Idiots Guide to SSB?

brainstorm said:
Can I download this data without getting a licence, and is there a station in the UK I could call just to check the system is working? The coastguard perhaps?
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You can't receive GRIBs without the radio transmitting so you'll need a licence.
The coastguard are pretty rubbish at MF/HF radio checks.
I'm not sure what your location is but I'm happy for you to try and test with me sometime, UK South West.
 
Is there some info on where to do the Long Range Certificate exam and the pre-exam requirements. I was exempt from the SRC course and just did the exam, maybe I am exempt from the LRC course too and go sraight to the exam?

On top of that I am an experienced amateur radio operator, we have an HF set on board I use with my amateur callsign, just curious as to the route to get the LRC.
 
Thanks G12 I am near Liverpool but the boat is up in Portavadie on Loch Fyne. Maybe when we are next on board, and if you are on board your boat, we could liaise by mobile phone and you could try calling me at an agreed time on a suitable channel and I could reply by pressing PTT 5 times. Hopefully I won’t get locked up for that! If that is practical I can on you and we can have a chat over the phone?
 
I have an ICOM on board, aerial as part of one of the backstays, a KISS counterpoise, and Icom tuner, and the licences.

Actually, I have to agree with another poster, while obtaining the licences isnt too much effort, as with many licences there is a significant amount of theory that is largely irrelevant to a skipper who wants to operate one of the sophisticated SSB radios now available. My Icom is connected to the PC and I can automatically operate the SSB from the PC interface. It is hardly any more complicated than any radio. I think there is a very good argument for distinguishing berween Ham amateurs who want to operate a range of radios and experiment with different configurations and operators whose only interest is as a means of communication.

In the UK it is almost useless other than for the Ham aspect. There is almost no marine chatter. In the Med. it has more use, and in the Windies and the States even more.

I agree as a means of receiving weather for those with Sat Comms., SSB has little of merit. For marine nets and sharing information and general chatter it is invaluable, and its costs benefits come into their own.

I also have Inmarsat Fleet, but it is horrendously expensive (although very good) for anything other than Grib files and emergencies. SSB on the other hand is probably better in some areas for emergencies, but not in others.
 
brainstorm said:
Thanks G12 I am near Liverpool but the boat is up in Portavadie on Loch Fyne. Maybe when we are next on board, and if you are on board your boat, we could liaise by mobile phone and you could try calling me at an agreed time on a suitable channel and I could reply by pressing PTT 5 times. Hopefully I won’t get locked up for that! If that is practical I can on you and we can have a chat over the phone?
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Don't forget ... it is of course quite legal for you to operate the radio if someone else is onboard with an "authority to operate", ie holds a long range certificate. I am sure that it is extremely unlikely anyone would actually ask for the operators info but if at a later date you were questioned as to who was there with you, you won't have much trouble finding their name and passing it along.
 
brainstorm said:
Thanks G12 I am near Liverpool but the boat is up in Portavadie on Loch Fyne. Maybe when we are next on board, and if you are on board your boat, we could liaise by mobile phone and you could try calling me at an agreed time on a suitable channel and I could reply by pressing PTT 5 times. Hopefully I won’t get locked up for that! If that is practical I can on you and we can have a chat over the phone?
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I'll drop you a PM with my number.
You will need to actually speak on the test call as when you transmit on SSB there isn't a carrier like FM or AM so power only goes up the spout when you actually talk. That's why SSB is efficient on power consumption as well as making it much more narrow banded than AM.
As someone else suggested, if the radio is listed on the ships radio licence (free), all you need to do is find someone with an LRC or GOC ticket...
 
The UK amateur licensing system is not excessively onerous (syllabus has just been overhauled for the first 2 exams), but does require a certain level of understanding. I assist in a club offering the exams principally to Cambridge students; we give them the book for each level and let them get on with it. Failures are uncommon with this strategy...but inevitably the nature of the society draws a lot of people from the sciences in, so the background is there already. A couple of friends have passed all three exams without looking at the books at all, including one who did them all back-to-back in a day. I did the first two together and the third a month or so later.

One might almost say it's similar to learning to sail; one has to master a certain amount of theory and a little bit of practice before one is given a ticket to the effect that you are unlikely to do any damage to other people. In the radio world, you need such a ticket... Note though that the exams are focussed on those interested in amateur radio rather than those viewing it merely as a tool for other things.

G12, I'm rather impressed by the set-up you link on G8OFQ's boat.

Still haven't set up anything on Aphrodite for permanent HF capabilities, though I don't really need the HF/MF marine bands (given my cruising area is mostly in GMDSS zone A1).

Regards
William
 
weustace said:
G12, I'm rather impressed by the set-up you link on G8OFQ's boat.
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I've worked Geoff a few times now, he's ashore in Hoy and has been for a while. Not sure if he has any more /MM activities planned but whatever antenna he's got certainly does the business on 40m, always a cracking signal.
 
SSBs are the life blood of long distance cruising they are used to keep touch with other boats on passages, weather forecasts, nets in marinas and anchorages. The ground makes up half the aerial metal boats have best signal. Connecting the tuner to the aerial should use copper foil as far a possible. Do no touch the Arial when transmitting you can light a cigarette on it. You do need a SSB licence, LRC, we also got a satellite endorsement to fit an Inmarsat C it makes getting weather forecasts much easier, incoming email is free.
 
KellysEye said:
Do no touch the Arial when transmitting you can light a cigarette on it.
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That's a nice urban myth. Loads of antenna wires are plastic coated for example.

What isn't a myth is grabbing the antenna and getting an RF burn which is something entirely different. The RF energy heats the flesh from the inside out in the same way that a microwave heats food. The antenna doesn't get hot though.
I've had a small RF burn in my finger and it wasn't pleasant.
 
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