On Thu, 23 Oct 2003 17:24:13 GMT, zachary alan schramm
wrote:

I am interested in receiving weather fax charts, are the great lakes
covered. I found software that will demodulate the signal without extra
equipment so I was looking into a ssb radio. What kind would I need? I
want to get the cheapest receiver I can but one that would produce a good
signal for good charts. Let me know if anyone has any experience with
this.

-Zac Schramm

Zac,

As is apparent from my signature block below, I'm a bit of a radio
fanatic when it comes to home use.

However, for my Hunter 310 I bought an Icom R-75 receiver to feed my
laptop for HF-Fax, Halifax (CFH) RTTY weather broadcasts and NAVTEX
broadcasts. The receiver works well with either its AC power brick on
AC shorepower, or directly from a 12v accessory socket.

Best of all, it's a pretty good approximation to my mulit-$k rackmount
receivers for US$450 (from Ham Radio Outlet).

Another possibility you might consider (as I did) is the somewhat
dated (but still very good) Yaesu FRG-100 (at the same price).

As you probably know, the best freeware fax decoder software is WxSat,
but I find the little $35 software combo SeaTTY to be a very good buy
for decoding HF-Fax, RTTY and NAVTEX messages in a simple and
convenient package.

(I also have the Hoka Code300-32 suite of profesional decoders for my
digital intercept hobby, but that's over-complicated extravagence for
cruising weather broadcats.)


Good listening,
Al
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Location: 42N39, 71W09 (Near Boston, MA)
HF Antennas: 65ft TFD, 45ft T2FD, 28ft vertical, 65ft doublet
HF Receivers: Ten-Tec RX340, RX320, Harris R2368, Cubic R3030A
Decoders: Code300-32, Universal M-8000, PK-232MBX/DSP
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