Weather Fax | The SWLing Post

I received a message this morning from a Norwegian couple, Per and Elisabeth, who are circumnavigating the globe in a sailboat.

They’re currently in Opua, New Zealand, and are looking for a shortwave receiver with SSB mode.

They depart New Zealand on May 6, 2014 so are very much in a hurry to find one. They plan to use this radio to receive weather fax while on the open sea. Personally, I would hope they could find a good tabletop receiver for the job, but they would be happy with a capable portable radio.

On a side note, I’m well aware that the Digitech Audio AR1945 is readily available in New Zealand, but based on comments from a previous article, I also know that it performs miserably on SSB.

If you can help Per and Elisabeth find a shortwave radio with SSB in New Zealand, before they depart on May 6, please comment!

You can follow Per and Elisabeth’s sailing adventure on their website and blog.

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In response to my previous post, The Best Shortwave Receiver for Your Boat or Yacht, Frank (VK3JFH/VP8DNM) writes:

“I have all three of the portables mentioned, the Sony SW7600GR, the Sangean 909X, and the Tecsun PL-660. The latter is currently my portable of choice. Having just read this post re radios afloat I took the time to suck down a fax from Charleville, Queensland.

Frank’s Tecsun PL-660 and Macbook Pro decoding a weather fax with Cocoa Modem 2.0 (Click to enlarge)

Results shown..

This was with the Tecsun 660 attached directly to a (near) horizontal longwire at my home QTH, inserted directly into a Macbook Pro running CocoaModem 2.0 via the headphone socket on the Tecsun.
I have had similar results with the Sony and the Sangean

To all intents the result is as good as with my other radios ( K5000 etc.).

Screenshot of the weather fax image (Click to enlarge)

However if I was starting from scratch afloat I would get an Icom IC-718. Only $689.95 from Universal Radio. You may choose to simply use it as a receiver or as a Ham TX/RX. However it can also be ‘opened up’ with a simple diode snip to transmit on all the marine bands. Not strictly legal [nor is the IC-718 designed for those bands] but there are a lot of ‘opened’ 718s out there and in an emergency you can transmit a mayday on anything…. even a couple of jam tins and string although you may need a fair old length of string….

If you wish to transmit on your IC-718 you will need a tuner. I have an LDG IT-100 on mine.

Hooking up a consumer receiver to a marine antenna….? Simply make up a pigtail with a 3.5mm jack at one end and a BNC or SO -259 at the other.

Non-marine radios afloat…. ? I had an IC-735 aboard from Cyprus (1992) until Patagonia (2007). Since 2007 I have had an IC-706Mk2G afloat…. no problem with either one.”