ICOM SSB

P

PhilipH

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Thinking about blowing a ludicrous amont of money on SSB and the ICOM 801E looks the business, but then there's a list of optional extras as long as your arm. I'm sure the question will be answered when I do the licence course, but is it necessary to have an automatic antenna tuner - they look as if they take up masses of space? and have a price to match!
 
"but is it necessary to have an automatic antenna tuner"

It is if you want the radio to work.

You could save some money by buying a manual tuner - but auto one is easier to use.
 
There's no doubt that SSB is expensive (make sure the grounding is good too - we don't have an external fitting and have instead used lots of copper strip and have better than average propagation) but it is wonderful to speak to someone occasionally when you are hundreds of miles from land. Makes you realise you aren't the only loon who is out there.....you just don't get the same type of contact with an iridium phone. Watch out for the power drain though....they are a bit hungry.
 
An Automatic Tuning unit is essential as manual tuning is not really 'on' at sea, especially if there's anything of a seaway. It CAN be done, but it's a real pita.

Out of interest, have you considered saving a vast chunk of money and a lot of weight by getting something like the Icom 706 MkII HF transceiver? It's a 'Ham' radio, but most 'snip' it to open up all the channels (watch the Forum Holier than Thou's leap onto this one!!) to give complete marine frequency coverage.

We have used ours for 12 years whilst mostly full time cruising, and have achieved almost global communication with the right propagation conditions. The big advantage for a small boat is the size - about that of a car radio - weight, and the detachable front which means the bulk of the thing can be fitted out of sight, like the 810 IIRC.

I've used both the Icom 700 and 710 radios on long passages (the 710 was lousy) and the 700 was ok, but neither provided anything that the smaller radios can't do.

Just a thought. I don't know the current cost of the 810, but I suspect it's breathtakingly expensive compared with it's smaller cousin.
 
I am also thinking of a SSB, this is in anticipation of a long cruise. I dont want to retire and then have to start to learn (1) how to use the set (2) how to connect to laptop for weather downloads etc etc, Is it possible to buy a marine set but use it from home using a (big) power supply. Where is the best place to find out info on using etc PS where do you plan to buy from is it in UK?
Thanks all.
 
As Jerryat notes above, getting a ham radio could be the way to go - another advantage of ham (as opposed to SSB) is you can adjust the power output with the ham, whereas I dont think you can with an SSB (we can't with our Icom).

And if you are thinking about acquiring a ham radio, then the logical progression would be to do the City & Guilds evening class in ham radio and get your ham license - it is much easier now (compared to a few years ago) as they have now abolished the requirement in the UK for passing a Morse exam at 12 wpm.
 
[ QUOTE ]
And if you are thinking about acquiring a ham radio, then the logical progression would be to do the City & Guilds evening class in ham radio and get your ham license - it is much easier now (compared to a few years ago) as they have now abolished the requirement in the UK for passing a Morse exam at 12 wpm.

[/ QUOTE ]

They changed the system. You no longer need morse but you now have get the Foundation Licence, then the intermediate and then you can try to get the full licence (see http://www.rsgb.org/getlicence/)

Jonathan
GI7KMC
 
[ QUOTE ]
....and then you can try to get the full licence...

[/ QUOTE ]Quite - 'try' is the operative word if morse had been the problem in the past.

For those who don't know about the standards required, the required knowledge is way over O level physics though in a very specialist niche. If the restricted VHF certificate has a difficulty of 1, then the Long Range Certificate has a difficulty of 10 and a Full amateur licence has a difficulty of 100. The Full licence is required for use in tidal waters.
 
Phillip can I suggest you take advice from http://www.sailcom.co.uk/
Alternatively use a ham set with built in auto tuner such as a Kenwood TS570D
which you can buy secondhand. Setting one up on a boat is actually quite a bit of work
and it might be better to get prof help if you want it to be really useful ie wefax and email.
However I prefer dedicated marine Navtex and RTTY sets for simplicity. I have to be very bored to try wefax nowadays.
 
I'd second getting advice from www.sailcom.co.uk. They not only run the courses to secure a radio license but specialise in setting up pactor modems to interface with radio for emails / weatherfaxes etc.
We've just purchased the ICOM 801 in the UK for our our yacht in Turkey - and these guys had no issues in plugging my set into a 12v power supply, hung a wire from a window, sorted the modem wiring etc and then checked it worked fine.
So you could still buy the marine set and obviously set it up to use from home until such time as you install it on board.
Cheers
JOHN
 
Definitely a 'one off' experience. It was fitted on a boat that I skippered on a Gib-Caribbean-Bermuda-Gib trip a few years ago. The big problem seemed to be it's inability to remain tuned to a frequency so we had to keep fiddling with it while talking to Herb for example. It was getting on a bit but, in comparison with other rigs I've used, it was very poor and quite unlike Icom's usual standard.

As you say, perhaps just a 'bad' example, though two other cruising friends had very similar problems with theirs while we were in the Med. I therefore formed the opinion that there might be an inherent 'problem'.

By contrast, and on another transat, a 710 performed faultlessly and was far more stable. Just seemed much more impressive.

I've heard very good things about the 810 though I've never tried one, preferring to have the smaller, lighter (and much cheaper!) Icom 706 MkII aboard instead.
Fab little sets with impeccable manners like most, if not all, of the current Icom products!!!
 
This is good advice ( and no Lakesailoring of other contributions intended - or even variations lakewhatevering people) and the one I will pursue.

I'm a bit funny about opening up stuff and snipping - so whilst it might be more expensive I will sleep better.

Many thanks all.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Talk to Mactra Equipment & Fittings Ltd [mailto:jim@mactrashop.co.uk]

I bought our ICOM 801E from them 2 weeks ago, all the extra bits thrown in. Good service and a very good price as well.


[/ QUOTE ]

Do you know acording to icoms website the 801e draws 60amps on transmit and 6 on recieve!!!

http://www.icom.co.jp/world/products/marine/M801e/index.html

Look where it says current drain
Rob
 
Lemain, don't be so negative.

Go to the classes, hope you have a good teacher, get local club support and do a bit of studying. It's no worse than Coastal Skipper if you start from nowhere.

My wife passed the Radio Amateur exam first time years ago and she didn't take O level physics.
 
What do you mean by "the Radio Amateur exam"? Today, you need to go through three levels - Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced. For the Advanced exam, you need to study pretty difficult concepts such as impedance as well as resistance, standing waves, radio transmitter and receiver design (in pretty good block schematic detail) most of the different types of modulation and issues, different types of antenna, grounding, practical construction, loads of regulatory stuff, and lots more... Well over 'O level'. Indeed, I have a BSc Eng Hons Electrical and Electronic Engineering specialising in Instrumentation and Control and there was stuff in the Advanced that I needed to learn that I had never covered (or remember covering) on my degree course. Not for the faint-hearted. You aren't confusing this with the Long Range Certificate (Marine) are you? There is far more stuff - plain course material - to learn than for Coastal Skipper. Coastal Skipper in amount of study is somewhere between Foundation and Intermediate RSGB.
 
Dear sailor´s,
look at www.yachtfunk.com, there is a new ssb radio with built in Pactormodem .
See you in Las Palmas at the ARC ;-)
the site is in this moment online in german but in the next time in english available ! But you can write for any question in english .
Bye for now joerg
 
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