# Weatherfax capable Affordable SSB radio receiver



## jbsdf (Sep 25, 2020)

I see there are a lot (too many to list) SSB HF radio receivers for around $20 on amazon, ebay, etc.
Are any of these capable of connecting their antenna, either wired through a port or wired directly from the internal antenna to a chainplate, therefore giving you the antenna you need to pickup the weatherfax broadcasts offshore. I am not looking for a weatherfax service to run on laptop or other device. Just an ssb reciever to use with the OpenCPN plugin that is already capable of decoding the data transmitted.
How many of you have used any of these cheap models <$50 as weatherfax terminals successfully? Are any of them worthy?


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

I'm not sure which models you're looking at, but I assume these are simply used SSBs, which are quickly going out of fashion with anyone other than ocean crossers and rallies. That's not too many users. Even in their case, satellite technology is coming down in price and taking over.

IIRC, you will need a pactor modem, along with the SSB, to get weatherfax, email, etc. Maybe there is a more modern approach that I'm unfamiliar with. These require a shore based service to send the data too. With a declining user population, I wonder how much longer they do so. There will always be a few that hang on.


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## SaludaLabs (Aug 28, 2020)

jbsdf said:


> I see there are a lot (too many to list) SSB HF radio receivers for around $20 on amazon, ebay, etc.
> Are any of these capable of connecting their antenna, either wired through a port or wired directly from the internal antenna to a chainplate, therefore giving you the antenna you need to pickup the weatherfax broadcasts offshore. I am not looking for a weatherfax service to run on laptop or other device. Just an ssb reciever to use with the OpenCPN plugin that is already capable of decoding the data transmitted.
> How many of you have used any of these cheap models <$50 as weatherfax terminals successfully? Are any of them worthy?


I use a computer base radio by RSP1A connected to a laptop to decode weatherfax. The RSP1A preforms better then those cheap receivers.
HF Weather Fax Decoding Tutorial


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## bristol299bob (Apr 13, 2011)

I use a USB RTL SDR dongle, plugged into a Samsung Android tablet. I use SDRTouch to tune into weatherfax transmissions. On the east coast I can pick up transmissions from Boston and New Orleans. I use HF WeatherFax to convert the bleeps and screeches into a FAX image. For an antenna I use a piece of wire that I run up the mast on a spare halyard.

It works pretty well and at $29 the RTL SDR Dongle is surprising in its capability. But when the reception poor the fax image can be noisy. Sometimes the image is barely unreadable. But I believe that with a dedicated high quality antenna that issue would be resolved (I just haven't gotten around to that yet)


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## Skipper Jer (Aug 26, 2008)

Can anyone post a screen shot of a weather fax received by these SDRs?


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## bristol299bob (Apr 13, 2011)

Skipper Jer said:


> Can anyone post a screen shot of a weather fax received by these SDRs?


I can as soon as I'm back at the boat but that might be a few weeks.

These SDR dongles are impressive and fun to monkey around with. But bear in mind that WeatherFax is pretty low resolution (its a fax), and the weather map you get covers an enormous area. So even at their best they are nothing like a modern weather map. And for me, even under the best conditions the images, although definitely readable, are fairly noisy.

I chose to go the android route. I use a tablet and android based SDR and Fax conversion software. If you have a windows laptop onboard you can use that and have more software options. In particular SDR# which seems to be the "best in class" software for SDR.

The $29 RTL SDR dongle that I have does not need an upconverter to receive HF, but some do so be aware of that. There are other SDRs in the 100-$200 range that are presumably higher quality than these dongles. No experience with them.

Full disclosure. I have a Garmin InReach. When offshore I use both weatherfax and the InReach to get weather data. However I use the InReach weather data to make my decisions. I guess Weatherfax is, for me, an interesting "project" that I still use. But I don't rely on it anymore.


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## jbsdf (Sep 25, 2020)

Thank you for the suggestions, there are a few things I should have mentioned.
I would rather not use android devices. I run a low power (non windows) laptop without inverter and would prefer to use OpenCPN as it has all the functionality to convert the data. Will these devices be compatible? I don't want to add any more power hungry software to further put a strain on the cpu constantly more than OpenCPN does already.
Thanks


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## Nereus32 (Jun 23, 2002)

The HF WeatherFax Decoding Tutorial mentions a "virtual audio cable" connection. That would be great to be able to connect to OpenCPN WEFax Plugin directly. I haven't had time to mess with this yet, but I do have a SDR USB device and a HF converter that I got for this. Hoping I can make it work... 

Anyone else made this work?


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## SanderO (Jul 12, 2007)

I have a Furuno SSB 1502 and tuner...

Make me an offer... located in western CT.


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## jbsdf (Sep 25, 2020)

SanderO said:


> I have a Furuno SSB 1502 and tuner...
> 
> Make me an offer... located in western CT.


Is that a transceiver?

Can the SDR dongles work without windows or android software? OpenCPN has the ability to overlay the data onto charts which is nice, and runs on linux which is far superior to windows or android for a low power device.


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## SanderO (Jul 12, 2007)

YES... SSB send and receive... I don't know about dongles and android software use with the SSB... I did have a WeaFax connected and used it. I sold it and now use only VHF.


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## bristol299bob (Apr 13, 2011)

jbsdf said:


> Can the SDR dongles work without windows or android software?








A Good Quickstart Guide for RTL-SDR Linux Users


Recently we found this excellent quick start guide by Kenn Ranous which shows how to set up various RTL-SDR related software programs on (Debian) Linux. The guide shows how to install the drivers, how to install and set up GQRX, CubicSDR, dump1090, Virtual Radar Server, QSpectrum Analyzer and...



www.rtl-sdr.com


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## jbsdf (Sep 25, 2020)

SanderO said:


> YES... SSB send and receive... I don't know about dongles and android software use with the SSB... I did have a WeaFax connected and used it. I sold it and now use only VHF.


SSB would be nice for participating in cruiser nets. What is the age of the SSB?

@bristol299bob thanks for the resource It looks very doable!


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## SanderO (Jul 12, 2007)

Furuno 1502 and tuner are from 1993. Only used when I lived aboard for 4 years in 90s. Yes it is great for cruiser nets!
I used a backstay antenna.

Message me if you are interested.... located in NY / CT


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## jbsdf (Sep 25, 2020)

I heard back when SSB radios were a little more common before sat phones started to become available/common, that you could actually make phone calls with an SSB up to somewhere around 500 miles up to as much as thousand(s) of nautical miles offshore depending on weather/landscape/seascape of course, without paying sat phone fees. How would this work? would this be something like an Autopatch call on a Ham radio repeater? if anyone has even heard of that anymore(It's basically where the repeater owner/operator offers his personal home phone line for public use to fellow ham radio operators to make quick phone calls when necessary) Basically just wondering where the call would be routed through on SSB, as in where it transfers from the radio waves to the telephone lines, and whose line it is actually calling through, and where the signal(s) or station necessary to reach in order to make said calls would be located? and any other info on that subject. Thanks again


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## Zemurray (Oct 28, 2018)

You dont need an SSB or any of that expensive gear to receive an HF weather fax. All you need is a shortwave radio receiver. Tecsun is the post popular. I have one, and I've tested receiving the normal HF Weather updates, but I have not tested receiving the fax. I never bought the software. If you google search receiving weather fax with shortwave radio, you'll find plenty. Tarka did this and had a blog article on his Adventures of Tarka website. Free Range Sailing uses a shortwave radio to receive the HF Weather updates and references how they do it in one of their videos, all though they are just using the voice broadcast.

This link has references to the radio fax, and HF voice schedules..


Marine Weather Broadcasts from the USCG


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

jbsdf said:


> you could actually make phone calls with an SSB


I'd never done so with an SSB, but there used to be marine operators on VHF. You hailed the operator, on a designated channel, and they made the call for you and patched it together. When I was a kid, we'd listen in on the channel. Mostly husbands telling their wives they'd be late. Some were funny. That service was discontinued many years ago, I don't know if it was the same on SSB.


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## SanderO (Jul 12, 2007)

Haven't used my SSB in years... did use it with a weatherfax 25 years ago... sold the fax... kept the radio... There used to be radio nets for cruisers on SSB... They were handy to keep in touch with people beyond VHF range... chit chat. .weather info and so on. And of course Herb on SouthBound II was a treasure every evening as 2300 GMT...weather, routing, tracking... He must have retired now. You can also get NOAA weather on SSB.


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## jbsdf (Sep 25, 2020)

SanderO said:


> Haven't used my SSB in years... did use it with a weatherfax 25 years ago... sold the fax... kept the radio... There used to be radio nets for cruisers on SSB... They were handy to keep in touch with people beyond VHF range... chit chat. .weather info and so on. And of course Herb on SouthBound II was a treasure every evening as 2300 GMT...weather, routing, tracking... He must have retired now. You can also get NOAA weather on SSB.


when you say there used to be radio nets for cruisers on SSB do you mean to say that they are somewhat of a thing of the past? I have heard people talk of them fairly recently as in the last few years but probably not as common as they were previously back before everyone was using sat phones.

As far as the phone calls over SSB the person I heard say they actually did that was talking about a time period of probably 20-30 years ago, before the invasion of expensive to use sat phones and cell phones. The downside being that the SSB transciever was rather expensive back then, but making the phone calls was free. I don't know how they did it, and I have no way of asking the person I am referring to, which is why I was wondering if anyone else had done this or even heard of doing it at all, and if it's something that's still possible. I'd imagine the resources for radio operators back then were a lot more plentiful then they are today in a dwindling market that has no ongoing subscription income to depend on like sat phones or even cell phones. So these resources were mostly provided by fellow SSB or HAM radio fellow operators, or possibly the government as in the case of Weatherfax, since there would be nothing in it for the companies selling the radios to provide such services. The cost to set up and maintain the infrastructure for these sort of things would would be high and have no potential return, other than potentially making the radios more desirable to consumers and potentially selling more radios. But I don't think the radio manufacturers ever saw that as a viable way to make money.


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

Back in the day, when you made a call via the marine operator, their service was free, but the phone call wasn’t. Most called collect (answering party paid for the call, for those under 40), but you could also use a calling card, which required reading the number over the airwaves. The calling card just put the expense of the call on your home phone bill. Calling card numbers were frequently hacked back then.


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## SanderO (Jul 12, 2007)

jbsdf said:


> when you say there used to be radio nets for cruisers on SSB do you mean to say that they are somewhat of a thing of the past? I have heard people talk of them fairly recently as in the last few years but probably not as common as they were previously back before everyone was using sat phones.
> 
> As far as the phone calls over SSB the person I heard say they actually did that was talking about a time period of probably 20-30 years ago, before the invasion of expensive to use sat phones and cell phones. The downside being that the SSB transciever was rather expensive back then, but making the phone calls was free. I don't know how they did it, and I have no way of asking the person I am referring to, which is why I was wondering if anyone else had done this or even heard of doing it at all, and if it's something that's still possible. I'd imagine the resources for radio operators back then were a lot more plentiful then they are today in a dwindling market that has no ongoing subscription income to depend on like sat phones or even cell phones. So these resources were mostly provided by fellow SSB or HAM radio fellow operators, or possibly the government as in the case of Weatherfax, since there would be nothing in it for the companies selling the radios to provide such services. The cost to set up and maintain the infrastructure for these sort of things would would be high and have no potential return, other than potentially making the radios more desirable to consumers and potentially selling more radios. But I don't think the radio manufacturers ever saw that as a viable way to make money.


Don
I don't know how extensive SSB radio nets are today... I have used the radio for ages.

At the time.... late 90s the SSB was a good way to stay connected... get weather and so forth. New tech these days may have eclipsed SSB.


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## colemj (Jul 10, 2003)

New tech definitely provides things not available with SSB, but the opposite is also true. Cruisers nets are alive and well on SSB in many areas, which is a social and immediate area functionality that sat phones will never provide. However, SSB isn't good at making direct person to person calls. Both can download weather data in many forms. SSB will never be summarily cutoff mid-voyage because of billing issues or company solvancy.

AT&T used to provide a high seas telephone service, but that went away 20yrs ago. I'm sure phone patches are still able to be made, but not in a commercial sense like in the past.

Mark


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## Rufus (Jun 18, 2021)

jbsdf said:


> when you say there used to be radio nets for cruisers on SSB do you mean to say that they are somewhat of a thing of the past? I have heard people talk of them fairly recently as in the last few years but probably not as common as they were previously back before everyone was using sat phones.
> 
> As far as the phone calls over SSB the person I heard say they actually did that was talking about a time period of probably 20-30 years ago, before the invasion of expensive to use sat phones and cell phones. The downside being that the SSB transciever was rather expensive back then, but making the phone calls was free. I don't know how they did it, and I have no way of asking the person I am referring to, which is why I was wondering if anyone else had done this or even heard of doing it at all, and if it's something that's still possible. I'd imagine the resources for radio operators back then were a lot more plentiful then they are today in a dwindling market that has no ongoing subscription income to depend on like sat phones or even cell phones. So these resources were mostly provided by fellow SSB or HAM radio fellow operators, or possibly the government as in the case of Weatherfax, since there would be nothing in it for the companies selling the radios to provide such services. The cost to set up and maintain the infrastructure for these sort of things would would be high and have no potential return, other than potentially making the radios more desirable to consumers and potentially selling more radios. But I don't think the radio manufacturers ever saw that as a viable way to make money.


No, remarkably they're still there! Love to know why. Have a look at the techsun pl880. Not $20, but comes recommended.


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## jbsdf (Sep 25, 2020)

Rufus said:


> No, remarkably they're still there! Love to know why. Have a look at the techsun pl880. Not $20, but comes recommended.


Thanks for the reply, glad to know the nets are still there. Not sure if I'm gonna be able to afford to transmit, but could always listen in at least. 
I took a look at the pl880, is there any reason to need this over an RTL-DR setup? other than that you could listen without the use of a computer?

I have a pretty low power laptop/tablet that should be pretty easy to power. I've got a 12v-19v DC-DC converter to charge it a lot more efficiently than what you would get with a inverter and regular charger. Converting 12vDC-120vac, then back to 19vdc I'm pretty sure would get you less than 50% efficiency. I'm thinking the 12-19v dc conversion should be somewhere in the 90-95% efficiency range but I realize that might be a little bit over hopeful.
I'm even considering changing part of my house bank to 24v to more efficiently power this sort of thing. Anyone familiar with the sort of efficiency one would get with these various setups?

This is the converter I've got right now. Might not be the best in the world but for $11 I couldn't turn it down. If you guys think invest in a better one I am open to suggestions but funds are pretty limited so just keep that in mind. But efficiency might pay for itself in solar perhaps which is why I ask. I will be powering 1-2 laptops (unlikely at the same time) like I said a low power 12" one mainly, and a 15" dual core i7 for heavier work. That would probably be the biggest load(charger output is 19.5v 3.34A (I doubt that the .5v shortage will affect things much, but if anyone has any advice on that please do share!)
Also a 20" 19v 1.58A monitor that might be hooked up to one of the laptops or a Raspberry Pi more likely for use a TV, or if I just need more screen space. Most everything else should run off 12v (or less in the case of raspbery PI's)

Along with the above, anyone who has helped so far on this thread:
The main thing I could use some help with beyond what is on Kenn's blog is detailed directions for a backstay or chainplate antenna setup. As in exactly what equipment should be used, wire/coax etc, and do I need to connect to 2 separate chainplates/stays off of the coax connector? and what sort of coax length would be acceptable/neccesary, and if the 2 wires need to be separated to reach different stays how would that be setup in order to have the least interference and the best signal possible. I got my ham license as a kid, so I can interpret any instructions pretty well. Far from a newbie, but its been a long time since I worked with this stuff.
Also do have a 2m/440mhz ham so with a bnc adapter to my antenna setup I could probably increase the range of that quite a bit. Is there any activity out there on these bands? If anyone knows of specific frequencies I have a pretty wide range of receiving on that radio as well, but not down to HF. That's what the SDR and/or potentially a ssb or hf transciever if I can get my hands on one from an old timer who has a lot of ham gear laying around. But the RTL-SDR should cover most of the HF ham bands I am guessing? obviously the SSB ones, but I'm assuming most of the high seas traffic that isn't on SSB channels but rather HF ham bands could be listened in on at least with the $25 adapter?


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

My buddy just bought a boat, with an SSB and I give 90% odds he tears it out. I’ll let you know if it becomes available, but like I think I said originally, there has to be bunches of them out there.

As to your antenna question, all I can add is that the length of it is critical and there is some math involved, which can be looked up. Most cut their back stay and swage insulators to keep it the right length. Only the precisely measured middle section, between the insulators, is the antenna, but the wire going to it count in that math I referenced. 

Then you need a ground plate and preferably copper strapping to connect to it.


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## jbsdf (Sep 25, 2020)

Minnewaska said:


> My buddy just bought a boat, with an SSB and I give 90% odds he tears it out. I'll let you know if it becomes available, but like I think I said originally, there has to be bunches of them out there.
> 
> As to your antenna question, all I can add is that the length of it is critical and there is some math involved, which can be looked up. Most cut their back stay and swage insulators to keep it the right length. Only the precisely measured middle section, between the insulators, is the antenna, but the wire going to it count in that math I referenced.
> 
> Then you need a ground plate and preferably copper strapping to connect to it.


Would the copper strapping need to be connected to a thru hull or otherwise connected the water on a fiberglass hulled boat? I can see how this wouldn't be a problem with a aluminum or steel hull, but fiberglass is highly restive to electricity. Or are we talking more like engine block grounding so it could flow through the prop shaft into the water? or does it need to be on the bottom of the hull similar to a lightning ground plate?

I haven't spent a ton of time looking for an ssb that I could actually afford, but since there rarely used by most who much prefer their sat phones, there are people trying to hock them off on ebay for 500+ but there is no value in that, and is way out of my budget, for such an item. I simply have too many other expensive projects that take priority, but when the opportunity presents itself to get one for free or cheap I will jump on it.

What worries me more is for the live antenna wire, the problem is, I am a good 7-10 years or more before I need to even consider re-rigging, and I don't want to cut my backstay, or any of my stays for that matter. I thought you could just solder or otherwise attach this to a chainplate? My backstay is bolted right onto fiberglass. This should be insulation enough, no?

Even with the swage insulator on the backstay that would only protect one stay from being grounded. Would you then need swage insulators on all stays? and what about the mast itself? I could see if it were deck stepped on a fiberglass hull but mine goes all the way down into the keel cavity I believe. I will have to double check this though, it might actually terminate at the floorboards. I'll have an answer tomorrow evening.

So yeah keep me in the loop about your friend and his likely tear-out plans/status, and hopefully we can figure something out, and hopefully I can get an antenna setup working without spending $4-500 I'd like to get the grib files sent over ssb using a modem, just like oldschool dialup internet service since its free to be used. But if it's gonna cost more to setup than a couple years in sat phone fees, it really doesn't have the "anywhere on the planet" range of sat phones. And various other disadvantages, along with a few advantages, but I'm guessing they are becoming fewer and fewer all the time


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

There are two swaged insulators, which isolate a section of backstay, usually above reach. I’ve never grabbed it, but I think you dont want to be able to touch the bare antenna, while transmitting.

The longer you wait, the cheaper products such as the Iridium Go (or the promise of Starlink) will get and the more antiquated SSB will get. There will have to come a day, when no one is transmitting the data over SSB anymore (think LORAN or marine telephone operators). Time is on your side here.


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## CaptRich PuntaGorda SWFL (7 mo ago)

Here's some recent info:

We just received our Starlink Gen 2 RV Antenna (size of a rectangular cookie sheet) and Modem ($650 hardware cost). The whole rig fits in an overnight piece of luggage. It downloads at 150-250 MBPS on land for $125/month and can turn the roaming feature ($25/mo) on and off easily. Don't know how far at sea it works nor how long it lasts in a marine environment.

SirriusXM Weather broadcast couldn't be received past Bermuda (600 miles off-shore) and was quite expensive for a 1-year subscription (circa $750).

Our ICOM 700-PRO and Pactor II-pro modem wasn't cheap either ($3K?), but HF Weatherfax's were free and Sailmail email only costs $250/year. 

We're resurrection our ICOM/Pactor setup for HF Weatherfax's and Sailmail while at the Dry Tortugas and sailing around the Bahamas.

Rich Kinard, Captain US Navy (Ret)


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