[Lowfer] NAVTEX page

[Garry Hess]

Andy,

That link from Warren is indeed an excellent one. Another source of 
Navtex information is http://www.beaconworld.org.uk/navtex.htm.
I sometimes run the program NAVTEXvw.exe to see what's scheduled at the 
moment and in the near future, rather than wade through the big .pdf 
documents. A new version named NAVTEXview is now available in a zip file 
free from the beaconworld site.

One caution - I've found some stations, Miami ZCZC A comes to mind, 
often transmit so long that they're still on when another station's 
start time arrives.

Another caution - even with the ZCZC identifier there are still some 
cases where two different stations have the same letter and are in the 
same region! That's the case for region 4, letter H - both Warton, 
Ontario, Canada and Curacao, Netherlands Antilles use it. The former is 
in the NAT group (North Atlantic) while the latter is in the CAR group 
(Carribbean). You can tell which is which by the decoded text and which 
way your antenna is pointed. Incidentally, the callsign of the latter is 
JPC, but Hepburn lists it as PJC.

The bulk of the activity is on 518 kHz but as you know there is some 
activity, especially out of Canada, that can be printed relatively 
easily on 490 kHz. Plenty of software can decode the RTTY (AMTOR FEC, 
170 Hz shift). My preference is MultiPSK (yes, the GUI is a monster) 
with the dial set to USB 516.3 kHz or 488.3 kHz. It's really neat to run 
all night camped on 518 kHz in the dead of winter and see a dozen plus 
different stations have been decoded when you check in the morning.

73,
Garry, K3SIW, EN52ta, Elgin, IL