AmateurRadio.com

As Steve announced a week ago, CLE192 was a special NAVTEX edition. I like NAVTEX for several reasons. It’s an open format, easily decodable and messages are mostly in plain English. Then it’s just like fishing with a fish pod: you can leave your setup on over night and in the morning see what nice DX you have caught.

Normally I use the FRISNIT software for decoding NAVTEX. It’s plain and simple and messages are stored in plain text files. This time I tried YaND (Yet another NAVTEX Decoder) and found it to be better in decoding weak signals than FRISNIT. I don’t like the interface and message handling, but those are minor issues.

Here is my list of catches:

YYYYMMDD HHMM KHz ID CALL STATION,COUNTRY DIST (Km)
—————————————————————-
20150327 1604 518 $13A UIK Vladivostok,RSE 2377
20150327 1656 518 $11F HAS Bangkok (Nonthaburi),THA 2525
20150327 1700 518 $11G JNB Naha ,JPN 723
20150328 1500 518 $11H JNR Moji,JPN 1359
20150327 1507 518 $11I JGC Yokohama ,JPN 2199
20150330 1737 518 $11J JNL Otaru ,JPN 2730
20150326 1519 518 $11K JNX Kushiro ,JPN 3010
20150327 1812 518 $11N XSQ Guangzhou,CHN 773
20150330 2218 518 $11O XSL Foochow ,CHN 235
20150327 2234 518 $11P XSX Keelung,TWN 1600
20150328 1053 518 $11Q XSG Shanghai ,CHN 704
20150327 1901 518 $11R XSZ Dalian ,CHN 1656
20150330 2150 518 $11L VRX Hong Kong, HKG 0
20150327 1801 518 $11M XSI Sanya, CHN 0
20150330 1900 518 $11S XSV Tianjin, CHN 0
20150328 1613 518 $11U 9MG Penang, MLA (tent.) 0
20150326 1933 518 $11V HL.. CHUKPYONG, KOR 0
20150329 1942 518 $11W HL.. PYONGSAN, KOR 0
20150327 1740 518 $11K JNX Kushiro 0
20150327 2140 518 $11K XVT, Da Nang Radio (tent.) 0

The catches with 0 km distance were not automatically identified by YaND and the two tentative catches were identified by the content of the message, so 99% sure it was them.

The last reason I like NAVTEX is the content being broadcast. It provides a window on a world that most of us don’t know much about. Most messages are warnings about military exercises, weather reports and changes in locations of buoys, etc. But occasionally you see distress messages and then you realize how much hardship and suffering there is out at sea and how mighty it is. I’ll leave you with two of those messages from the last few days. 73

—–

2015-03-28 13:20:15> ZCZC ID86
2015-03-28 13:20:19> 281320 UTC MAR 15
2015-03-28 13:20:21> OVERBOARD NO.141
2015-03-28 13:20:26> ONE PASSENGER FELL OVERBOARD FROM
2015-03-28 13:20:33> FERRY ISHIKARI ALONG TRACKLINE BETWEEN
2015-03-28 13:20:36> NAGOYA PORT AT 261000UTC
2015-03-28 13:20:41> AND SENDAI PORT AT 270740UTC OR
2015-03-28 13:20:46> SENDAI PORT AT 271040UTC AND
2015-03-28 13:20:51> TOMAKOMAI PORT AT 280200UTC.
2015-03-28 13:20:57> SHIPS ARE REQUESTED TO REPORT ANY
2015-03-28 13:21:03> INFORMATION TO 1TH REGIONAL JAPAN COAST
2015-03-28 13:21:08> GUARD. PHONE 81-134-276172.
2015-03-28 13:21:09> NNNN

2015-03-27 17:40:15> ZCZC KD57
2015-03-27 17:40:18> 271740 UTC MAR 15
2015-03-27 17:40:20> CAPSIZE NO.139
2015-03-27 17:40:27> TUGBOAT CAPSIZED IN 41-45N 140-44E
2015-03-27 17:40:30> AT 270610UTC.
2015-03-27 17:40:33> CREW WENT MISSING.
2015-03-27 17:40:39> SHIPS IN THE VICINITY ARE REQUESTED TO
2015-03-27 17:40:46> KEEP A SHARP LOOKOUT AND REPORT ANY
2015-03-27 17:40:52> INFORMATION TO 1ST REGIONAL JAPAN COAST
2015-03-27 17:40:56> GUARD. PHONE 81-13427-6172.
2015-03-27 17:40:57> NNNN