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.

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
1) fools like you who listen to retierd radio geeks who love playing
with that crap cause it makes them feel smarter than you. So guys like
you buy all that **** that comes with ssb cause you dont know any
better. Personally, less complicated is better that is unless you are
the second typ of person who supports use of ssb tx
2) radio geeks who grew up making a crystal radio set for a merit
badge and soldering Heath Kits together who like to tinker with that
crap. Those kinduse ssb for the same reason old poeple do crossword
puzzels and SODOKU.
3) those stunted personalities who cant stand being quiet or alone
and must forever have an audince at all cost.

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??


As much time as you sit on the hook you could get GBAN and surf the
internet for god sakes.

bob.

On Jun 5, 7:31 am, "Flying Pig" wrote:
That's about half the time, in my experience. That's even with aborting an
upload very early on if it's slow, looking for a better connection somewhere
else. Frequently that works; propagation makes it such that I might do much
better 1500 miles away than someplace much closer.

Bummer. Do you have and use the propagation tool for Airmail? My
experience seems better than yours. Like you I do sometimes get a slow
connection that I terminate rather than wait. Once I get a solid
connect though all my mail goes through. It generally only takes
checking the top few stations on the prop list. Maybe you have more
mail than I do.

Where are you these days?

I just got back from a mini-cruise to Narragansett RI and down LIS. I
sailed to my college homecoming and anchored off the beach! Way cool.
Now I'm back in Annapolis. Janet (who I don't think you met when we
caught up in MHH) and I are heading out again in a couple of weeks -
still talking about where to go.

On Jun 6, 2:48*am, Bob wrote:
Hand held depth finder? I had no idea such a thing existed, but I can
see its use for exploring an anchorage by dink.

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.

I have a lead line that I use for entertainment once in a while, and
an electronic hand held depth finder. Guess which is more useful
surveying around the boat when aground?

By the way, if you haven't run aground you haven't been sailing
anywhere interesting.

ALso, regarding your SSb email...... trash that stone age crap. It
has one foot in a grave half filled with vacume tubes. Get Irridum.

1. vacuum

2. Iridium

3. I have personal experience with Inmarsat mini-M, Iridium,
Globalstar, and SSB with Pactor. If someone else is paying the bills
or I win the lottery I'd go with Inmarsat in a second, although the
dish would be intrusive on my boat. Absent that SSB beats the pants
off Iridium for reliability and easily meets it for speed. Often
throughput is a bit faster over SSB and time spent hunched over the
nav station is definitely shorter for SSB. The only advantage of sat
phones is the ability to dial a phone number of anyone anywhere and
make a connection. Not important to me but might be to some people.

For e-mail, wefax, Navtex, position reporting, and staying in touch
(generally by e-mail) SSB with Pactor is ahead of sat phones on both
performance and value for money. My conclusion is from BOTH running
the numbers and first-hand experience with all the options.

Personally, less complicated is better that is unless you are
the second typ of person who supports use of ssb tx

Are you kidding? HF is much simpler than sat phones.

As much time as you sit on the hook you could get GBAN and surf the
internet for god sakes.

I presume you mean BGAN. Yes? Nice portable solution from Inmarsat but
there are less expensive ones with similar bandwidth.

73 es sail fast, dave KO4MI
S/V Auspicious

Hi, Dave,

This, as is fairly typical, has migrated pretty far from the start, so I'll
address just the pertinent questions, having yet again renamed the subject:

"Auspicious" wrote in message
...
On Jun 5, 7:31 am, "Flying Pig" wrote:
That's about half the time, in my experience. That's even with aborting
an
upload very early on if it's slow, looking for a better connection
somewhere
else. Frequently that works; propagation makes it such that I might do
much
better 1500 miles away than someplace much closer.

Bummer. Do you have and use the propagation tool for Airmail? My
experience seems better than yours. Like you I do sometimes get a slow
connection that I terminate rather than wait. Once I get a solid
connect though all my mail goes through. It generally only takes
checking the top few stations on the prop list. Maybe you have more
mail than I do.



Yes, I do, to both. My logs aren't one-liners, as everyone takes great joy
in pointing out, so connection reliability (vs throughput) becomes an issue.

I do use the prop tool aggressively, along with an automatic
frequency-changing control cable. I've found that certain of the stations
are more likely to connect than others, and I never even try anything which
doesn't show 100% reliability.

I usually define "solid" in two terms: What's the "speed" shown on the
bottom (lowest 100, highest - that I've seen - 400) and what's the tx speed
(anywhere from 100 to, best, momentary, 1600 bytes/second).

So, when I can't maintain a connection, if it's gone along well for MOST of
it but dumps twice, I give up and break it up. Usually, the much smaller
chunks go without failure, though I may have to use several stations to get
a connection (if it doesn't pick up after about 5 "rings" I terminate the
call, because if it can't hear me well enough to start, it's not likely to
persist) to accomplish the multipart upload.

As to my gear, when I'm checking in (not very regularly, but often enough
that I'm recognized) on the Maritime Mobile net, most of the time I'm
pegging their meters, so think all is well there.

Dahdidit dit :{))

L8R

Skip


--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

Do away with Pactor? Might look at winmor.

On Sun, 06 Jun 2010 09:13:53 -0700, Gordon wrote:

Do away with Pactor? Might look at winmor.

Why would you want to do away with Pactor? I think it's an excellent
piece of gear, albeit a little over priced. On the other hand it is
not a mass production item and the inventors are entitled to a return
on their investment.

On Sun, 6 Jun 2010 08:25:52 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

I may have to use several stations to get
a connection (if it doesn't pick up after about 5 "rings" I terminate the
call, because if it can't hear me well enough to start, it's not likely to
persist) to accomplish the multipart upload.

There is one PMBO in Florida who almost never picks up on "5 rings"
but has an otherwise excellent station. I believe he keeps his rigs
on standby and requires a certain amount of time to get them back on
the air. If you connect immediately after he signs off with someone
else, his rig connects immediately.

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
news
There is one PMBO in Florida who almost never picks up on "5 rings"
but has an otherwise excellent station. I believe he keeps his rigs
on standby and requires a certain amount of time to get them back on
the air. If you connect immediately after he signs off with someone
else, his rig connects immediately.

The first 4 stations I try are in FL from this location.

Know which it is?

Thanks.

L8R

Skip, off Shroud Cay

--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to
make it come true. You may have to work for it however."
(and)
"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in
its hand. You seek problems because you need their gifts."

(Richard Bach, in Illusions - The Reluctant Messiah)

On Mon, 7 Jun 2010 22:56:44 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

There is one PMBO in Florida who almost never picks up on "5 rings"
but has an otherwise excellent station. I believe he keeps his rigs
on standby and requires a certain amount of time to get them back on
the air. If you connect immediately after he signs off with someone
else, his rig connects immediately.

The first 4 stations I try are in FL from this location.

Know which it is?

Sure.

November Zero India Alpha in Deltona, FL. One of the best PMBO
stations on Winlink in my opinion but frequently slow to connect.

Personally, less complicated is better that is unless you are
the second typ of person who supports use of ssb tx

Are you kidding? HF is much simpler than sat phones.

No not at all.......... you see I do not look inside the case. I look
to reliability, expense, and ease of use. So when I say iridium is
more simple campoared to SSB I am not refering to the inside circuits
I refer to reliablity, ease of use, overall coast including
installation and maintainence hours.

Take the new cost of an Iridium phone, antina (dont you just love
phonics. every school should be using it)
Then take a typical ssb ham set up. Your taking how to ground: use a
plate bolted to the hull, rolling foil out everywhere ,or rigging some
mouse trap on the shaft. Then antina tunner, and longwire if you have
a katch or a back stay hookup. The radio just has toooo many ancilary
parts-connections-wires and that all equals:
labor to install
labor to trouble shoot when it goes fubar
labor maintain all the connections that will corrode and give SKip OCD
trying to trouble shoot.

The irridum is simply just simple, easy, and equally reliable compared
to ssb/ham for at sea comm/weahter fax/direct
contact to SAR/USCG? call your elderly wife in flordia etc.

Unfutunatly, there is a cohort of people with one foot in the grave
who love to tinker with crap because it makes them feel smart and they
love to do it. Ham Radio geeks...... like CB geeks in the 70s . No
difference. I say do your crossword puzzels and stop misleading people

and those same guys go around telling people they are not safe and
stupid to cruise with out a tx ham radio. Have your fun soldering
Heath Kits together but be realistic when it comes to reliable and
safe at-sea communication.

All I have to do is read your Signature. that tells me there that you
are very proud of your ham license and do doubt there is some way to
tell the date of issue from the alpha-numeric code.

So I will signe with
Bob 107/80
That number designates which commercial diving school i graduated from
but ya know I dont reallyh give a **** so i dont put it there.
Oh how about this
Bob, AB RFPNW
or BOb MS, BS, BSEd but I dont really feel I need to constantly tell
eveyone what a cool guy I am like you

and youre not a Sailing/Vessel you are a Sailing/Yacht (S/Y)

73 es sail fast, dave KO4MI
S/V Auspicious

On Tue, 8 Jun 2010 11:15:30 -0700 (PDT), Bob
wrote:

and those same guys go around telling people they are not safe and
stupid to cruise with out a tx ham radio. Have your fun soldering
Heath Kits together but be realistic when it comes to reliable and
safe at-sea communication.

Almost all of the pleasure boats that I know who engage in
offshore/international cruising have a marine SSB radio aboard, and
they are not necessarily ham radio operators although some are. Many
also have a sat phone of some sort and an EPIRB. We don't have a sat
phone but do have the SSB and EPIRB. If we were crossing oceans I'd
probably get the sat phone also, for redundancy if nothing else.