Jürgen has in Sailing forum presented a weather fax receiver that I would like to introduce here. A simple world receiver and the weather fax app are used to receive weather faxes HF WEATHER FAX used. We recommend the following two world receivers from Sony, which have proven themselves:
- ICF-2001D
- ICF-SW7600
Fig .: ICF-2001D
Depending on the area of travel, the corresponding shortwave transmission frequency is set in the world receiver. With the app, the digitally coded broadcast is received via the microphone and displayed accordingly as an image. The coded transmission is a low-frequency signal (LF signal) in the frequency range of the human hearing, which is reminiscent of the old analog modem days. Here is an example of how that sounds:
Fig .: Weather fax app
The paid Android weather fax app HF WEATHER FAX takes care of the following:
- Manual or auto mode
- Spectrum analyzer for easy frequency tuning and reception
- Automatic start and end tone detection (in auto mode)
- Synchronization at the beginning of the transmission (in auto mode)
- Automatic storage of weather images on SD card (in auto mode)
- Automatic correction functions in the event of malfunctions
- Auto scroll mode
- Picture zoom function
- Black and white image with threshold setting
- Storage of historical weather faxes
- Timer function for automatic recording
Basically, the app takes away important functions of the reception settings and thus simplifies operation. The weather faxes are sent out over different frequencies and at fixed times, depending on the region. Below is a global overview:
Frequency and transmission plan for weather faxes
DWD weather fax broadcast schedule