On Saturday 15 May 2004 2:38 am in rec.boats.electronics Jack Painter wrote:


As one sarcastic poster pointed out in a snide post
earlier, satcom has replaced almost all comms, but the truth is not
everyone will ever be able to afford that. So we try to maintain HF
service in the best manner possible to serve the whole maritime community.

Maybe you were referring to my comments, maybe not.
A fully compliant satcom system such as F77 is expensive, but not
beyond the means of larger cruisers. Smaller and less expensive
systems are available, right down to handhelds costing little more
than a mobile phone. All of these are easier to use and more
dependable than HF radios. As a minimum all vessels, however small,
should at least carry an L-band EPIRB if they venture out of VHF range.

40 years of HF experience tells me that the unpredictable vagiaries
of HF are not the best thing to struggle with in an emergency.
Technology has moved on and modern satellite based communications
are both reliable and simple to use.

In my opinion, for what it is worth, continued support for HF is
only serving to perpetuate a false sense of security and is
costing lives.

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