Fax 30 GPS position data

[Smilesb]

Hello
I’m new to a futuro fax 30 on a boat I recently purchased
I’ve been able to connect to the machine over a PC browser
But so far I can’t see and fax or navtex images/info

When I look at the “test” function the system tells me I have no
Latitude/longitude setting

I can see there are ways to set this when you have a dedicated hardware display unit but have no idea how to set this when just using a browser to connect to the fax30.


I have cleared the data on the fax30

Any help most gratefully received

All the best

Smiles

 

[C-Bass]

Good morning SmilesB,

Thank you for your inquiry. As far as I know lat/long is used only for automatic Navtex Mode. When running a PC only solution with your Fax30 the automatic NavTex Mode is not available.
However, you should still be able to set and receive Navtex and Weather Facsimiles.

First you must make sure that the Fax30 is powered on before you log into the Fax30. The Fax30 works off of time, so with a PC only solution you must make sure that the PC has the correct time and date set. When the Fax30 is setup using a PC it will use the PC's date and time.

When you power on the Fax30 does the LED start to blink every 2 seconds, it should take about 2 min after power is applied. If the Fax30 does this please log into the Fax30 from your browser once it starts blinking every 2 seconds.

Are you familiar with the Fax30 setup and operation. I can provide you a link to download the manual. Please see below.

Also do you know if you are using a longwire antenna or an active antenna with Fax5 coupler. We need to know this to make sure that the proper jumper is selected inside the Fax30.

https://www.furunousa.com/-/media/s.../operation_manuals/fax30_operators_manual.pdf

 

[Smilesb]

Hi there

Thanks for the useful and speedy reply

The light is flashing every 2 seconds as you say and I have then connected to it via the PC browser so the unit should be getting a time signal ok
When I log in everything looks ok but I’ve no data received. No fax or navtex data or images

Perhaps this is a matter of user stupidity! I think the previous owner said it worked well

Thanks for the manual link but I have a copy of that already
I must say I do not really understand it that well
I am based in the Canary Islands I the north east altantic
I’m not that clear if I have to set up to listen to transmissions from a specific location transmitter station or if Northwood would work from here

Sorry if these are questions that are rather basic but many thanks indeed for th help

All the best
Smiles

 

[C-Bass]

Thank you for the follow up.

What about the antenna, is it a long wire or are you using a Fax5 preamp?

 

[C-Bass]

Based on your location you will likely want to use the Kenitora Station in Morraco, it appears to be geographically closer than the UK station.

You will choose Zone 6, Station 3 or NHY. After that you must choose a channel, i would start with Auto, then choose frequency. The frequency will choose will change throughout the day. So start with a frequency an then click the receive button. It will take you to the previous screen we want to look at the SNR value. Choose a frequency that gives you the best signal to noise ratio.

So did you download the weather fax times based on the stations. If you have not here is a link to a broadcast schedule. Please note most weather fax schedules work off of UTC so in order to receive a broadcast you will need to know the UTC offset of your location. Make sure you start receiving the broadcast about 3-5min before the start time.

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/marine/rfax.pdf

 

[Smilesb]

Thanks for this I’ll give that a go
Really helpful info
I have had the fax 30 machine on all day but tuned to the uk I think
Perhaps I’m too far from the uk to get any messages from there so will try Morocco as you suggested.
I have a furuno whip Ariel mounted on the back of the boat. I presume that’s for the fax
All the very best

 

[Smilesb]

Hi there
I’m still not having much luck with any faxs
I have tried 2 methods:
1. Leave the fax on all day hope I g it would pick up a range of forecast broadcasts
2. Set up the timer for specific broadcast times of interest

Still I get no data through at all on the home page

The Ariel is a fax5 furuno pre amp with whip antenna
Everything looks ok when I log in via a pc browser and the system is either in ‘standby’ or ‘timer’ mode depending on method 1 or 2 above

Any thoughts on what I might be doing wrong would be greatly appreciated
My sailing friends on other boats have received Northwood signals from my current location in canaries.

Many thanks in advance
Smiles

 

[Smilesb]

Hi there again
So I’m trying Northwood again!
In channel setup page I have zone 6; station ***/northwood; channel 1: 4610.0kHz
Frequency is blank and if I try and set this then hit ok it just goes blank again
Perhaps you either enter a standard channel or a custom freq?

I then hit ‘ok’
The top left window section says:

610N | 4610.0kHz
IOCXXX. | XXXrpm
SS=55(but this changes). | SN = 10. (Also changes)
STBY


I assume SS is signal strength
sN is Noise?


I have timer setup set to ‘stop’
And RX Mode is set to ‘Wx Fax’

The green light is flashing every 2 secs


Am I doing something stupid?

I never see the unit move from ‘STBY’ mode unless I switch it to Timer mode
But I tried setting up a timer programme too and had no luck with that either

Help very much appreciated
All the very best

Smiles

 

[C-Bass]

Good afternoon SmilesB,

SN= Signal to Noise Ratio. 10 is a really low value meaning the signal is not very far above the background noise so the receiver is having a hard time picking up the start signal to record the weather fax broadcast.

Typically this means the Fax30 is not grounded well, the antenna is bad, the antenna connectors are bad or if the system is using a Fax5 Preamp then that is not grounded or bad.

Please take a photo of the Fax30 antenna and the base of the antenna, I want to see if it is a Fax5 pre-amp and to see if it is grounded. If it is a loaded antenna and not properly grounded it will likely never work and probably never worked in the past.



We also need you to check to see if the Receiver is set for a long wire antenna or a loaded antenna. Please remove the cover on the Fax30 and look for Jumper 23 or J23. What is the jumper position set to? ACT or Wire? Please take a picture and post it.




Kind regards,
C-bass

 

[Smilesb]

Hi there
I think you have got the nail on the head !
There is a little blue wire coming out of the bottom of the pre amp
This looked like it terminated in a screw terminal on the base of He pre amp
But on inspection the wire has broken from the eye ring connector

I will reconnect the blue wire to the bolt at the base of the pre amp
Do I also need to add a wire that then connects this to a suitable earth point?
I’ve looked at the manual and it would seem that the blue wire is just an earth exiting the pre amp and I would then also need to connect from this to a suitable ground point.

If so the unit is mounted on my stainless steel solar arch. Would it be ok to simply ground the unit directly onto the solar arch?

Manybthanks in advance for the excellent help.

Kind regards

Smiles

 

[Smilesb]

Attempting to upload a photo but not sure I’ve been successful!?

 

[Smilesb]

I have now grounded to preamp onto the metal of the solar arch on the back of the boat
This is the only easy metal ground nearby
The SN value is now hovering around 15
What should it be for a decent ratio?
Many thanks
Miles

 

[Smilesb]

I have also checked the jumper position on J23
This is set to ACT

Many thanks
Smiles

 

[C-Bass]

Not likely, you can certainly try, 15 is better than 10 but Don't think the stainless steel tower is grounded to anything?

So what kind of vessel is it? Composite, aluminum, ect?

You need to find a good ground: so you have a SSB Radaio onboard? do you know if you have a Ground Plate or Dyna-plate installed? Do you know if you have any copper webbing in the vessel?

If you have extra wire you might experiment with different potential grounds until you can get the SN value up?

So you mentioned that the original cable was came undone? where is that grounded at?

If the arch is mounted to fiberglass and it has no contact with another earth point then it is essentially a floating and not really grounded.

 

[Smilesb]

It’s a fibreglass sailing boat
It’s new to me but 1985
It does have a ground plate underwater but I’ve no idea how it is connect to other parts of the boats wiring
Yes there is some copper webbing also. I think this ties underwater metal parts with the anode but perhaps there are 2 cuircuits
One for ground and the other for anodised protection

All that was exiting He bottom of the pre amp was a small blue cable. It was attached to the base of the pre amp at the location shown for the earth connection on the pre amp diagram in the manual

I thought I had cracked the problem when I noticed that the blue cables attachment t the terminal has broken

It seems however that I need to take a wire from this same attachment ground point to a proper ground on the boat
It’s teally odd that there is no wire hanging loose near the pre amp for this
It would mean the unit never really worked !
Still Angela but possibly true. Or perhaps when the solar arch was installed they did not reconnect things properly again.

I’ll hunt for a connection to the ground plate. Thanks for he pointers

What SN ratio is acceptable ?

Many thanks again

Smiles

 

[Smilesb]

I have another question about pc access that you might havsome info on
At the one time I am having to borrow an old widows pc machine
I can’t get my Apple Mac to connect at all via the browser
On the windows machine I reconfigured the lan settings to manually enter an ipv4 address as shown in the mania but I have had no luck doing this on the Mac

Any hints much appreciated

All the best
Smiles

 

[Smilesb]

Ok so I connected the ground coming out of the pre amp to the copper webbing hat the radar is grounded too
I presume that is connected to the underwater ground plate
Sadly still no better SN ratio
I wonder if there is a way to test if the ground that exits the underside of the preamp is connected properly inside the pre amp unit itself?

If I remove the whip aerial perhaps ?

All the best

Smiles

 

[C-Bass]

Good afternoon Smiles B,

If you measure the ohms of the ground cable and the outside case of where the antenna cable plugs into the coupler, you should see about 9 megaohms between those two points after about 2 min it should rise to 22 megaohms.

If you measure between the outside of the connector and the inside of the connector on the Fax 5 you should see about 40 ohms.

Please verify the connector to make sure there is no corrosion, also verify the antenna is free of corresion.

How old is the equipment?

The operators manual says SNR should be between 20 and 60. The service manual says between 60-70. I think we should try to get 20 at minimum and above that it will likely work much better.

C-bass

 

[Smilesb]

Hi there C-bass
Would you be kind enough to explain that again please
I’m not 100% sure I follow the instructions. Sorry if I’m being slow
1. “ outside case and where the antenna plugs into the coupler” is this on the fax5? Do you mean measure the ohms between the white outer case for th fax5 and the ground cable that pokes out the bottom? Or do I remove the aerial from the fax5 and test the conductivity between something inside? Sorry.

2. ‘Measure between the outside and the inside of the connector”. Sorry I’m not sure I follow

As I understand I have:
- a fax 30 unit. This is grounded to the ships main ground point. It shares this ground point with the ships radar.
- a fax5 pre amp. The fax30 connects to this via a coaxial cable and provides the power rangers the pre amp the pre amp has a small blue grounding cable that emerges from inside and attaches via a bolt to a stud on the base of the fax 5
- a whip aerial that looks like it is screwed into the fax 5 preamp and then taped over to prevent water

Many thanks again

All the best

Miles

Ps. Is there an option of ignoring the fax5 and connecting a long piece of plain copper wire to the
Fax 30? Could I connect the wire to he core of the coaxial cable that feeds into the fax5 base? If so it would be a simple test. Previously on a boat I had I just used wire and an old Ssb radio receiver and it worked ok so wonder if there is a way to join a wire to the coaxial cable I have that leads to the fax5? This coaxial cable runs via a complex route to the fax 5 so if there was a way of using it rather than having to replace it then that would save loads of work and hassle!
But hopefully I can get the fax 5 working ok!

All the best
Smiles

 

[C-Bass]

sure you could try a long wire antenna from the fax 30. If you do so make sure you remove the jumper from J23 "Active" and replace jumper to "wire" If not i believe 10-12vdc would be on the long wire antenna and we don't want to short it.

Also please pay attention to the manual about long wire antenna length and long wire antenna installation.

After installation reconfirm the Signal Strength and SNR Values.


Kind Regards
C-Bass