HF transmitters are very common on boats and only draw a lot of power
when transmitting and even then it's not enough to noticably discharge
a normal house battery bank.

Last time we sailed from California to Hawaii we used the HAM/SSB
nightly to talk on the PacSea net, get weather fax, and do phone
patches. Even with our lowly 12V 450amp house battery bank I never
really noticed needing to recharge more frequently than every third
day, which is about how often I would charge the batteries when sitting
at anchor.

-Todd

--
http://boatblogger/page/thuss
http://www.marinewireless.us

Falky foo wrote:
Problem is powering a HF transmitter with enough wattage without
draining
your batteries.



wrote in message
...
I have a general class ham license but have been out of
it a LONG time

I want to get back into some form of free ham radio
comms that would allow me to stay in touch with people
while living in an RV or boat

So.... I want something small and compact. And Im not
sure what "mode" of communications I want. I may want
some form of digital comms like packet or pactor....
not sure

Any advice on all this? What to get equip wise? What
modes to get into?

"thuss" wrote in message
oups.com...
HF transmitters are very common on boats and only draw a lot of power
when transmitting and even then it's not enough to noticably discharge
a normal house battery bank.

True on voice SSB. Digital modes pretty much are like AM. They draw max
power the entire time the transmitter is keyed.

Last time we sailed from California to Hawaii we used the HAM/SSB
nightly to talk on the PacSea net,

Not much power since SSB draws power on the peaks only.

get weather fax,

RX for fax is pretty low power anyway.

and do phone
patches.

Same as any voice mode. Low overall power.

Even with our lowly 12V 450amp house battery bank I never
really noticed needing to recharge more frequently than every third
day, which is about how often I would charge the batteries when sitting
at anchor.

Sounds about right. Even using the digital modes, the amount of time one is
on the
air is pretty small. Unless one is ragchewing for hours on end a marine SSB
or
ham on board is not a heavy hitter.

-Todd

--
http://boatblogger/page/thuss
http://www.marinewireless.us

Falky foo wrote:
Problem is powering a HF transmitter with enough wattage without
draining
your batteries.



wrote in message
...
I have a general class ham license but have been out of
it a LONG time

I want to get back into some form of free ham radio
comms that would allow me to stay in touch with people
while living in an RV or boat

So.... I want something small and compact. And Im not
sure what "mode" of communications I want. I may want
some form of digital comms like packet or pactor....
not sure

Any advice on all this? What to get equip wise? What
modes to get into?

On 23 Feb 2005 17:06:17 -0800, "thuss" wrote:
--
http://boatblogger/page/thuss
http://www.marinewireless.us


Your link above should be: http://boatblogger.com/page/thuss

Jeannette
aa6jh
Bristol 32, San Francisco
http://www.eblw.com/contepartiro/contepartiro.html

wrote in :

I want to get back into some form of free ham radio
comms that would allow me to stay in touch with people
while living in an RV or boat


The boaters have been sucked into the most overpriced, proprietary-of-
course, digital mode, Pactor.

It's all nonsense. You can get the finest digital service on HF on the
planet called PSK31....without buying more equipment, more modems, more
wasted money....

The worldwide homepage of PSK31 is:
http://www.aintel.bi.ehu.es/psk31.html

PSK31 only requires your transmitter to be in the 10-20 watt output class
because it will copy perfect text....right down so far in the noise you
can't even hear the guy you are communicating with. Wanna hear it? That's
easy. Tune any USB receiver to 14.070 Mhz, the "PSK-band" on 20 meters.
You'll hear this funny "warbling" sound, many of them at once. On this
website:
http://www.qsl.net/wm2u/psk31.html
You'll find pointers to all the different PSK31 programs to run on your
computer....any Windoze computer will do.....like your boat notebook.
PSK31 uses your computer's sound card and does all its stuff in
software....no external "boxes" are necessary.

I, personally, have always used WinWarbler:
http://www.qsl.net/winwarbler/
but most hams are using Digipan:
http://www.digipan.net/

Any of the programs work great. There's even versions for Linux and Mac.

Winwarbler will copy three separate stations SIMULTANEOUSLY, and you can
switch your transmit back to them with just a mouseclick.

If you get your shore stations also setup with PSK31, you'll have reliable
text comms from any point on the planet. I worked a Japanese station that
was running a 20 meter dipole and 10 watts! PSK stations will raise hell
with you if you hog the bandwidth with big powerful transmitters. It is
simply amazing how far down in the noise the computer running this software
can copy.....a station you can't even hear!

As it's free.....give it a try!

73, and welcome back to ham radio

DE Larry W4CSC

NNNN

AR

If you get your shore stations also setup with PSK31, you'll have reliable
text comms from any point on the planet. I worked a Japanese station that
was running a 20 meter dipole and 10 watts! PSK stations will raise hell
with you if you hog the bandwidth with big powerful transmitters. It is
simply amazing how far down in the noise the computer running this software
can copy.....a station you can't even hear!

As it's free.....give it a try!

73, and welcome back to ham radio

DE Larry W4CSC

Very cool!

Will definitely check it out

Any rigs your recommend buying to use the above?

Be very careful of ever listening to Larry...he is often a technical
idiot...but not always. So listen to him only when you well understand the
turf...he has a gem once in a while but not for the newby.

PSK is a toy mode for rag chewing. It is nice. I use it and recommend it.
But it is not for any even semi-serious conversation. It is a different
version of operating AM on the long wave bands. Fine for hobbyist but not
really practical. Good CW for the Morse defective.

Serious boat stuff is done in PACTOR for email and similar or good old SSB
for position stuff or various nets. The email systems are actually pretty
sophisticated and involve a lot more than Pactor. But Pactor is pretty well
required.

Ideally one goes with some combo like an ICOM 710 and 706. The 710 is an
SSB receiver that will work on the ham bands while the 706 is an amateur
radio that will work on the marine HF bands. Non-emergency use of the 706
on marine bands is illegal but works quite well. I would however consider
it an emergency any time I needed to work on marine HF and did not have a
legal marine radio available. YMMV.

Jim Donohue KO6MH

wrote in message
...
If you get your shore stations also setup with PSK31, you'll have
reliable
text comms from any point on the planet. I worked a Japanese station that
was running a 20 meter dipole and 10 watts! PSK stations will raise hell
with you if you hog the bandwidth with big powerful transmitters. It is
simply amazing how far down in the noise the computer running this
software
can copy.....a station you can't even hear!

As it's free.....give it a try!

73, and welcome back to ham radio

DE Larry W4CSC

Very cool!

Will definitely check it out

Any rigs your recommend buying to use the above?

Serious boat stuff is done in PACTOR for email and similar or good old SSB
for position stuff or various nets. The email systems are actually pretty
sophisticated and involve a lot more than Pactor. But Pactor is pretty well
required.

I see

But is it correct that pactor is a proprietary format?

wrote in message
...
Serious boat stuff is done in PACTOR for email and similar or good old
SSB
for position stuff or various nets. The email systems are actually pretty
sophisticated and involve a lot more than Pactor. But Pactor is pretty
well
required.

I see

But is it correct that pactor is a proprietary format?

Proprietary inasmuch as only SCS makes TNCs for it. PACTOR I is available
on many TNCs but PACTOR II and III are only available via the SCS TNCs.

Doug, k3qt
s/v Callista

The 710 is an
SSB receiver that will work on the ham bands while the 706 is an amateur
radio that will work on the marine HF bands.

So which direction would you go above?

wrote in message
news
The 710 is an
SSB receiver that will work on the ham bands while the 706 is an amateur
radio that will work on the marine HF bands.

So which direction would you go above?

The trade offs are as follows"

HAM
Must have a General Class license.
Must have a radio that will do the ham bands.
email is free, but absolutely no commercial traffic.

Marine SSB
Must have a marine SSB rig.
Musr have a Ships Station License for the rig.
Must have a Restricted Radiotelephone Operators Permit for yourself.
Sailmail is $250/yr but you can do commercial traffic.

I went with both. An ICOM-M710 enabled for the ham bands. And I had
both Winlink (ham email) and Sailmail. The M710 is one of the few rigs that
can do the digital modes, such as PACTOR, at full power.

Doug, k3qt
s/v Callista