Current official means of receiving Navigation Warnings like Navtex and Sat-C are a bit archaic and not very user friendly, it would be a lot easier to monitor them if there was some way of having emailed to a ship, say there were websites which you could add or remove your bridge email address when passing a NAVAREA, when there is a new navigation warning it’s sent to your email address along with a summary of all those in force. Receiving them by email would make them easier to monitor.
Anyone have any thoughts on the matter or if this service is available already?
You can find them at the site below but it requires you checking, no way of having them emailed.
I get USCG updates for lower Mississippi River, as well as licensing/nmc updates. It’s not a silver bullet by any means but you can pick and choose which updates they send. I get all VTS notifications from Lower Mississippi instantly.
As far as SAT-C, I keep that path open and working. Once the mates start posting the current weather at each update it can be done quickly and efficiently.
NAVTEX is a bit of a pain. This is how Transas ECDIS does it. Filters can be used.
Onboard systems/ Navtex Manager
provides the automatic overlay of the NAVTEX information on the electronic chart
Navtex Manager is an innovative application based on a link between the Navi-Sailor and the Navtex Receiver.
Main functions
Constant automatic reception of NAVTEX messages
Automatic generation of NAVTEX message database and storage of the data
Automatic extraction of latitude/longitude position from a Navtex message and its plotting on an electronic chart using special symbols
Viewing and maintaining of the messages database and preparing data for Navi-Sailor products processing
Implementation of all these highly useful functions can be obtained using any standard Navtex Receiver which has output to a parallel printer. Alternatively, the Navtex Manager’s functions may be achieved with the use of Transas dedicated Navtex Receiver hardware.
Benefits
The Navtex Manager substantially relieves the workload of the bridge watch-keeping personnel, thus contributing to increasing the safety at sea. The Navtex Manager is included as an option in all current Navi-Sailor systems from Transas.
The Navtex Manager enables the operator to
Filtering the displayed database
Sorting messages
Viewing messages
Determining the status of a message
Viewing and editing extracted coordinates
Marking off messages
Canceling messages
Search for messages
Printing out messages
Viewing the Operations Log
Selecting a mode of the database updating
Selecting a palette
Displaying positions and areas