Hi, Boob :{))
Nice to hear from you again...
"Bob" wrote in message
...
Hand held depth finder? I had no idea such a thing existed, but I can
see its use for exploring an anchorage by dink.
Skip
A hand held depth finder:
Its called a lead line skip. get one on board and use it once a month
as part of your monthy safety checks.
Don't forget to make it one with a nice cup for the wax, so you can sample
the bottom :{))
Oh, ya, carry along a swimming pool thermometer and sit for at least a
couple of minutes at each location so as to let the temp stabilize.
And take a looky bucket along so you can see the fish, if there are any...
ALso, regarding your SSb email...... trash that stone age crap. It
has one foot in a grave half filled with vacume tubes. Get Irridum. If
you want to listen to the net gab fest get a good multi band receive
only for $300USD and listen to all that dribble ya want. Hell you can
even receive weathefax off it and put to your computer. The only
people who still use SSB TX a
As usual, you're not paying attention, just sniping. It's HAM email.
Meanwhile, Iridium continues to have my interest, but not my principal. I'm
all for making permanent investments, but really down on ongoing costs.
Thus I use winlink, not sailmail, as I'm a HAM, not some ratchetjaw on the
SSB.
Dave has covered the other issues pretty well so I'll not duplicate, but...
I admit to using SSB, because that's his medium, to talk with Chris Parker
occasionally, and, rarely, to make scheduled contact with another boater
who's not a ham.
However, it's another arrow in my quiver in the event of an emergency. Like
Joe, should the disaster need ever strike, in addition to my EPIRB, SPOT
(NOT a "real" emergency tool, but at least a supplement) and VHF (with DSC
panic button), I have SSB (and, of course, ham) radio voice and DSC.
As to taking signals off the air and putting them to my computer, the only
application I use that for is satellite images. I have a quadrafilar
helical antenna tied to a hamtronics R139 receiver (don't have to manually
set the frequencies that way; too lazy, as you've noted before) which,
together with a tracking program allowing me to see where any given weather
satellite is at any time, and an automated capture program which pulls down
the transmission and then parses the WAV file into as many as a dozen
different presentations, lets me see real-time satellite images.
I can cover about 1/3 the globe N/S, and about 2000 miles E/W, so, depending
on the path, and where I am, using various passes of different satellites, I
can see about 4000 miles edge to edge when considered together. Have yet to
use it in emergency (meaning it might be very important to me) conditions,
but if I'm in the middle of nowhere, it is very comforting to be able to SEE
storm systems developing and where they're heading.
As much time as you sit on the hook you could get GBAN and surf the
internet for god sakes.
Pretty much, where I sit on the hook, I have WiFi connectivity. In the
middle of the ocean somewhere, I'm likely to be busy with other things than
surfing the internet.
That said, the multi-hundred entry cost is the least cost, as surfing the
internet, measured by the data flowing through my adapter at the top of the
mast, easily can be over 100MB a day in very light use (no downloads of
programs or other biggie files). At $449/mo for 30 voice minutes and 100MB
I'm not even remotely interested, let alone the up-to-6K/mo for ACTUAL
(meaning I get to use it in any real sense) broadband service. See above
about continuing costs.
Why dont you go learn flashing light/morse code. Did you know that is
required for all USCG license alowed to sail oceans? But SSB is not
specifically required. Why does the IMO and USCG not require vercahnt
ships to have SSB any more skip??
Not my province, but, being a HAM, I say...
Dahdidit dit (or, if you prefer) Beamfuflash flash to you, sir :{)) With
your ratings, I'm sure both parse...
L8R
Skip
--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
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"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely nothing-half so
much worth doing as simply messing, messing-about-in-boats; messing about in
boats-or *with* boats.
In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's
the charm of it.
Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get
anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and
you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."