Northwood Radio Fax - GYA
There are two significant improvements over the Bracknell broadcast -.
First, forecast charts now have wind vectors for winds of 25 kn or more. These will appear as shown here for SW 20 and N 25 knots.
Secondly, there are forecast charts up to 5 days ahead and available twice a day.
There are some unsatisfactory features that may get rectified in time.
First, as a power saving measure, the transmitters are switched off between charts. Thus there is no tuning signal prior to the start of a broadcast. This will create difficulties when receiving charts around dawn and dusk since, at these times, the optimum frequency can change quickly due to rapid changes in the characteristics of the ionosphere.
Third, because much of the output is computer generated, the lines tend to be rather thin and not so easy to see as the "old" Bracknell charts.
As already emphasised, users should remember that this is a broadcast explicitly for RN and NATO ships. It has information on it that is clearly of a military nature and much information not at all relevant to yachtsmen and women.
To reproduce the GFA footprint, it would have been necessary to use the whole range of Bracknell frequencies. GFA, Bracknell, used to use frequencies up to 14,436 kHz H24 and 18,261 kHz by day. The highest frequency now used by Northwood is 11086.5 KHZ. This limits the day time range for good reception by yachts that are unlikely to have optimum aerial configurations. However, an old friend - George Lipscombe - found good reception on a passage from the UK to the Azores.
The big uncertainty, of course, is how long the Navy will continue with this broadcast. presumably, it is essentially a back up to more modern methods of chart dissemination. the pressure must still be on for the long distance sailor and those likely to be out of normal land line telephone contact to keep abreast of technical developments in the field of satellite communications.