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Channels 35-61: These are your weather facsimile frequencies.
“PAC” is for Pacific coverage, “ATL” for the Atlantic, “GUL” for the Gulf.
Alaska is “AK” and Hawaii is “HI”. These are not continuous weather
fax signals, but at least 4 times a day you should hear activity for up
to an hour. Listen for twice a second rhythmic sweeping of the
weather fax signal. A simple patch cable takes your SSB audio output
to your laptop’s sound card INPUT, and running a program like MSCAN
(
www.MSCAN.com
) makes that twice a second sound turn into lines of
weather fax imagery! Your laptop does all the work without the need
of an expensive “black box” between your computer and your SSB’s
audio output.
Channels 62-67: These channels contain randomly selected
international shortwave broadcast stations, many using the English
language. Your SSB can also change to other global broadcasters in
case you want to listen to other programming coming in from around
the world. These channels are a great way to stay up-to-date on
current events when you’re far from home.
Channel 68-75: These are fascinating aeronautical channels that
receive broadcasts from airplanes, local and thousands of miles away.
Many times they will transmit observed weather, so you have a bird’s
eye view of what the pilots are seeing all around you.
Channels 76-128: These are ship-to-ship marine SSB channels.
Authorized shore stations may also use these channels as well. This