S.V. Sunny Spells

I’ve come to expect AIS reception to be in the same practical range as VHF reception and have been more than happy to see ships up to about 36 miles away. When I recently picked up ships more than 200 miles away, surprise was not enough, and I had to resort to astonishment (to quote the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)!

Not sure what happened: an atmospheric anomaly, reflecting the VHF signal back, or is there some form of repeater being used around the Sydney/Newcastle area?

I spent a bit of time rigging a long-wire antenna at home today to see what sort of range is practical for HF Weatherfax reception:

• The antenna is now about 20 metres long, made entirely from inexpensive hookup wire.
• The antenna is L-shaped, with one leg oriented East-West and the other North-South.
• I’ve also connected an earth wire to a copper stake just outside my window, significantly reducing background noise.

To my delight the little Degen DE-1103 receiver pulled in the Wellington MetService broadcast on two of the four frequencies! That’s 1,000 nautical miles! Local weatherfaxes from Charleville (WMC) are now clean and crisp.

It hasn’t been really necessary on my last trip, being mostly within range of VHF weather forecasts, but getting offshore weather via HF WeatherFax has intrigued me.

If you’re carrying a notebook computer anyway, the only thing you need is an HF receiver with SSB (Single-Side Band) capability. Most people think megabucks when they hear “HF” and “SSB”, but a very inexpensive receiver will actually do the job. I bought a Degen DE1103 off E-Bay. You simply connect the output from the receiver to your notebook’s microphone input and then use one of the available software packages to decode the fax data received on the appropriate frequency at the given time! I use SEATTY from DXsoft, an amazing piece of software that literally does everything for you!

I was amazed at the ability of the little Degen DE1103 receiver (read some reviews here). Even at home, with the supplied 12 metre long wire antenna strung among trees, I can usually get quite clear fax reception. Out at Curlew Island one night, I strung the wire antenna from the forestay to the backstay, and found the receiver was overloaded with the sensitivity switched to “DX”. On “LO” I had perfect reception!

We’re here: just over 48 hours from Surfers Paradise to Barrenjoey Head. A little low pressure system at Port Stephens slowed us down to a crawl at about midnight, but we’re still over the moon with the passage. It doesn’t get much better than this!