While my visitors complain about the quality of the wifi in the harbor, my concern is how to get weather maps and bulletins etc. without wifi, without any Internet connection at all, even without e-mail.
After some research, and I would certainly recommend the NOAA (http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/marine/radiofax.htm) for information. The NOAA also lists a number of computer programs, like Fldigi and also iOS programs, like those from Black Cat Systems (HF Fax a.o.).
I decided to opt for the famous Sangean 909X radio. I was unable to find a local shop where to buy the Sangean 909X, so I bought it on-line. I ordered it on BOL.com on Friday afternoon and it was delivered next day at 3 pm. That was fast! I’m not surprised the shops are suffering from the on-line competition.
Then the testing. The schedule from the NOAA is a must and also this page (http://info.yachtcom.co.uk/weather.php) from Yachtcom did help me a lot. But don’t expect it to work without some trial and error. I was obsessed with many questions: Should I use the radio’s built-in antenna or the supplied extensible external antenna? How to setup my external antenna? When multiple frequencies are listed, which one is actually the best for my location? When nothing is received is it: because of the wrong frequency for my location, the antenna setup, some obstacles, propagation conditions, changes to the schedule I’m not aware off?
I could not use my laptop as it produces too much signal noise.
Finally the first that did work for me was the daily German broadcast at 13:00 UT on 7878 kHz (note the 1.9kHz correction). I had no wire connection to an iOS device like the one I have for the laptop. Laptop I could not use because of the signal noise it generates. I ended up putting one of the earphones close to my iPhone and covered both with a pillow to eliminate the noise from the environment (neighbors were discussing too loudly).
The picture is the first map I could capture. It is far from optimal but I was very happy to be able to capture it. Now I can start refining the setup in order to get a really nice weather map.
