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Weather conditions have alwais been very important for those at sea. Reception of the geostationary Meteosat satellite indeed allows you to look at the situation from above in real time and, above all, at any time. It is easy to iterpret the weather’s evolution over the next few hours or days with its moviola showing the images coming in. The Meteosat system is entering the digital era. Improved services will soon be available and the forecast is for 2002, but it may be sooner. The entire Navisystem MSM 20XX series of antennas are ready for digital reception by just adding the Digi 2000 receiver. This series is suitable for all needs. The antenna’s diameter is determined by the type of boat and by the space available. reception improves in accordance with the antenna’s size in adverse weather conditions.
HOW IT WORKS
Operation is very simple. After you have turned the switches on the control unit and PC on, the system automatically tracks the Meteosat satellite, whether the boat is in port, anchored or at sea. The system must alwais be operational since the data and images coming from the satellite are recorded around the clock on the PC’s hard disk (the older ones are deleted automatically). The system is ready and updated after it has been operating one day. The moviola showing the images coming in, in both the visible and the infrared fields, can illustrate the progress of clouds that interest us according the previous selected area concerned.
These antennas accept interfacing with GPS and the elevation system is automatic. Therefore, it is not necessary to adjust the antenna based latitude, as is required by other models on the market.
Maximum signal search is automatic. Tracking is maintained with gyroscopic systems, even in very choppy sea conditions. The system already has the Fluxgate compass incorporated in the antenna so it is not necessary to interface it with the boat’s compass or with the autopilot. Operation with the inboard gyrocompass, which can be interfaced with code NMEA 183 HDT, is on the other hand raccomended on boats or ships in iron.
THE SYSTEM
The complete system comprises:
- a kit of cables having various lenghts
- an antenna in fibre glass radome
- a control unit
- an analogue MSM 2000 receiver
- PC software
THE PC
The PC must have the following minimum requirements:
- PC with Pentium II or superior class of processor
- 64 MB of RAM or better
- 16-million-colours Super VGA graphics card
- 100 MB of space available on hard disk
- Super VGA monitor
- Microsoft Windosw 95 or 98 operating system
