Help with SSB Sale

[Trident]

I have a boat with an ICOM M710 with an SCS PTC pactorm modem USB, a 7 m antenna and the ICOM AT130 autotune box
All in perfect working order and looking like new
I'm fitting a serious satellite system instead and don't have a license so want to sell these bits and have never even seen a real SSB in the flesh before so have no idea about them

Does anyone in the know have an idea of what I should ask for them? Are they still popular in the satellite age? Where should I start an Ebay auction etc

Thanks

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

I have a boat with an ICOM M710 with an SCS PTC pactorm modem USB, a 7 m antenna and the ICOM AT130 autotune box
All in perfect working order and looking like new
I'm fitting a serious satellite system instead and don't have a license so want to sell these bits and have never even seen a real SSB in the flesh before so have no idea about them

Does anyone in the know have an idea of what I should ask for them? Are they still popular in the satellite age? Where should I start an Ebay auction etc

Thanks

There is a concise two-page article explaining SSB in the current(May) edition of Practical Boat Owner. It extols the advantages of SSB over satellite. You might even be dissuaded from removing g it
As a second-hand price comparison the three top search results for one on eBay are asking between 850 and 1000 US dollars.

 

[Black Sheep]

Oh - it's worth nothing at all - I'll come and take it off your hands, no charge!

On a more serious note - there is defintely still a market for SSB kit. What I often do if I want to value something is search Ebay to see what people are charging, but more useful sometimes is to "view sold items only" to see what they've actually gone for. That suggests several hundred quid for the M710, and another few hundred for the Pactor modem. I see that someone sold a similar setup in Feb for £600 the lot, which seems to be good value.

There are of course pitfalls to Ebaying expensive tech gear.

Your best bet is probably to use marine-specific social media to try and raise interest in the equipment...

 

[robmcg]

I would echo what Black Sheep says above, particularly about selling this type of kit on eBay. There are some unscrupulous parts swappers out there who will buy yours, swap out dead parts from the kit they have then claim a refund claiming yours doesn't work. Difficult to prove if it happens. You could list the bits here, separately, as each component part should fall below the forum limit.

 

[Goldie]

I too have an ICOM M-710, great bit of kit. I was sitting at anchor in W. Portugal the other evening, chatting to friends anchored in the Balearics; all FOC of course. The licence isn’t difficult to get (I can recommend Yachtcom) so are you sure you really want to part with it? The big advantage of SSB of course is that you can join multi-way conversations and radio nets for your cruising area. AFAIK satellite systems are 1 to 1.

If you are minded to sell, I’d be tempted to try via the CA, OCC or World Cruising Club (the ARC people) as many of your target audience are likely to be members of one of these.

 

[dslittle]

On a more serious note - there is defintely still a market for SSB kit... I see that someone sold a similar setup in Feb for £600 the lot, which seems to be good value.

There are of course pitfalls to Ebaying expensive tech gear.

Your best bet is probably to use marine-specific social media to try and raise interest in the equipment...

Sorry to take this to a different Forum but this kind of brings the For Sale £400 limit back to the fore.

I’m sure that they’ll be folk on YBW who would/could use this but it’s too much for the Forum limit!!!

 

[Neeves]

I too have an ICOM M-710, great bit of kit. I was sitting at anchor in W. Portugal the other evening, chatting to friends anchored in the Balearics; all FOC of course. The licence isn’t difficult to get (I can recommend Yachtcom) so are you sure you really want to part with it? The big advantage of SSB of course is that you can join multi-way conversations and radio nets for your cruising area. AFAIK satellite systems are 1 to 1.

If you are minded to sell, I’d be tempted to try via the CA, OCC or World Cruising Club (the ARC people) as many of your target audience are likely to be members of one of these.

In Australia the weather forecast is transmitted every 4 hours on around 4 different frequencies by SSB. The forecasts cover all inshore waters and our Search and Rescue areas for which Oz is responsible. Indian, Southern and Pacific (and then NZ takes on the 'rest of'Pacific). The transmissions are made by a commercial organisation who also operate the NZ system. They will free of charge, set up a Private 'net' whereby you define a time schedule, you radio to them and tell them where you are and where you are going and they will send emails to a nominated person with the data. There are also informal nets, the best one locally is round Tasmania but I know of one covering the waters round the Phillipines. You can get our forecasts on VHF or over the internet but much of Australia has no coverage for VHF and internet except satellite.

Our Search and Rescue is part local volunteers and part Water Police. The offshore water police vessels are all SSB equiped. I don't know but our Border Protection services also extend into blue water and I suspect they will also be equipped with SSB.

As mentioned sat is 1 - 1 but the nets allow you to identify who is nearby, who may be able to offer you help (if you run out of yeast, for example ).
Oz is not unique and NZ is probably in a similar position. I am also sure that off Chile for example SSB will be popular with the Tuna boats - but the useful ness of SSB decreases the closer you are to main centres of population (cities) as you can then simply use VHF or a mobile phone. If you are going 'Off Piste', Norway, Iceland your choice is then SSB or Sat (or EPIRB - with its restrictions) and if the chips are down - there will be someone listening on the emergency channels for SSB who may respond much more quickly than any signal received from an EPIRB.

It depends why you want the facility of Blue Water communications. But if its for forecsasts and safety then I'd stick with SSB, especially as you have the kit. A nice thing about SSB - you can switch it on, find your world service of note and listen to the news - free.

I have not looked but some kind soul must have listed the various SSB marine nets round the world


We operate a Icom 800 and AT 120. Obtaining the Licence, here, is no more difficult than a VHF licence

I have no experience of satellite but the cost would be a major discouragement.


Take care, stay safe,

Jonathan

 

[William_H]

Of course much depends on what sort of cruising you envisage. As said very valuable in remote parts but not so useful in UK waters. I suspect for what you would get for the kit and the fact that it is installed and working perhaps you (Op) should just leave it there for time being. Certainly useful in Oz even disregarding use as a ham network radio.
Of interest is that the two government SSB base stations are located on the eastern and western edges of the outback. In the west must be 500Km from nearest ocean. This station covers much of the Indian and Southern oceans. As said their weather forecast alone is worth using if you are in a remote place.
ol'will

 

[Bilgediver]

I have a boat with an ICOM M710 with an SCS PTC pactorm modem USB, a 7 m antenna and the ICOM AT130 autotune box
All in perfect working order and looking like new
I'm fitting a serious satellite system instead and don't have a license so want to sell these bits and have never even seen a real SSB in the flesh before so have no idea about them

Does anyone in the know have an idea of what I should ask for them? Are they still popular in the satellite age? Where should I start an Ebay auction etc

Thanks

There is an Offshore SSB forum on Facebook and many folk might be interested as even if the 710 is a bit long in the tooth it can do as much with the USB Pactor as many modern sets. The only disadvantage over modern radios is that it does not have DSC.

SO long as you are sure that the Pactor modem is fine then there could be people on the Facebook group who might take it from you.

.https://www.facebook.com/groups/offshoressbradioandemail

Don't forget that should you have a Ham Licence that Winlink email system is available as well as Sailmail. Both of which will work with the Pactor modem and Winlink when used with a PC can link using the Vara software which is about the same speed as Pactor 3.

We used a 710 on one of our rigs in Egypt for telex (Amtor). It was very reliable .