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Weather Fax Suppliers
A weather fax receiver pulls weather charts out of the air. Shore stations broadcast surface analyses, forecasts, and wave and ice charts over high-frequency radio as facsimile images, and the onboard set receives and prints or displays them, giving the bridge a picture of the weather system it is heading into without needing a satellite link. Weather fax, also written weatherfax or radiofax, is still carried on many ships as a free and independent source of weather graphics. Weather fax suppliers provide these receivers and the antennas that feed them.
What It Receives and How
The broadcasts come from national meteorological services on set shortwave frequencies to a published schedule, so the receiver has to be tuned to the right station and time to catch each chart. What arrives is a graphic rather than the plain text of a NAVTEX message: a synoptic surface analysis, a prognosis for the days ahead, and depending on the region wave height, sea ice, and sea surface temperature charts. Older sets printed each one on a roll of thermal paper as it came in, while newer installations feed the signal from an HF receiver into a PC running decoding software and show the chart on screen. The image is built line by line to a fixed standard, usually 120 lines per minute at a set index of cooperation, and the signal is received on single sideband, which is why the set is either a purpose-built fax receiver or an SSB receiver paired with a decoder.
Coverage and Frequencies
The broadcasts come from national meteorological services around the world, among them the US stations, Hamburg in Germany, Tokyo in Japan, and Northwood in the UK, each covering its own ocean regions. A station transmits the same schedule on several frequencies at once so that at least one is reaching a given part of its area, because high-frequency propagation shifts with the time of day and the season. A set bought for a particular trade has to be able to tune the stations that cover those waters, which is one reason the choice of receiver follows the ship's trading pattern.
Types of Installation
The category covers a few forms of the same job:
- Dedicated receiver with printer - a standalone set that tunes the stations and prints each chart, the traditional bridge unit.
- Combined NAVTEX and weather fax receiver - one box that handles both the text safety broadcasts and the fax charts.
- Receiver and software - an HF or SSB receiver feeding a computer with decoding software in place of a paper printer.
- Antenna and coupler - the active or wire HF antenna and its tuning that decide how cleanly the charts come in.
Its Place on the Bridge Today
Weather fax is a supplementary source rather than a required one, and on many bridges satellite weather routing and GRIB files now carry the detail it once provided. It is not the same equipment as the ship's GMDSS fit, and where a set is bought it is usually to keep an independent, no-subscription chart source aboard or to replace an ageing unit. Compare the weather fax suppliers below by whether you need a new set, a used one, or a reseller, and where a fitted receiver needs a part or a repair, weather fax spare parts and weather fax services cover that side.
Year Founded: 2018
VerifiedCATEGORIES:
Weather Fax
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CLASS APPROVED:
IACS: ABS, ClassNK, CCS, BV
WAREHOUSES:
China