Wanted / Navtex Software

[Saint]

Hi Everyone, I'm looking for a freeware program that will decode navtex signals, I know there a lot of programs out there that you have to buy and others that will let you try for 15 days or so, I'm not looking for any of these programs at this time. I am new to navtex decoding and don't want a program to tell me how much time I have to see if I am interested in decoding these messages. I will, if I find that I do want to get serious about this kind of decoding buy a profesional program at a later date. If any one knows of a freeware program or one that is not crippled please let me know, any information is welcome.
Regands,
Steve

 

[ka3jjz]

Humph - there are times you get what you pay for, and this is one of them.

Anyway, Mike Chace-Ortiz and I have put together a series of pages on his Utility Monitoring Central website that lists numerous software packages, several of which (SeaTTY, MixW, MultiPSK just to name a few) that can copy NAVTEX. Professional packages? Nah, these are quite inexpensive. But don't let that fool you. If you ever get into the real Professional game, you will spend a LOT of money on software.

Go to the Utility Listening Wiki for the link to Utility Monitoring Central. I also recently added a few sites that have samples of what many digital modes sound like.

By the way, you may see that NAVTEX is not specifically listed in some packages' capabilities. NAVTEX is sent using SITOR-B as the basic protocol, so any package that lists SITOR-B will handle NAVTEX just fine. It's also known by a couple of older names such as ARCFEC, AMTOR Mode B or AMTOR Mode L (Listen mode).

Since 518 (and in some places, I think the freq is 490) Khz is the main place to find NAVTEX, you may have a problem due to reduced sensitivity - you see many receiver manufacturers put a filter in the RF stage to cut signal strengths of stations below 1 Mhz (to cut overloading). Depending on how the RF chain in the R75 is set up, you may experience this same problem. I would imagine someone on the R75 Yahoo group has also run into this by now, and may well have a solution.

73s and GL..Mike

 

[Saint]

Re-Navtex Software

Thanks Mike for all the information, I was a little confused because I saw what your talking about Navtex and then I saw software that decodes Sitor-b and was not sure, any way I will post a message on the Icom R75 yahoo group, I am a member and see if anyone is having a problem decoding Navtex, I'll check out the site you mentioned.
Steve

 

[ka3jjz]

Just keep in mind that anything that basically any package that can handle SITOR-B - by whatever name it's called, as there have been several of them - will handle NAVTEX. Good luck with your search.

73s Mike