HAM Radio and boating
 

I am new to boating and am also a licensed HAM, General class. I have
seen references to HAM radio and boating but haven't been able to glean
what the benefit might be.

Thanks...Harlen

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For coastal cruising or just daysailing the benefits are no differently
really than those offered to you as a mobile operator. For the bluewater or
long-distance cruise (which could be coastal) you get the benefit of
reliable free communication mechanism, add on a PACTOR modem and now you can
add email, weather downloads (www.Winlink.org) as well as postion reporting
(http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/index.php). All of which is very cool,
but I shoudl add there are also a lot of NETS for sialors just like there
are for HAM only groups.


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Patrick's Sailing Blog:
http://shipsrecord.com/blogs/patrick/
http://ShipsRecord.com -- Get you own Blog
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"Harlen David" wrote in message
...
I am new to boating and am also a licensed HAM, General class. I have
seen references to HAM radio and boating but haven't been able to glean
what the benefit might be.

Thanks...Harlen

--
Sent via Travel Newsgroups
http://www.travelnewsgroups.com

Harlen David wrote in
:

I am new to boating and am also a licensed HAM, General class. I have
seen references to HAM radio and boating but haven't been able to glean
what the benefit might be.

Thanks...Harlen



Welcome, Harlen.

Ham radio is becoming more and more important to offshore sailors as the
commercial stations, like ATT's HF operators, go dark. WOM in Miami is no
longer on the air, as are WCC and the other commercials. HF is closing
down to marine interests as the big boys, who always paid the freight for
the "marine operators", go to satellite comms. Almost any time of day,
offshore stations can call the Maritime Mobile Traffic Net on 14.300 and
find some ham willing to handle their traffic. It's also a meeting place
for ham boaters, without some government shore station bitching at them for
the idle chitchat, which as you know is what ham radio is for.

While it is illegal to use a ham radio that's had its transmitter opened up
to work on any frequency, there are lots of them on-the-air all over the
place with memory channels programmed for the marine frequencies. On our
boat, the legal opposite is true. We're using an Icom M802 150W marine
radio into an Icom AT-130 autotuner to the 60' mainmast backstay on a 41'
ketch. No tuner is really necessary on 40 meters...it's 1/4 wave!

To open the M802 transmitter to all HF frequencies, hold down MODE + TX
together and press the number 2 key to toggle it into wide open. Press the
RX key to get the channel readout into frequency mode and the left knob
becomes the cursor mover while the right knob becomes the VFO, giving you
frequency control in 100 Hz, 1, 10, 100 and 1000 Khz steps across the band.
Works well as a ham rig. I like playing around with DX right from the
dock...(c;

73 DE W4CSC
Larry

Hi Larry,

You sound like you might be able to answer my question.

I have an Icom IC-745 that came with my "new to me" boat. It's a
somewhat older model, but works great (auto-tuner on the backstay)

Will I be able to use it with a Pactor 3 to send/receive email?

Are the Pactor modems compatible with all HF transeivers?

Thanks,

Mike.

"beaufortnc" wrote in
oups.com:

Will I be able to use it with a Pactor 3 to send/receive email?

Are the Pactor modems compatible with all HF transeivers?


Yes, Pactor audio is well within your 745's audio bandwidth. It's quite
slow, actually. I'd experiment with the delay between the time the pactor
modem keys the transmitter and the time it starts sending audio tone data
to get the fastest thruput. There's a little delay in rigs with relays
clicking away every time it goes into transmit before it's all connected
and ready for sending. Pactor modems have a control that can vary this
timing.


--
Larry

Larry,

Do you know how to set up the M802 for different transmit and receive
frequencies on the ham bands?

For example, DX station listening "up 2", etc.

" wrote in
ups.com:

Do you know how to set up the M802 for different transmit and receive
frequencies on the ham bands?

For example, DX station listening "up 2", etc.



Press and hold down the MODE and TX buttons, then press the number 2
button. That toggles it into transmit-on-any-frequency mode.

To get duplex, you press TX (in frequency mode, of course) and set your TX
frequency, say 14.205, then press RX and set the RX frequency...or just VFO
it. The set TX is supposed to stay on frequency, but I haven't really
tried it.

Here's the information you seek:
http://www.docksideradio.com/icom-802.htm

Here's a pdf from Icom:
http://www.icomamerica.com/dealerson..._freq_prog.pdf
Dealers only hell. Google found it!

There's mention on the net of CSM802 programming software, but I haven't
found it and don't know what it can do. Probably a PC-radio interface like
they have for the ham gear.

I found all this with Google. The information at docsideradio is great.
The manual sucks unless you're going to be a Marine Radio CB operator...(c;

--
Larry