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| I have just learnt that the UK Met Office is
shortly to discontinue its radio fax broadcasts. I have known that this was
on the cards for some while, but the speed with which it is happening has
caught me by surprise.
Presumably, the decision is on cost grounds and the need for the Met Office to recover all its costs. I do not know to what extent the Met Office thinks that all sailors can access forecasts and charts over the Internet while at sea. Very few can do so. Or whether they think that there are enough forecasts available via Navtex and INMARSAT to make the radio fax service unnecessary. However, from my own sailing experience, particularly over the past year, I consider this service still to have an important safety connotation. If Bracknell do discontinue radio fax, then Offenbach will be the only source of such information for very many British leisure and other small craft skippers. Offenbach is very good in many ways but I have never found their transmissions as easy to receive as those from Bracknell. I will copy this to the Yachting Press, to some firms that produce hardware and software using these broadcasts also to various sailing organisations and some private contacts. It is probably too late, but there might just be enough reaction from interested parties to cause either a change of mind or some active effort to seek an alternative solution. Frank Singleton 9/1/01
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