Wikipedia
Radiofax, also known as weatherfax ( portmanteau word from the words " weather facsimile") and HF fax (due to its common use in the short waves), is an analogue mode for transmitting monochrome images. It was the predecessor to slow-scan television (SSTV). Prior to the advent of the commercial telephone line " fax" machine, it was known, more traditionally, by the term "radiofacsimile". The cover of the regular NOAA publication on frequencies and schedules states "Worldwide Marine Radiofacsimile Broadcast Schedules".
Facsimile machines were used in the 1950s to transmit weather charts across the United States via land-lines first and then internationally via HF radio. Radio transmission of weather charts provides an enormous amount of flexibility to marine and aviation users for they now have the latest weather information and forecasts at their fingertips to use in the planning of voyages.
Radiofax relies on facsimile technology where printed information is scanned line by line and encoded into an electrical signal which can then be transmitted via physical line or radio waves to remote locations. Since the amount of information transmitted per unit time is directly proportional to the bandwidth available, then the speed at which a weather chart can be transmitted will vary depending on the quality of the media used for transmission.
Today radiofax data is available via FTP downloads from sites in the Internet such as the ones hosted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Radiofax transmissions are also broadcast by NOAA from multiple sites in the country at regular daily schedules. Radio weatherfax transmissions are particularly useful to shipping, where there are limited facilities for accessing the Internet.
The term weatherfax was coined after the technology that allows the transmission and reception of weather charts ( surface analysis, forecasts, and others) from a transmission site (usually the meteorological office) to a remote site (where the actual users are).
Radiofax was an independent shortwave radio station that broadcast from Ireland between 1988 and 1992. It carried talk programmes on science, technology and media news, as well as contemporary popular music. "Britain's Number Two Shortwave Station," (the BBC World Service being number one) was forced to broadcast from various locations in Ireland because all of their requests for a licence from the British government had been refused. Founder and sponsor Trevor Brook subsequently took the licence battle to the High Court in London and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
The station operated on various mediumwave and shortwave frequencies including 1611, 3910, 6205, 6225 and 12255 kHz