Has anyone got any info KISS, SSB System.

[BigJoe]

I am thinking of upgrading the electronics on my boat and was wondering if anyone has any info on the KISS, SSB System.

Just wondering about general stuff like, info, pricing, reliability, fitting etc.

Any feedback will be hugely helpful.

 

[john_q]

If you are talking about this - http://kiss-ssb.blogspot.com/ then I do know someone who has one that was fitted to a fibre glass trawler yacht and it worked very well. He just put it on the floor of the flying bridge.

 

[Bilgediver]

I am thinking of upgrading the electronics on my boat and was wondering if anyone has any info on the KISS, SSB System.

Just wondering about general stuff like, info, pricing, reliability, fitting etc.

Any feedback will be hugely helpful.

Do a search in this forum and others. If it costs more than £20 then you are better off buying a coil of speaker cable from Comet and making one. Google is your friend!

 

[BigJoe]

Thanks for the replies.

I was looking more at the hole package, and wondering which is the best value for money hand set also.

 

[Bilgediver]

Thanks for the replies.

I was looking more at the hole package, and wondering which is the best value for money hand set also.

The Kiss SSB in your posting is nothing more than a ground plane. It consists of several lengths of wire tuned to different frequencies all with a common connector at one end and inserted into plastic tube.

When you say whole package do you mean radio....tuner.....antenna also?

 

[oldvarnish]

I've just ordered one of these and I'll report in due course on how it performs.
If you are in Europe, the easiest way is to go to ebay (search kiss-ssb) - they keep a few on there to make the transaction simpler.

There will always be people who come along and tell you how easy it is to make one yourself. For myself, I'm more than happy to pay fifty quid to have it done for me.

 

[nimbusgb]

£90 plus £18 shipping makes £110 not £50!

 

[Bilgediver]

£90 plus £18 shipping makes £110 not £50!

Can buy gold plated low oxygen speaker cable for that

 

[oldvarnish]

Can buy gold plated low oxygen speaker cable for that

Yeh, yeh, I know. But for some strange reason I'd rather live a life than come home from work and spend a happy evening bundling copper wires together.

 

[deepstar]

Copper cable

This seems very expensive for a set of 0.25 lambda wires.

Time for some maths....

Wavelength / QuarterWave (Common Ham bands non WARC)
80 20
40 10
20 5
15 3.75
10 2.5

Total length needed 41.25m

Now just quick look on UK Maplin's web site....

http://www.maplin.co.uk/equipment-wire-32-0.2-6199

On bulk mode this is 42 quid..... 10 mins with some wire cutters and a little solder .... all tidied up with some electrical tape does not cost the remaining money.

As for the effectiveness of such a system.

On Bands of 20m,15m+10m you may see a slight improvement...... 40m+80m there are not enough radials to make any significant difference.

Make your own..... you can build at least 2 for their price.

 

[tri39]

Thanks for the figures Deepstar. And I might add you can make two lengths at a time if you use twin wire feeder.