get much better than that. Thanks for sharing and thanks Thomas for posting.
Thanks for the nostalgic column. When I was AACS Air Force, I had many occasions to copy weather map radio fax for pilots. This is late 1950s tech. I can still hear that lovely tuning signal. Nice memories. 73 F8WBD.
John, if you go lower in frequency the whites will come out better if your able to do that with your radio.
The actual frequency with USB offset is about 12178.10.
Rich
Wow! Way cool!
Cheers, Jock