Long distance Sailing - Communication Question

[oliverkinchin]

Good Morning,

I am requesting assistance in regards to communication for Blue Water sailing.

We have a Rival 32 and will be taking part in Atlantic Rally next year. I have been looking intom forms of communication and have hit a brick wall. I orginally thought about using a Satellite phone but have also looked at SSB radiosas a better option. Now the price for a SSB, the Icom M80 is huge, looking at around £3,000, and a Satallite phone is around £700.

What would be the suggestions for communication in long distance sailing at a reasonable price?

Any suggestions very welcome.

Thank you,

Oliver

 

[Dockhead]

There are gigabytes of discussion on this question on here and other cruising forums. I suggest that you should delve into the archives.

An oversimplified summary:

1. Satphone for convenience and cost -- if you don't plan to chatter much. Plus you can communicate with land. Expensive internet.

2. SSB to communicate regularly with other boats, get weatherfax, listen in on the nets. Can't communicate easily with land. Cheap or free internet, but extremely slow.


SSB is a complicated tool which requires a lot of work to learn to use effectively. You will never need for coastal sailing. Many people consider it to be simply not worth installing just for one ARC. This fact adds another disadvantage to having SSB -- fewer and fewer boats have it, so fewer and fewer people to communicate with.

I, on the other hand, consider SSB to be a splendid toy with a hundred uses. I hope to install one this winter. I already have a sat phone, so it's not an entirely calculated decision.

 

[Reverend Ludd]

Good Morning,

I am requesting assistance in regards to communication for Blue Water sailing.

We have a Rival 32 and will be taking part in Atlantic Rally next year. I have been looking intom forms of communication and have hit a brick wall. I orginally thought about using a Satellite phone but have also looked at SSB radiosas a better option. Now the price for a SSB, the Icom M80 is huge, looking at around £3,000, and a Satallite phone is around £700.

What would be the suggestions for communication in long distance sailing at a reasonable price?

Any suggestions very welcome.

Thank you,

Oliver

You can buy an SSB second hand for say £350 and an auto tuner for say £150 ( check out my sales posts ). antenna for the backstay is pretty cheap and some kind of grounding is also cheap.
Communication is then FOC.

 

[oliverkinchin]

I like you style and I like the fact that you may have saved me some serious ££££'s. Yes, it seems to be quite an extravagant unit and I certainly cannot take away the uses it offers, however as you say Satellite phone seems a more cost effective way of communicating and if SSB is becoming less used then I think for the ARC Satellite is the way to go.

I appreciate your feedback but can I also ask which brand of Satellite phone you have?

 

[rickym]

We have also considered what long range comms to use as we are planning a long term cruise including an atlantic crossing at the end of 2012.

We have seriously looked at SSB setup and Satphone and have come to the conclusion that the Satphone is the best option for us. The cost of the SSB set up, installation and the training course to get the license is considerable. The cost of the airtime with the satphone is not cheap but we will be able to telephone and speak to people which will be good in the event of an emergency or a problem.

The downside is not being able to join in with radio nets on SSB. We have an SSB receiver so we can listen in and recieve weather info. If we want to talk to people locally we have the VHF. For us part of the pleasure of sailing is the peace and quiet away from the everyday world. The key for us was how we kept in contact with grown up children at 'home'. E-mail via the Satphone when away from land for any length of time, wifi etc when tied alongside or close in at anchor, local SIM for calls in Europe, SMS or in desperation a call on the Satphone. 1$ a min is a small price to reassure loved ones or get assistance in an emergency. We also have EPIRB and PLB as part of the real safety kit.

 

[oliverkinchin]

Thank you Rickym, yes I agree and having a SSB reciever is a good idea and working with Satellite.

I do not thing I need the expense of installation and course at the moment as evrything else is costing huge amounts of money.

Thank you for your response.

 

[rickym]

Tell me about it!

 

[blaggard]

Has anybody tried the skymate system?( http://www.skymate.com) It seems a good alternative to ssb/satphone and gives position reporting, email and weather.

 

[Bosun Higgs]

Good Morning,

I am requesting assistance in regards to communication for Blue Water sailing.

We have a Rival 32 and will be taking part in Atlantic Rally next year. I have been looking intom forms of communication and have hit a brick wall. I orginally thought about using a Satellite phone but have also looked at SSB radiosas a better option. Now the price for a SSB, the Icom M80 is huge, looking at around £3,000, and a Satallite phone is around £700.

What would be the suggestions for communication in long distance sailing at a reasonable price?

Any suggestions very welcome.

Thank you,

Oliver

I have never sailed across an ocean and I never want to do so. But I am a radio ham and can comment from that perspective.

SSB radio is an old technology ( it isnt even digital yet) and there are far better and more reliable comms links through satellites. OK ssb is fine to play with and for non emergency uses where bad reception isnt that much of an issue. Weather forecasts for example ( once you are out there in a slow boat like a rival you arent going to outrun any storm so why do you need to know what is coming?) or chat. But to call for help you must have some satellite system - an epirb if not a phone. I'm not even sure that there is anyone listening out for cries for help on SSB any longer

There are plenty of second hand SSB ham radios about and they can usually be "all banded" which is to say altered to works on other than ham radio bands. For example. The only thing you would miss compared to a new marine set is the DSC facility

 

[Conachair]

Good Morning,

I am requesting assistance in regards to communication for Blue Water sailing.

We have a Rival 32 and will be taking part in Atlantic Rally next year. I have been looking intom forms of communication and have hit a brick wall. I orginally thought about using a Satellite phone but have also looked at SSB radiosas a better option. Now the price for a SSB, the Icom M80 is huge, looking at around £3,000, and a Satallite phone is around £700.

What would be the suggestions for communication in long distance sailing at a reasonable price?

Any suggestions very welcome.

Thank you,

Oliver

If it's just a one off across to carib then prob easiest is iridium with data lead and mag aerial off ebay and a 3 month sim card. You can get an ssb reciever cheap which will recieve weatherfax for the weather.
Long term many cruisers go ssb of ham route. That's the way I'm heading for next time, last crossing was with sat phone. Airtime and sim card would have paid most of currently getting sorted out ham rig.

 

[Sandyman]

I have never sailed across an ocean and I never want to do so.
once you are out there in a slow boat like a rival you arent going to outrun any storm so why do you need to know what is coming?)

Bosun Higgs if you read the thread on Heavy Weather Sailing it will answer your question.
Perhaps your first sentence is the reason for your question.

 

[KellysEye]

If you are doing the ARC definitely fit an SSB. There is a radio net going over where you get a weather forecast for your area, chats about local weather with boats 50 miles away, fishing news and other chatter. It's lonely out there even with crew the net cheers everybody up. We also signed up with Herb Hilderenberg who does free Atlantic forecasts for your specific position. It's a great service, full details here:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/hehilgen/vax498.htm

When you are in the Caribbean there is an SSB safety and security net, and two stations broadcasting weather also on SSB. You will also meet up with other boats with SSB and we had regular chats mainly about where we were going or being asked what places were like. Basically on ocean passages and cruising areas outside Europe SSB is the lifeblood of cruising. You'll be very glad you fitted it.

We did carry a satphone but kept it in the grab bag with no airtime - emergency calls are free. Just about everything else is costly.

 

[lenseman]

Has anybody tried the skymate system?( http://www.skymate.com) It seems a good alternative to ssb/satphone and gives position reporting, email and weather.

Skymate doesn't seem to cover the Indian Ocean or the Pacific Ocean specifically FP.

 

[Skylark]

I have never sailed across an ocean and I never want to do so. But I am a radio ham and can comment from that perspective.

SSB radio is an old technology ( it isnt even digital yet) and there are far better and more reliable comms links through satellites. OK ssb is fine to play with and for non emergency uses where bad reception isnt that much of an issue. Weather forecasts for example ( once you are out there in a slow boat like a rival you arent going to outrun any storm so why do you need to know what is coming?) or chat. But to call for help you must have some satellite system - an epirb if not a phone. I'm not even sure that there is anyone listening out for cries for help on SSB any longer

There are plenty of second hand SSB ham radios about and they can usually be "all banded" which is to say altered to works on other than ham radio bands. For example. The only thing you would miss compared to a new marine set is the DSC facility

This is helpful, Bosun, thanks. I'm still at the "dreamer" stage of long distance cruising but I'd like to get the LRC qualification. Very few training establishments seem to do it and living in Greater Manchester makes it even more difficutl by adding travel to south coast. It seems an obstacle to usng it legally.

I have an old Trio TS120V somewhere in the loft, I'll search to see if anyone can convert this to cover marine bands, any suggestions?

David G4PYH / IK0GKN