NMF HF-Fax

Today's radio catches: reception of station NMF, Boston, MA, on three different frequencies with HF facsimile transmissions. NMF is operated by the U.S. Coast Guard for the marine service and broadcasts information of interest to mariners. These HF facsimile transmissions were broadcasting marine weather from NOAA. Information about NMF is found at weather.noaa.gov/fax/marsh.shtml. I think that NMF's transmitter site is actually located on Cape Cod, not in Boston itself. Receiver: Drake SW8. HF-Fax decoded using MultiPSK.

• 6340.5 kHz, 1530-1550 and again at 1722 UTC. Fair to good signal. English. HF-Fax transmission with weather chart for Atlantic Ocean. NOAA logo on chart. Off at 1550. On again at 1722, with HF-Fax message that began with “CQ CQ CQ DE NMF NMF NMF” and “NOAA Rado Facsimile Charts Follow”. Charts then followed.
• 9110 kHz, 1733-1737 UTC. Good signal. HF-Fax charts // 6340.5. Received based on schedule at www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/hfmarsh_links.htm. Much better picture quality here than on 6340.5.
• 12750 kHz, 1737 UTC. HF-Fax charts // 6340.5 and 9110. Weather charts – best of the the three frequencies.

NOAA HF-Fax Station

Received today on 8502 kHz at 1330-1345 UTC: unidentified station transmitting in HF-Fax mode. No ID seen (signal was weak and difficult to decode) but NOAA logo was visible so station is from the U.S.A. Decoded using MultiPSK.

Weather Fax 12786 kHz

12786 kHz, 1350-1400 UTC. Station transmitting in HF-Fax mode with good strong signal. Decoding it (using MultiPSK) yielded tropical weather information in English. No ID, but NMG from New Orleans, LA, is listed on this frequency and the content received is consistent with that. So this goes into the log as tentatively identified as NMG.

HF-Fax on 17145 kHz

Received today on 17145 kHz: unidentified HF-Fax station transmitting weather information. I saw reports for the Gulf of Mexico and for the coast of Colombia. Time: 2040-2115 UTC. Signal was poor, and I didn't get an ID. I was also messing around trying to get the software to work properly (MultiPSK and WeFax) so I may have missed any IDs for that reason as well.

Another HF-FAX Reception

I made a second reception of a station transmitting weather maps via HF-FAX today. This was actually part of the same DX session that netted the reception of NMF yesterday, but two hours later, when the UTC date had already changed. Details: NMG, New Orleans LA, on 8503.9 kHz at 0030 to 0100 UTC Mon. Oct. 18, 2010. Fair to poor signal. Weather maps for the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Lots of interference (noise) but readable.

HF-FAX Reception on 9110 kHz

Something new today. I was tuning around 9 MHz on shortwave to see what I could discover and I came across a strong digital signal. I started up MultiPSK to attempt to decode it and quickly discovered that it was an HF-FAX signal, with a transmission of weather maps of the North Atlantic and the Carribean. This is my first reception of an HF-FAX station ever. Frequency: 9110 kHz. Station: NMF. Location: Boston, MA. Time and date: 2230 - 2244 UTC Oct. 17, 2010. Signal quality: good.

This is one thing I enjoy in radio - exploring what's out there and discovering hitherto unknown types of transmissions and stations.

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