ICOM M710 and amateur radio

[RobbieW]

I'm getting interested in ham radio on the boat and think I will set off on the long road to a licence...

Going right back to the beginning here, I've remembered how I approached the long road. I did parts 1 & 2 as self study and just took the exam whilst going through a once a week classroom & self study for the Advanced license with a local club (Portsmouth). 1 & 2 arent especially hard if you've already got some experience using radios onboard and can switch in to the terminology. I think I did zero to hero in about 4 months (which is probably why using ham stuff for nets after 4 years is a bit of an uphill climb )

 

[RobbieW]

Frequencies and channels...

I find this is mostly what we are used to. I'm very happy with marine VHF channels through usage but 121.5 is also burned into my memory having been trained in avionics. I've never really got the hang of metre bands - its more to do with antenna length than anything your actally going to tune the radio to - give me a number in Hz & I know where I'm at.

I dont really remember phone numbers anymore, the mobile does that which is a sort of channelising. Given the opportunity (technology) many of us will pre-program stations we frequently use whatever the medium. Maybe mariners are deemed numpties and have everything made easy by channeling , alternatively you could argue that it takes some complexity out of what may be a stressful environment - hams play with radios for fun! My HF set has only been used for email so far so Airmail handled all the complexity, I've not actually spoken to anyone with it.

In this debate, if I was starting from scratch I might not choose a marine set. I'm not starting from scratch, nor is oldvarnish. I wouldnt rip out a working set when it can be made to do what I think I want with a bit of patience and research - if the radio keeps working (touches wood) I'm likely to stick with it.

 

[MM5AHO]

"I find this is mostly what we are used to."

Yes, I guess this is important.
I wasn't really suggesting using a ham radio on VHF marine bands, and probably confused the thread by mentioning that my ham radio could be used this way if in desperation.
But on HF, its far easier (in my opinion) to use a variable tuning to tune channelised marine frequencies that to use a largely channelised marine radio for ham bands.

 

[funk-an-bord.de]

Some of the USB /serial ports available might not do.

I use a Lenovo x61 and in the docking station is a RS232 port fitting the COM requirements of the ICOM programming software.
You might run the DOS program inside of Win7 when you install XP in a Oracle virtual box.
But the partition for the XP must be formated in Fat32.
I have not tested it in recent docking stations.
Greetings, Wilhelm

 

[Jon Mat]

I definitely have the software and the cable, acquired this winter. The software has to run in a real, not emulated, DOS environment on a machine with a real serial, not USB-Serial, port - they were very definite about that over in cruisersforum - something to do with direct access to serial registers. I now have that setup and can confirm it works, however PCs with real serial ports are now in short supply so perhaps a call to Bob at SailCom (I'd offer but unless you're in Sicily....)

If you use Airmail for Winlink with a Pactor modem, the connections can be set up to control the M710 through the Pactor modem so presetting the frequencies is not necessary. I'm currently trying to set up RMS Express to do the same but so far it doesnt want to.

btw, as has been said you need the full ham license for MM (Maritime Mobile) use as a UK resident. The coursework for that is designed for those who want to build their own equipment so involves a fair degree of electronics theory - I didnt find it easy even though I covered much the same material 40 years ago as an avionics apprentice.

Hello
I know this is an old topic but I’m looking for help to get an M710 open for continuous tx without any gaps?
Having read this thread I can see you need a cable and software and the understanding to do it??
I’m in Devon if there’s any assistance available?
Kindest regards
Jon

 

[Goldie]

If, by chance, anyone is looking for an Icom 710, then this one is still for sale: Icom 710 SSB