Hi All,
 
A German radio enthusiast by the name of Tobias (T2) has taken my Navtex
Schedules Database and incorporated it into a very useful 'helper' program,
which when installed can be made to sit on a small part of your Windows
desktop, and will bring up any stations for the frequency that you are
listening to as soon as your PC's clock indicates that time.
 
Since receiving a copy I've been using it along with SeaTTY, and I now
use it all the time, and find it to be a great little utility program,
which saves me from having to keep refer to a printed list, or to the
.pdf file of the schedules whenever I want to check what is coming up.
 
The program is called 'NAVTEXview', and it is also accompanied by a copy
of 'Fooplayer2000', which when also installed will allow you to record
Navtex signals and then play them back again later, and this will then
decode them using SeaTTY or whichever decoder you are using. I tried
this out last night and it worked great, just note the time that you
start your recording and you can work when they were made.
 
NAVTEXview allows you to set it to decode either a single frequency, or
all of them, and even choose a specific Navarea, or all of them if you
prefer. Below is a screen dump of the interface and a brief description
of the buttons. You can download both programs from the NAVTEX section
of my website at: http://www.beaconworld.org.uk/navtex.htm  
 

 
 
The 'Update' button will update the program so that it is in synch with your
system's clock, be sure that is set to the correct time for optimum performance.
The 'Filter' button is the important one here, selecting that will allow you
to set your Navareas and frequencies etc. The 'On/All' button will show all of
the entries in the entire database. The 'Top' button will allow you to set
the viewer to stay on top of any other open windows, and I usually set the
size of my viewer window so that it covers the bottom fifth of the screen,
with SeaTTY running behind it. The other buttons allow you to sort the stations
in the order that you prefer.
 
After several days of testing it I am really impressed, and think that this
is a great asset to Navtex enthusiasts, and like the DSCdecoder program, any
updates can be made by editing the 'NAVTEXvw.txt' file in the program's folder.
No installation is required, just unzip it to a directory on your hard drive
and then make a shortcut from your desktop to the NAVTEXvw.exe icon and you
can activate it very easily.
 
The upcoming CLE should offer a good opportunity to give it a good trial, and
any feedback for Tobias would be much appreciated. I'm really grateful to him
for creating and sharing this great little piece of Freeware with us, and I
hope you all find it useful.
 
 
73 for now, Alan.