SSB or Ham
 

For a cruising sailboat?
Gordon

"Gordon" wrote in message
...
For a cruising sailboat?
Gordon


Both.

For a cruising sailboat?

Hi Gordon,

There are a number of pros and cons for each, but basically:

Ham radio:
more cruising & safety nets (here in the Pacific, we were able to
monitor 3 or 4 marine ham nets)
free email (http://www.airmail2000.com/index.htm )
gear is less expensive but not "marinized".

Marine SSB:
best for emergencies (the USCG and all merchant vessels monitor the
SSB emergency freq's and GMDSS)
fewer safety & cruising nets (only one that I know of)
email for a small fee ( http://www.sailmail.com/ )
gear is more expensive but is "marinized".

We opted to get an Icom Ham HF radio and my General Class license, that way
I could participate/monitor all the nets. My radio was also able to
transmit on the marine HF emergency & calling frequencies, but because it
was not "FCC Type Certified" for use on those frequencies I could -only- use
it on those frequencies in a true -emergency-.

A couple more bits of advice:

If you can afford it, make sure your marine VHF is DSC capable. All
merchant ships carry GMDSS and DSC radios, and if you hit the "emergency"
button on your DSC VHF it will -definitely- get the attention of every
bridge on every merchant vessel within radio distance of your boat. If you
get DSC, make sure you know how to use it properly.

The effectiveness of even small ham radios and antennas are surprisingly
good at sea and poor inport. As soon as we were more than 200 miles
offshore, our radio reception improved almost 10x. In the harbor, we had a
hard time hearing even the strongest signals.

DO NOT operate a radio without an appropriate license. Getting a ham radio
license has never been easier, and local ham clubs will even prepare you for
your exam for almost nothing. Also make sure you have the appropriate
marine FCC license for your boat and yourself. They are cheap and easy to
get.

And lastly, don't even think about going offshore without a 406 EPIRB.

--
Paul

=-----------------------------------=
renewontime dot com
FREE email reminder service for licensed mariners
http://www.renewontime.com
=-----------------------------------=

Both!

Doug, k3qt
s/v Callista

"Gordon" wrote in message
...
For a cruising sailboat?
Gordon

In article ,
"renewontime dot com" wrote:

All
merchant ships carry GMDSS and DSC radios, and if you hit the "emergency"
button on your DSC VHF it will -definitely- get the attention of every
bridge on every merchant vessel within radio distance of your boat. If you
get DSC, make sure you know how to use it properly.

Only those vessels that are SOLAS Required. (300 tons and up), and not
Tugboats of any size, no matter how big the barge is.

Me

Only those vessels that are SOLAS Required. (300 tons and up), and not
Tugboats of any size, no matter how big the barge is.

Not entirely true. What a vessel (including tugs) is required to carry is
also determined by what waters they will be operating in and service they
will be performing. The ocean going tugs I've been on were all GMDSS
equipped. Perhaps there are exceptions to this, I don't know. I drive
ships for a living, I usually don't memorize what the equipment requirements
are for every class of vessel out there. If I need to know about details
like this, I look them up in a book.

At any rate, my answer was in response to a question about equipping a
cruising yacht and I consequently made a number of generalizations soas to
keep my answer fairly brief. I don't see what these details have to do with
the original poster's question.

Getting back on track he

I'd also like to voice my agreement with the other posters that have
recommended having both marine and ham SSB radios on board. If you can
afford to do this, it is a very smart thing to do. A ham radio by no means
replaces a marine SSB, but it's often nice to have.

I think it's worth repeating that neither of these radios replace the need
to carry a 406 EPIRB aboard. I wouldn't leave port without one.

--
Paul

=-----------------------------------=
renewontime dot com
FREE email reminder service for licensed mariners
http://www.renewontime.com
=-----------------------------------=

The Icom M710 has marine transceiver has included the ham bands as
standard since 2002. The Icom M802 marine transceiver also includes the
ham bands as standard.
krj

renewontime dot com wrote:
Only those vessels that are SOLAS Required. (300 tons and up), and not
Tugboats of any size, no matter how big the barge is.


Not entirely true. What a vessel (including tugs) is required to carry is
also determined by what waters they will be operating in and service they
will be performing. The ocean going tugs I've been on were all GMDSS
equipped. Perhaps there are exceptions to this, I don't know. I drive
ships for a living, I usually don't memorize what the equipment requirements
are for every class of vessel out there. If I need to know about details
like this, I look them up in a book.

At any rate, my answer was in response to a question about equipping a
cruising yacht and I consequently made a number of generalizations soas to
keep my answer fairly brief. I don't see what these details have to do with
the original poster's question.

Getting back on track he

I'd also like to voice my agreement with the other posters that have
recommended having both marine and ham SSB radios on board. If you can
afford to do this, it is a very smart thing to do. A ham radio by no means
replaces a marine SSB, but it's often nice to have.

I think it's worth repeating that neither of these radios replace the need
to carry a 406 EPIRB aboard. I wouldn't leave port without one.

On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 17:03:09 GMT, "Gordon" wrote:

For a cruising sailboat?
Gordon



It used to be that most marine SSBs were next to impossible to use as
ham radios and vice versa. That is no longer true. Get a decent modern
marine SSB configured to do ham frequencies as well. Then you can
*legally* do both and you will have a radio that was designed to be in
a damp salt water environment.
73
Joe