Another SSB question. ( sorry :) )

[Oscarpop]

We are looking at installing an SSB on our boat in addition to the sat phone we already have.

This is for coms. across the Atlantic as well as the SSB nets in the Caribbean when we get there.

I want to install a semi permanent aerial and have narrowed it down to 3 options:

1. The gam split antenna. So, does anyone know where i can source one of these in the UK? It seems to only be available in the USA.

2. A whip aerial. Again im not sure about 23ft of aerial from both a safety and aesthetic POV, so im going to keep this as my second option.

3. A halyard with a wire in it. I would have this permanently installed ( I think).

I have discounted insulated backstays, as I believe it is expensive and I dont want to drop the mast to do so. Also our backstay is partially split ( Southerly 38 if you need clarification).

Can you beautiful people please give me your opinions on these and if you have photos I would be grateful?

Cheers.

 

[KellysEye]

If you want a good signal and range then none of those will give it which is why boats with SSB have insulated back stays. The Gam is so short it looks like a joke.

 

[prv]

If you want a good signal and range then none of those will give it which is why boats with SSB have insulated back stays. The Gam is so short it looks like a joke.

What's the difference, from a radio point of view, between a wire hoisted in a halyard and one that forms part of a backstay?

Pete

 

[KellysEye]

>What's the difference, from a radio point of view, between a wire hoisted in a halyard and one that forms part of a backstay?

If it worked as well as a well as an insulated backstay why have I never seen one, have you?

 

[john_q]

Based on observations of the many boats in the Caribbean with SSB, the most common solutions appear to be Whip Aerials and insulated backstays.

Might be worth talking to Bob Smith at SailCom Marine 01489 565100 if you have not done so yet for practical ideas and advice

 

[Oscarpop]

Based on observations of the many boats in the Caribbean with SSB, the most common solutions appear to be Whip Aerials and insulated backstays.

Might be worth talking to Bob Smith at SailCom Marine 01489 565100 if you have not done so yet for practical ideas and advice

Had a good chat with him this morning. Really helpful chap. Good advice, I am still unsure about the whip antenna thing. Maybe its a fear of the unknown.

 

[prv]

If it worked as well as a well as an insulated backstay why have I never seen one, have you?

I never said it was as good in every way. I think they generally end up obstructing the sails, so people have to hoist them before using the radio and lower again afterwards. No question that an insulated backstay is more convenient, it just sits there all the time ready for use.

None of this is at issue. You made a specific assertion that a rope antenna would not provide good signal or range; I am curious whether you have any actual basis for that assertion.

Pete

 

[Monique]

Just saying...

Amel owners, world cruisers of some repute, favour the whip antennas.

GL

 

[oldvarnish]

I have discounted insulated backstays, as I believe it is expensive and I dont want to drop the mast to do so.

An experienced rigger out to be able to replace the backstay without dropping the mast.

 

[rustybarge]

What's the difference, from a radio point of view, between a wire hoisted in a halyard and one that forms part of a backstay?

Pete

A simple dipole aerial is just a piece of wire split into two halves.
From personal experience gained from my late father, although it's a very simple setup, it's hard to beat it's performance.
Every year when we were young we used to go to the west of Ireland for the summer hols, along with the Halicrafters 100 watts pep output transmitter and the AR88 receiver and a simple wire aerial strung up in the tree.

We could consistently raise stations in the states over 3000 miles away on the 20mtr band, and once raised a mobile station from a car in the USA; his card took pride of place in the shed!!![senior moment, what are the cards called]

Most important, get a impedence matching bridge, to get max gain from the aerial.

 

[NorthUp]

QSL

 

[rustybarge]

QSL

Thanks.

Ah yes, the 'Q' code.........kept getting it mixed up when i took a few flying lessons.

like, do you know what QRM means...no cheating!

 

[Artic Warrior]

Hi,

I have your 3rd option,
its and independent isolated st/st wire which runs up near the back stays that I have but doesn't touch them..
works well and doesn't compromise strength of the back stays being used

 

[jerrytug]

Thanks.

Ah yes, the 'Q' code.........kept getting it mixed up when i took a few flying lessons.

like, do you know what QRM means...no cheating!

QRM, interference, the M stands for man-made, eg next door's power tool.
whereas QRN, interference, the N stands for natural, eg atmosperics at dusk.
No idea about the backstay though!

 

[dazautomatics]

Hi,

I have your 3rd option,
its and independent isolated st/st wire which runs up near the back stays that I have but doesn't touch them..
works well and doesn't compromise strength of the back stays being used

My family used this with great success on there Atlantic circuit (just an old guardwire). we after talking with sail com we used a Kevlar cable that they supplied (very cheap) separate from the backstay and this has worked very well in conjunction with a KISS grounding system allowing us to transmit to the mailsail base stations 1000s of mile away to collect e-mails and weather information.

Although if you have a choice I would use the data option on your sat phone rather than a pactor modem as it is slow and limited in it's ability to collect information quickly, so for the cost you can purchase lot's of credit for your sat phone and have better access to weather information.

BTW. I did remove a backstay from a different boat last year with an old insulated backstay and they do deterate with age and the insulation fell apart in our hands, thankfully the owner didn't sail with the boat before he had the rig checked....

Good luck with your trip

Darren & Vicki

 

[GHA]

What's the difference, from a radio point of view, between a wire hoisted in a halyard and one that forms part of a backstay?

Pete

The backstay might suck in a bit of the power being transmitted if it's close, for want of better term. Though before getting an insulated backstay fixed I had an inverted V dipole, both legs of which were close to the back and forestay. It still worked fine. Ham has better tools available for determining how well your system actually works than marine ssb , a program called wspr alternatively transmits at low power and listens with every other station in the world connected logging results on the Internet, so you can see if your 5w is getting picked up in the US or Russia. Or if your antenna is rubbish. The inverted V worked well so maybe being quite close to a stay isn't that bad after all.
Dipoles work well, plus no ground plane to sort out, but a bit fiddly compared with a backstay. Unless you're skint

http://www.atomvoyages.com/articles/improvement-projects/244-dipole-1.html

I have a home made one with a balun and ladder line going cheap if anyone is interested.

 

[tcm]

We are looking at installing an SSB on our boat in addition to the sat phone we already have.

This is for coms. across the Atlantic as well as the SSB nets in the Caribbean when we get there.

I want to install a semi permanent aerial and have narrowed it down to 3 options:

1. The gam split antenna. So, does anyone know where i can source one of these in the UK? It seems to only be available in the USA.

2. A whip aerial. Again im not sure about 23ft of aerial from both a safety and aesthetic POV, so im going to keep this as my second option.

3. A halyard with a wire in it. I would have this permanently installed ( I think).

I have discounted insulated backstays, as I believe it is expensive and I dont want to drop the mast to do so. Also our backstay is partially split ( Southerly 38 if you need clarification).

Can you beautiful people please give me your opinions on these and if you have photos I would be grateful?

Cheers.

My option is ... forget SSB. Safety wise, a satphone gets hold of an actual person, whereas an SSB might or might not. SSB in very limited use in Atlantic, and decreasing, because of the aforementioned cost. We had an SSB on one transit, called up a few people, they talked about fishing, someone else talked about what had broken, and all of them miles and miles away. Irrelevant. Mainly, you are essentially ON YOUR OWN in the ocean, just have to get used t it. SSB doesn't change that. It's fine. It's almost always almost invariably fine. You can rig your satphone to send/rcv emails if you fancy a natter.

 

[MBullock]

We have friends in the Caribbean who have fitted the GAM and are very pleased with it. I've spoken to the Distributor at the Seattle Boat Show and he is a cruiser at heart and tested the GAM and KISS on a Pacific cruise. I would ignore comments about it being 'too short' etc. Like you I am not going to insulated backstays on my new boat. Mainly down to cost - I was told that it's GBP1000 for 19mm staloc insulated connectors!! I'm going to try the wire inside a Halyard and see how I get on. Reading around the Internet it seems very popular (check the US forums) and is essentially the SS wire that's being suggested on here wrapped in an insulator. I was then thinking of using short pieces of pipe to hold it off one of the backstays just like the antenna wire to an insulated backstay.

Check out EBay for Antenna wire, connectors etc. I found a good supplier and the cost is pennies compared to marine suppliers.

In terms of usefulness, I think SSB is quite different to SatPhone in usage and cost comparison. The majority of SSB cost is in acquisition not running, which is the opposite of SatPhone. Certainly the friends I mentioned left the UK with a SatPhone and have now fitted an SSB in the Carribbean, for both weather/email etc. and arranging meet-ups with friends they have met along the way. For us, we used SSB even on the West Coast of Scotland where phone reception and sometime VHF reception aren't available. I found that using the 'e-mail me back' services of Sailmail that I could get pretty much anything I wanted via SSB modem. We inherited a SatPhone with our current boat but I can't bring myself to buy airtime yet because it's so expensive...

hth,

 

[geem]

We have friends in the Caribbean who have fitted the GAM and are very pleased with it. I've spoken to the Distributor at the Seattle Boat Show and he is a cruiser at heart and tested the GAM and KISS on a Pacific cruise. I would ignore comments about it being 'too short' etc. Like you I am not going to insulated backstays on my new boat. Mainly down to cost - I was told that it's GBP1000 for 19mm staloc insulated connectors!! I'm going to try the wire inside a Halyard and see how I get on. Reading around the Internet it seems very popular (check the US forums) and is essentially the SS wire that's being suggested on here wrapped in an insulator. I was then thinking of using short pieces of pipe to hold it off one of the backstays just like the antenna wire to an insulated backstay.

Check out EBay for Antenna wire, connectors etc. I found a good supplier and the cost is pennies compared to marine suppliers.

In terms of usefulness, I think SSB is quite different to SatPhone in usage and cost comparison. The majority of SSB cost is in acquisition not running, which is the opposite of SatPhone. Certainly the friends I mentioned left the UK with a SatPhone and have now fitted an SSB in the Carribbean, for both weather/email etc. and arranging meet-ups with friends they have met along the way. For us, we used SSB even on the West Coast of Scotland where phone reception and sometime VHF reception aren't available. I found that using the 'e-mail me back' services of Sailmail that I could get pretty much anything I wanted via SSB modem. We inherited a SatPhone with our current boat but I can't bring myself to buy airtime yet because it's so expensive...

hth,

We fitted SSB in the Caribbean on our last Atlantic circuit. it was useful for weather net and keeping in touch with friends. We still have the old Furuno set and it will be going back on board for the next trip on a different boat.
We are also purchasing a Delorme Inreach sat communicator. This will allow us to text across the Atlantic and receive weather info cheaply.

 

[chuckr]

If you want a good signal and range then none of those will give it which is why boats with SSB have insulated back stays. The Gam is so short it looks like a joke.

REALLY???? i guess when i crossed the atlantic with my GAM electronics antenna and had a good signal all the way across i was just getting some weird stuff right?? what nonsense you put out

when we were in the carib we were constantly told we had one of the best radios down there and could hear and respond that others could not hear -- we at times were net controllers and did relays for chris parker -- not sure if you are an expert and you may be but we have one and it works great