Decode Datawell Buoy HF Link with an SDR

Group

HF utility

Start frequency

30.475 MHz

In the mode list

Wave buoys, HF

What Datawell Buoy HF Link is

Datawell Waverider wave buoys send their measurements to a shore receiver on HF (25.5 to 35.5 MHz, up to 45 MHz on request) as FSK.

Frequencies and settings

Wave-buoy telemetry channels, 25.5 - 35.5 MHz (45 MHz on request), the listed channels as presets, 250 ksps.

OnAir takes any frequency you type; the numbers above are the mode's starting point and the range its table describes. In the app the shortcut label is Wave buoys, HF.

What OnAir shows

The 2FSK (HXV) format of the DWR-MkIII, DWR-G and WR-SG buoys, 81.92 bit/s, decoded from Datawell's published reference manual: displacements, wave height and period, water temperature, GPS position, directional spectrum, with the BCH parity repairing up to 2 bit errors per vector (the parity code was found from a real recording, not published). The 4FSK (HVA) format of the DWR4 is not public: tones and bit-stream measurements only. Checked on the sigidwiki sample recordings and on synthetic signals built from the documented layout. Receive only.

The mode's own tab has these views: Link, Waves, Sea state, Frames, Notes. The other tabs (Overview, Receiver, Scan, History) are described on the main window page.

Limits and what it was checked with

The HXV (2FSK) format is checked on real recordings from the sigidwiki sample files; the HVA (4FSK) format shows measurements only.

Which radio you need

This is a shortwave mode, so the radio has to tune HF. An SDRplay, Airspy HF+ or an RTL-SDR in direct-sampling mode do that directly; with a HackRF an HF upconverter or a direct-sampling receiver is the usual route. A long wire or loop antenna matters more than the radio.

Receiving and the law

Questions about Datawell Buoy HF Link

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