HF kit. What do you have.

Monique

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The HF kit on new boat is well past its "best by" date.

I want HF, Pactor etc. We need full capability as we are heading off on RTW journey.

Thank you as always.
 
Icom M802 with DSC enabled, nice piece of kit. I have a Pactor modem but have not installed it yet.

Normally, do not transmit on high power as it is not needed, as always good ground system is essential

The main issues I have had over the last 10 years are

The microphone cable insulation fragments in the tropics after a couple of year BUT ICOM USA have at last owned up to the fault and will replace FOC. When I visited ICOM UK in 2013, they had not heard of the fault

I have had to replace the head set after 6 years when the screen went

Be aware that the set is powered UP even when the switch on the head set is off. The ground wire sends RF and 12V dc to the grounding point so I have fitted a double throw, double pole switch to stop this and also a grounding isolation bridge as I have a steel boat and do not want stray 12 volts flowing around
 
SWMBO requirement... also nice to have for weather/emails.

She could actually talk to people with a sat phone, and (with data setup) get emails for weather a whole lot quicker than HF too. Loads cheaper setup than HF - and you still have vhf for talking to people within sorta sailing range, instead of people in New Orleans...
 
She could actually talk to people with a sat phone, and (with data setup) get emails for weather a whole lot quicker than HF too. Loads cheaper setup than HF - and you still have vhf for talking to people within sorta sailing range, instead of people in New Orleans...
After an Atlantic circuit with sat phone I went the ham route. One big problem with sat is the sim cards, there's no way to deactivate and activate again so you end up paying line rental for months on end while chilling out in some beautiful coast before another ocean crossing, and overnight delivery of a new sim can means weeks on end visiting every office on the island where a package might be delivered.
Not so much skinflints but just not loaded. The airtime savings on a crossing would go a long way to pay for a cheaper Ham setup.
But that's Ham, not that difficult but you probably really need to be interested in the technology if you go that way as opposed to marine SSB which seems a lot easier for the less techy. Expensive license though.
 
A lot of long distance sailors are skinflints on a budget. I got from eBay an Icom706 Mk11 for £500 and it works well, esp now I've also bought a big fat Varta service battery to enable transmission without running the engine. But then I already had a Ham license. Mind you 90% of radio use is just receiving. I haven't (yet) got email Pactor and may never. As TCM (have you won the lottery!) says a mobile or VHF or wifi is fine for local use when you've arrived somewhere.
 
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I went rtw with no hf at all.

I've got HF, but if I was doing a RTW and working to a budget I'd go down the sat phone/laptop route for emails, voice and weather.

Ham radio, of course, requires you hold a full licence to transmit from a vessel at sea, and that requires quite a commitment - as I am currently finding out.

The plus side of HF is that you get your emails for free, but often less reliably.
 
She could actually talk to people with a sat phone, and (with data setup) get emails for weather a whole lot quicker than HF too. Loads cheaper setup than HF - and you still have vhf for talking to people within sorta sailing range, instead of people in New Orleans...
Ive got a Delorme Communicator. It is basically a simple satphone that connects by bluetooth to an Ipad or Android, you type emails on the pad and then press send, the Communicator then sends it to a sat and then it goes down to the net. £100 off Ebay, brand new. Cost me $39 to activate it, and $39 a month with the option to suspend by month if not needed. I get 40 by 160 character emails a month, with unlimited auto emails plus a tracker that drops a trackpoint every hour on a Delorme website for all to see. Go to share.delorme.com/Sacha plus a password is needed. PM if you want to look. My mate weather routed me across Biscay and I did the same for him. They are brilliant. If you go over your limit on emails they cost 50 cents each extra.
S
 
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>Be aware that the set is powered UP even when the switch on the head set is off. The ground wire sends RF and 12V dc to the grounding point

Wow. Icom M802 with DSC enabled, I've never heard anyone with one of those having that problem, I can't believe Icom would design something like that are you sure it's not a fault in the radio? Out of interest you can light a cigarette on an SSB aerial was the same power as the aerial going to the ground? We also had a steel boat and had a M700 which didn't do that.
 
>Be aware that the set is powered UP even when the switch on the head set is off. The ground wire sends RF and 12V dc to the grounding point

Wow. Icom M802 with DSC enabled, I've never heard anyone with one of those having that problem, I can't believe Icom would design something like that are you sure it's not a fault in the radio? .

No it is not a fault with the radio, all 802's do this as confirmed by Bob Smith at SailCom Marine who supplied the grounding isolation bridge.

However the Icom 801 does not have this problem, something to do with CE regulations
 
Hi John_q
have sent you a pm with my email on.....would it be possible for you to send me some in depth info of your set up please especially around the grounding isolation bridge etc.
 
I have Icom M710 plus Pactor P4 Dragon modem. The system works a treat for voice and for emails.
 
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