On Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:10:11 +0100, Marc Heusser
d wrote:

I am an electrical engineer and could quite easily get a licence for
amateur radio.
Does it pay off if I'd do that to access weather charts etc on a boat -
this year in Europe, both on inland waterways in France and in the
eastern North sea (between Germany, Denmark and Sweden)?

Apart from a transceiver I have a Mac that should decode the signals
without any extra hardware with MultiMode
(http://www.blackcatsystems.com/software/multimode.html).

Or are other options better?

TIA

Marc

Amateur licenses are worth another look at now. The morse code
requirement has been swept away, and there are just three available
classes - tech, general and extra.
Tests are held regularly in local areas, and an ARRL license Manual
will get you there - not to mention the several sites offering
practice tests at all three levels.

Brian Whatcott
Altus OK

In article ,
Brian Whatcott wrote:

On Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:10:11 +0100, Marc Heusser
d wrote:

I am an electrical engineer and could quite easily get a licence for
amateur radio.
....
Amateur licenses are worth another look at now. The morse code
requirement has been swept away, and there are just three available
classes - tech, general and extra.
Tests are held regularly in local areas, and an ARRL license Manual
will get you there - not to mention the several sites offering
practice tests at all three levels.

Thanks for the info - actually in Switzerland it is even easier if you
have a degree in electrical engineering: The only part you have to pass
is knowing the Radio Rules (20 minutes of multiple choice questions).
So it boils down to whether I'll actually use the amateur bands to
access the internet via RF (to download GRIB weather files eg), or to
receive weather faxes etc.

Marc

--
remove bye and from mercial to get valid e-mail
http://www.heusser.com

Brian Whatcott wrote in
:

On Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:10:11 +0100, Marc Heusser
d wrote:

I am an electrical engineer and could quite easily get a licence for
amateur radio.
Does it pay off if I'd do that to access weather charts etc on a boat -
this year in Europe, both on inland waterways in France and in the
eastern North sea (between Germany, Denmark and Sweden)?

Apart from a transceiver I have a Mac that should decode the signals
without any extra hardware with MultiMode
(http://www.blackcatsystems.com/software/multimode.html).

Or are other options better?

TIA

Marc

Amateur licenses are worth another look at now. The morse code
requirement has been swept away, and there are just three available
classes - tech, general and extra.
Tests are held regularly in local areas, and an ARRL license Manual
will get you there - not to mention the several sites offering
practice tests at all three levels.

Brian Whatcott
Altus OK

Just remember that you need at least a general license (which requires
code)to utilize AirMail.

-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 05:38:46 -0500, Geoff Schultz
wrote:

Just remember that you need at least a general license (which requires
code)to utilize AirMail.

The original poster is in Switzerland however which may have different
license requirements.

In article ,
Wayne.B wrote:

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 05:38:46 -0500, Geoff Schultz
wrote:

Just remember that you need at least a general license (which requires
code)to utilize AirMail.

The original poster is in Switzerland however which may have different
license requirements.

Yes: We get a full CEPT license without morse code nowadays, and as an
electrical engineer it is just the radio rules I have to pass, no
technical tests at all.

Thank you all for the information - very useful.

How do you access internet as a ham? (low bandwidth) ie where do you
find gateways (or which are the protocols, nets etc to look for)?

The other options are like INMARSAT, Iridium and GSM networks, all of
them quite costly. (from 1 USD/minute upwards)

TIA

Marc

--
remove bye and from mercial to get valid e-mail
http://www.heusser.com

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:36:13 +0100, Marc Heusser
d wrote:

How do you access internet as a ham? (low bandwidth) ie where do you
find gateways (or which are the protocols, nets etc to look for)?

There is no true internet access via ham frequencies that I'm aware
of, however you can send and receive EMAIL via Airmail and Winlink as
long as it is non-commercial in nature. The gateways and frequencies
can be downloaded using Airmail software and a telnet connection.
The protocols are Pactor 1, 2 and 3 (3 being the fastest), and are
defined by the Pactor TNC device. There are ways of retrieving web
pages via EMAIL which is sometimes useful. I use it for getting stock
quotes and news when I'm offshore. The Pactor protocol has excellent
error detection and retransmission capability. It also dynamically
adjusts transmission rates to optimize for changing signal strength
and interference.

More information he

http://www.airmail2000.com/

http://www.winlink.org/

http://www.sailmail.com/ (non-ham commercial service although
reasonably priced using same basic hardware and software)

With Multimode for a macintosh you can also download SitorB to receive
Navtex, Other modes will receive TTY (Good for Atlantic Canada) and
direct download of weather satellite date (you do the
interpretation).

The code tests went away last March so it is fairly easy to get a General
now.

With all the alternatives available these days the main reasons to get a
license is the camaraderie of the several nets working on the amateur bands
and the use of Airmail.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Geoff Schultz" wrote
Just remember that you need at least a general license (which requires
code)to utilize AirMail.

"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in
:

The code tests went away last March so it is fairly easy to get a
General now.

With all the alternatives available these days the main reasons to get
a license is the camaraderie of the several nets working on the
amateur bands and the use of Airmail.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the General class still
requires the code test and a Tech class (which does't require code) isn't
sufficient for AirMail.

-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org

Geoff Schultz wrote:
"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in
:

The code tests went away last March so it is fairly easy to get a
General now.

With all the alternatives available these days the main reasons to get
a license is the camaraderie of the several nets working on the
amateur bands and the use of Airmail.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the General class still
requires the code test and a Tech class (which does't require code) isn't
sufficient for AirMail.

-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org

Wrong. I studied for two weeks and took both tests the same day and
passed both, No code required.
Gordon