WEFAX Pictures
WEFAX is a method to transmit weather facsimile images over radio. The intended recipients are ships and aircraft, although most will now be served via satellite radio links. Most images are transmitted in black and white, although some are greyscale. To receive wefax images, you need a shortwave receiver in ssb (or data) mode and a hardware or software decoder to convert audio tones into black and white. Tuning the receiver accurately is paramount to receive good pictures, also you might need to clean up the audio signal by appropriate filtering to isolate the black and white "tones".
Here are some examples of pictures I've received ... Click on a picture for the larger version, the file size is indicated alongside.
Current News
Dec 8, 2006:
DXSoft - has released version 1.73 of SeaTTY - A program to receive weather reports, navigational warnings and weather charts transmitted in RTTY, NAVTEX and HF-FAX (WEFAX) modes on longwave and shortwave bands. No additional hardware is required - you need only a receiver and computer with a sound card. Platform: Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP. Download from: www.dxsoft.com.
Dec 22, 2003:
DXSoft - has released version 1.35 of SeaTTY - A program to receive weather reports, navigational warnings and weather charts transmitted in RTTY, NAVTEX and HF-FAX (WEFAX) modes on longwave and shortwave bands. No additional hardware is required - you need only a receiver and computer with a sound card. Platform: Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP. Download from: www.dxsoft.com.
Recent News
May 23, 2003:
DXSoft - has released version 1.16beta of SeaTTY which decodes WEFAX as well as NAVTEX. www.dxsoft.com.
September 22, 2000:
Bracknall, UK - Very clear pictures this evening on 8040 kHz.
Bracknall picture on 8040 kHz at 2030. 77k
January 23, 1999:
Halifax, Nova Scotia - Very nice pictures today on 13 MHz when the band opened around 1200 UTC. Also Melbourne visible though poorly on 20469 kHz at 1400.
Halifax picture on 13510 kHz at 1201. 21k
January 17, 1999:
Halifax, Nova Scotia - Came through well today at 1939. Here's the best picture.
Halifax picture on 10536 kHz at 1939. 57k
January 15, 1999:
Melbourne, Australia - Came through well today at 1930. Here's the best picture.
Melbourne picture on 5100 kHz at 1930. 90k
December 7 & 8, 1999:
HFFAX - Saved some of my initial received images. Very surprised at the good quality of the strong signals, and the software even made sense of signals buried in noise eg on 5100 kHz.
Bracknell picture on 2618.5 kHz at 0530. 56k
Hamburg picture on 3855.0 kHz at 0600. 102k
December 6, 1999:
Software - Bought the Multimode shareware program written by Chris Smolinski at BlackCat Software. This software runs on PowerMacs and just requires an audio feed from a receiver. As well as Fax, it decodes CW, RTTY, SITOR and several other data modes.
Last update: Sat April 28, 2007 23:25 GMT
©Copyright 1996-2009 by Mark Hattam
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