Do you recomend NAVTEX on shortwave

[cruicharly]

I am training in Germany sailors for the LRC examination.
The classroom is a 3 mast vessel Alexander von Humboldt II
There are some questions in the LRC examination regarding NAVTEX on shortwave on 4209,5 kHz.
Reading the GMDSS Master Plan, I found NAVTEX weather services on shortwave only in Turkey, US, Mexico and Vietnam. So in my opinion there are only for some areas NAVTEX messages available.
Is the local reception on SW better than at 518kHz?
Or is there thunderstorm made athmospheric noise disturbing the reception on standard 518 kHz?
Can you recomend to use NAVETEX on shortwave?
In the caribe or ocean crossing?
Thanks, Willy

[haiqu]

These days I'd go for a satellite receiver, but then I'm a bit of a geek. Reason: Propagation is flaky these days in LF and HF, and Navtex was only designed for 200nm range anyhow.

Rob

[haiqu]

Here's a link to a German guy decoding the NOAA weather satellite with a Funcube dongle and some free software:

funcube dongle and weather satellite noaa - YouTube

Note that the same thing can be achieved with a $20 TV stick these days. Search "E4000 RTL2832" on eBay or YouTube.

Cheers,

Rob