Cheap Sailing system for receiving email weatherfax or gribs

svGina · 2021-10-14T17:38:30.312Z

After reading a bit this forum am a little shy to ask something directly to the point, pure because am such a novice non experienced in Radio Frequency or anything with Raspberry system. I found on YouTube a user made a video about outernet and would like to know if there is a possibility to create a cheap back-up system onboard of my sailboat. Am currently in Canary Islands and being out on a passage having backup AIS Weatherfax Gribfiles Email Radio communication is like heaven for us.

Please help enlighten me in this matter, am not technical and YouTube has few videos on AIS and weatherfax, but not much of satellite data radio transfer.

Thanks in advance

Martin · 2021-10-15T08:52:45.777Z

@svGina The same brought me to Othernet. You need to know, that you can only receive and not transmit any data with Othernet. There are grib files transmitted, but I don’t know if that happens at a certain time of the day. To receive the Othernet signal you need to point an LNB directly at the satellite at all time. As to your current position, I am not sure if the Othernet signal is strong enough on the Canary Islands and if you are planning to cross the Atlantic I am afraid you will be outside the satellite footprint when you need updates the most.
There is also another topic in this forum, called Outernet for sailors: Outernet for sailors (weather forecast grib files) There you should find some more informations.

svGina · 2021-10-15T09:26:50.695Z

Thank you very much sir,

I will look into that link…

Transmission is not necessary for me, but am confused between what Raspberry Pi does versus Dreamcatcher and what should i choose?

Thing is as I explained, am novice very novice in understanding frequency and antenna setups…

Many devices to choose from and I need some guidance in the right direction to build a RADIO communication to my sailboat.

Kind regards

svalmostsomewhere · 2021-10-17T03:41:34.179Z

SDR Radio HF High Seas Forecast and capture NOAA satellite overflys…crude but cheap and effective

svGina · 2021-10-17T07:41:27.042Z

Thank you very much, was thinking of SDR RSPdx to combine with my windows laptop and a simple antenna… i was confused about this Othernet topic because Dreamcatcher has different utilities obviously.

Am very novice in Radio Frequency Bands meters, so i appreciate something easy to use

Thank you very much

svalmostsomewhere · 2021-10-18T03:28:11.387Z

Further searches on SDR wefax etc will get you what you need. I too found this forum searching for some new ideas and stumbled upon Martin’s project. Very cool video of him on his boat with his project. But am in same position as you. Sat coverage area insufficient to fulfill needs. SDR’s do get the job done though.

Would like to see martins project or a blueprint of some kind to re-create it…other uses could come into play and its a far more affordable system to get up and running on the boat vs full blown marine sat kit…not to mention power consumption, mounting space etc…

svalmostsomewhere · 2021-10-20T02:58:10.527Z

https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-com-goes-16-17-and-gk-2a-weather-satellite-reception-comprehensive-tutorial/

sam_uk · 2023-01-10T19:28:06.143Z

https://www.rtl-sdr.com/antrunner-testing-a-low-cost-satellite-antenna-rotator/