Navtex anyone?

Scary Des · 16 May 2005, 16:26

Does anyone have navtex on their boat and if so what do you think

It’s an additional feature on my DSC /VHF and i couldn’t decide if it is a gimmick on a rib or useful must-have

Des

Rupert Bear · 16 May 2005, 16:43

It this means you have a Silva S15 then I wouldn't bother fitting it, When it breaks, and it will, you will be fitting a replacement of another make anyway that won't have Navtex

Scary Des · 16 May 2005, 17:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rupert Bear

It this means you have a Silva S15 then I wouldn't bother fitting it, When it breaks, and it will, you will be fitting a replacement of another make anyway that won't have Navtex

Thanks for your words of encouragement

yes it is a Silva

a new one with two years warranty to replace the one that failed last year. I figure that if I stick with Silva and replace it every year under warranty I’ll never have to buy a VHF again

So in 10 years time, when you are sending your old Icom back for service I’ll be a receiving my 10th new radio

I wonder if I can sue John Brooks for not advertising hard enough to me when I was looking for a VHF

if he had tried harder I wouldn’t have burdened myself with this pile

Des

gingercoastie · 16 May 2005, 17:08

Navtex is useful for long passages, I would love it as the south coast is plaged with warships and submarines all trying to kill each other, and it saves having to try and decode the Coastguard MSI broadcast

jwalker · 16 May 2005, 19:06

Yep, used it for the past 5 years, although, not much the past two years. It now also has the second frequency, which is useful. If you have internet access as you travel, then the weather feature is not so important, but if you are in remote areas all weather info is worth having. There is also the safety information and the gale warnings which may or may not be of use. It did help me out on one notable occasion when I'd set a fairway buoy as a waypoint and the mist came down. Well I reckoned I was where I should have been and the radar kinda confirmed my position but there was no buoy, a quick squint at the navtex list confirmed the buoy was off station. Very reassuring when you're entering a rocky, islandy area.

My original unit is a Nasa one and still going strong and, yes, my radio is a Silva and it's done fine for the two years I've owned it. I got it off Stevetheboat before I knew he was Stevetheboat. The radio is in the cabin and it is not subject to water though. It's tx and rx is excellent as is it's clarity. When I first installed it, I called the coastguard for a radio check...40 miles away and over a hill...loud and clear.

On the topic of advise; I was also told, by a ribnet member, to sell my Garmin Blue depth sounder before I installed it. I didn't. It too works fine and it's shooting through a dod of silicon and then 20mm of fibreglass hull. I've no idea how deep it will see but it certainly was clear at 175ish ft.

I recently bought an Icom handheld, it's ok but no more than that and it has a couple of quirky, pain-in-the-ass features.

Rupert Bear · 18 May 2005, 09:46

Neither of the two Silvas I had lasted longer than 4 months and by the time the third one was due to come I told them to keep it and bought the Icom which it still going. The hassle of continualy having to strip down the console to change it and it failing in awkward places was too much. I actually ordered the navtex at the same time as the radio but 8 months later it hadn't turned up and it was cancelled as the same time as I returned the radios. The S12 that I bought as the backup radio failed the first time I switched it on and went back with the S15. I am not a big fan of Silva

I have the Garmin Blue as well and reckon it is probably the way you have mounted it that has saved problems. Mine works fine in very calm weather or going slow but doesn't work in any other conditions and when I mounted it in accordance with the instructions, hardly at all!
However I have talked to others with garmins and feel it is the transducer that is the problem, the higher powered ones like the Blue have a very large one and this seems to disturb the smooth water around the head and screw up the signal.
With yours inside the hull you don't have the turbulence that you get with transom mounts. I remounted mine far deeper into the water than Garmin recommend and this has made a fair difference for the return.
I probably would buy a Garmin sounder again but only if it didn't have such a huge transducer..................................