Software Heads up regarding Frisnit's Navtex decoder

[GB46]

The Navtex download page on Frisnit.com is still up with links to the available versions, but the download links no longer work. They only bring up a "not found" error from the site. I e-mailed the author about this a few months ago, but got no response. What's irritating is that if you happen to be online when starting the program, you're notified that a new version is available, but if you follow the link, you'll get the same error message, so I stay offline when running the program, since it doesn't require an internet connection.

The only way to download the app now is by copying and pasting the URL to the Wayback Machine at Archive.org and selecting a previous year, so maybe a note should be added to the software Wiki, or the listing removed altogether.

At any rate, my copy of version 1.0.0.1 is working just fine.

 

[ka3jjz]

Thanks for this. I will remove it from our wiki listing

Mike

 

[ka3jjz]

Happily there's quite a list of other apps that can decode NAVTEX - see this page from the SigIDWiki. I will have to remove the Frisnet listing from here, too....

SITOR-B - Signal Identification Wiki

SITOR-B is one of two modes of SITOR (Simplex Teletype Over Radio).

www.sigidwiki.com

Mike

 

[GB46]

Oops! Your second post came in while I was writing mine. I have been to that Wiki page, as I've been looking around for a freeware Navtex decoder that has a font size option so I don't have to squint. The Frisnit app is all I need or want, but uses the smallest font possible. MultiPSK has a font size option, but all those mode buttons and transmit controls make the UI pretty messy when all I ever use it for is monitoring Navtex. The app takes an awful long time to launch, too, at least on my machine.

I did a Google search on YaND and wound up in a listing at DXzone.com. The strange thing about that site is that when I opened the page for YaND, there was a link that I assumed would lead to the author's site or to a download page, but the link was to the very same page I was already on. After going around in circles a few times I finally noticed a link at the bottom for visiting the author's site. When I clicked on that, it started downloading YaND itself, so I suppose the author's site is no longer online.

YaND's UI is a bit messed up on my Windows 7 laptop, perhaps due to partial incompatibility with the OS. The UTC clock covers up most of the tabs. The decoded text is on a single scrolling line, and most of the screen space is taken up by various analytical tools which I don't need. The font is too small here, as well, and there's no font size adjustment.

Looks like I'll have to get used to squinting at the Frisnit app.

 

[ka3jjz]

There are several others there including a Java based decoder (JNX). You have lots of apps there to try out to see which one you like

Mike

 

[GB46]

Thanks, Mike. The closest I came to what I was looking for was Sorcerer, which had an uncluttered UI and a font selection option. Unfortunately it wouldn't remember my decoder selection, Sitor B, which I had to re-select each time I started the program. After a few launches and exits it suddenly stopped opening properly and wouldn't show up at all on the monitor, so I had to terminate it manually in the task manager, where it was shown to be still running. It still malfunctioned after restarting the computer, so I'm sticking with the Frisnit app.

The Sitor B MP3 file on the Wiki came in handy for testing, however, as the only Navtex frequencies I can receive here -- 8416.5 kHz from Pt. Reyes or Honolulu and 16806.5 kHz from Pt. Reyes or Boston -- were off the air at the time.

 

[ka3jjz]

There are support mailing lists for some of these packages, and you can find the listing here...this would be the place to go to find out about fonts and so forth

Utility Monitoring Central Links - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

And as for Sorcerer there is a Registry fix you can apply - the site is in Italian, use Google translate...

diario SWL I-56578 Antonio

HF utility & milcomm signals<br> <i>tony.anselmi@gmail.com</i>

i56578-swl.blogspot.com

NAVTEX is also heard on longwave, and you can find a decent listing of schedules here;

https://www.dxinfocentre.com/navtex.htm

Mike

 

[ka3jjz]

You'll notice that there's a group for NAVTEX DXing in that first link. That might also be a place to go to find out what others are using

And speaking of other apps, here's one I need to add to the SigIDWiki..if you have an IPhone, IPad or Android device...

Decode NAVTEX Weather Transmissions With Your iPhone and iPad

Decode NAVTEX Weather Transmissions With Your iPhone and iPad

www.blackcatsystems.com

And finally a good listing of SITOR-B stuff...

https://www.dxinfocentre.com/maritimesafetyinfo.htm

Mike

 

[GB46]

There are support mailing lists for some of these packages, and you can find the listing here...this would be the place to go to find out about fonts and so forth

Utility Monitoring Central Links - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

And as for Sorcerer there is a Registry fix you can apply - the site is in Italian, use Google translate...

diario SWL I-56578 Antonio

HF utility & milcomm signals<br> <i>tony.anselmi@gmail.com</i>

i56578-swl.blogspot.com

NAVTEX is also heard on longwave, and you can find a decent listing of schedules here;

https://www.dxinfocentre.com/navtex.htm

Mike

Very helpful post, Mike! I've just translated those registry tweak instructions; actually, I could probably have followed them without any knowledge of Italian, because the registry values are in English, anyway. I'll be tweaking the registry shortly, and I'll let you know how it goes. The values I'm supposed to delete are automatically created by the program itself. I was looking at them last night. They're for the width, height and position of the main window.

Regarding longwave, frequencies lower than about 2500 kHz are not usable at my location, as they're swamped by lots of RFI from all directions. All I can get are a local AM station on 800 and the local NDB at 290, which is only a mile or so away. Oddly enough, however, the 80 meter ham band has very little RFI compared to the higher bands.

 

[eorange]

I don't know why, but I've never had any luck with the frisnit NAVTEX decoder. I've always had great success with MultiPSK and YanD.

That aside, there's a fantastic article on the frisnit home page about the inner workings of the orignal Pac Man hardware.

 

[GB46]

Sorcerer is working fine now. I think the error was my fault, because apparently the app is unforgiving if the main window (the one containing the spectrum display) is dragged to a new position or resized. The window containing the text can be resized or even maximized to hide the spectrum, which is fine once the correct frequency is found on the spectrum and the decoding has started properly. So I now get a nice big screen full of decoded text with a large font that's easy on the eyes. I've been currently decoding the signal from Boston on 16806.5. For some unknown reason the lines comes out double spaced, whereas they're single spaced in other Navtex software. Not sure why that is, but it's not a big issue.

 

[GB46]

Actually, one more follow-up about Sorcerer: If anyone here is using it on Windows 7, you need to do more than remove those values in the registry as shown in diario SWL I-56578 Antonio, because Sorcerer automatically replaces them again on the next launch. I discovered that when it started locking up my computer again. Instead, use the second fix shown on that page, where the following set of values is suggested as substitutes for the default values:
MainH = 166
MainW = 481
MainX = 391
MainY = 32

This finally cured the malfunction for good on my computer, although the main window shows up quite far to the right, along with the text window. The text window can be moved anywhere on the screen you want, however, because it doesn't get written to the registry.

According to the system requirements on Sorcerer's download page, the software can run under operating systems as old as Windows 98, so apparently there's a compatibility issue with Windows 7. I doubt whether Windows 10 could handle it at all.

PS: I was also able to eliminate that double-spacing in Sitor B, which I mentioned in the previous post. There's an option called "filter blank lines" in a dropdown box on the text screen. It needs to be activated for each session.

 

[frisnit]

The Navtex download page on Frisnit.com is still up with links to the available versions, but the download links no longer work. They only bring up a "not found" error from the site. I e-mailed the author about this a few months ago, but got no response. What's irritating is that if you happen to be online when starting the program, you're notified that a new version is available, but if you follow the link, you'll get the same error message, so I stay offline when running the program, since it doesn't require an internet connection.

The only way to download the app now is by copying and pasting the URL to the Wayback Machine at Archive.org and selecting a previous year, so maybe a note should be added to the software Wiki, or the listing removed altogether.

At any rate, my copy of version 1.0.0.1 is working just fine.

Sorry, I missed your email - thanks for letting me know about the download links. I had to rebuild that server a few months ago and clearly forgot that detail!

The download links have now been restored

Cheers, Mark

 

[GB46]

Sorry, I missed your email - thanks for letting me know about the download links. I had to rebuild that server a few months ago and clearly forgot that detail!

The download links have now been restored

Cheers, Mark

Thanks, Mark. Navtex.exe works just great on my Win7 laptop, and actually decodes more reliably than some other software I've used, such as Sorcerer and MultiPSK. It's also much easier on memory and drive space.

The only problem I have is with the font size of the decoded text. Navtex.exe uses the default monospace font on my system, which is Courier New 9pt. I replaced that in the registry with Consolas Bold, which helps a little, but I can't increase the size that way, because Windows has a fixed size of 9pt. for its system fonts. If you happen to create a new version of the app, perhaps you could consider a font size option.