Marine SSB,HAM and NETS

M

mocruising

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My boat is in the Eastern Med. I have a Furuno FS 1550 Marine SSB on board. This season I tried to hook up with both the UK NET and the Med. NET. I could listen in but not contribute as my Marine set only covers the marine bands. Is there any way it could be adapted/modified to transmit outside the marine band ie to the Ham frequencies.
 
What is the ham frequency of the Med net you are referring to?
There is a website which I do not have to hand, which advise on "snipping"
but I don't know if they cover Furuno. Would no doubt invalidate any guarantee.
You could buy a second hand Ham rig as well(I got an icom 706) if you're seriously into radio.
However you would need a ham license for most hams to talk to you.
 
Speak to Furuno as this is a standard mod for marine sets used offshore for them to talk out of band to private stations ashore etc... They always quoted me free running processors so maybe just a chip swap.
 
There are two issues here....

1. If you 'open' or 'snip' your legal marine radio it will cease to comply, and becomes illegal to use. I don't know of anyone who has ever been prosecuted but then again you need to know the legal position to decide for yourself what to do.

2. You are breaking the law if you transmit on the amateur bands without a licence or not in accordance with your licence terms. Some countries are pretty relaxed (e.g. the US, I hear) others are potentially severe (UK). Some countries in the Eastern Med had a reputation for locking you up if you were seen with a pair of binoculars...I don't fancy the idea of being caught with a powerful unlicenced radio setup. Then again, lots say that they do it.....though most amateurs won't talk to anyone without a valid callsign and you can check online in seconds.

I am explaining what the law actually is, not what it should be /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I am a radio ham and have marine SSB and amateur SSB on board.
 
Next question is this. I spend six months of the year in the Middle East in Qatar. There is a HAM radio club here that I can join and obtain a call sign and license. My boat is in the Med. would I be able to use this call sign and license on my boat in the Med.
 
You need to check what the Qatar licence permits you to do.

If your yacht is British it should be in accordance with the British regs. You may install any radio equipment you like on your yacht provided it and you are properly licenced for it. If you open or snip your legal marine RT it will not be legal though many if not most yachtsmen with SSB do it that way. You could then operate on the amateur bands using your Qatar callsign provided your Qatar licence gives you that privilege.
 
Interesting that this should come up just when I have arranged for a SSB to be fitted to the Moody (Aguadulce - Lemain) and I have started an Amateur licence (Foundation, Intermediate, Advanced) with the idea of covering all plus the RYA long range cert. To be honest I'm not sure what advantage the RSGB qual gives but it's fun anyway.
 
We ought to get our heads together then, if you are in Aguadulce. There are a few British expat hams about both ashore and afloat.

What do you mean by "advantage of RSGB"? If you are a UK resident you are supposed to take the British exams (RSGB) and will have a British callsign. If you do it this way you are completely regular.

I'm sure you know, but for the benefit of others following the thread, you are required to have a 'Full' licence to operate a set on a boat in tidal waters, and (I think) any set overseas.

Which SSB are you installing?
 
Med ham frequencies

Has anyone heard the alleged Med net on 7085?
I do sometimes get the wx on 8122.
Occasionally listen to John on 14156 although not maritime.
Any other suggestions apart from 14303!
 
Qatar is not a CEPT signatory country, so the ham license is not valid anywhere else apart from Qatar.

Tim
Muscat - A45WG
 
the brit ham course is so easy these days, just buy the book if you are that way inclined, no morse to do any more either, shame.. sob sob.
There are some really nice ham rigs out there cheapo, a Kenwood TS50 is great small unit, and the 706 is a classic nowadays. External dsp units are commonly available and often better than the manufacturers options, on voice.. not on data.
Joe

G4XRZ & 2WGY
 
[ QUOTE ]
the brit ham course is so easy these days, just buy the book if you are that way inclined

[/ QUOTE ]

The foundation and intermediate exams are a bit of a joke, but the advanced exam (which is needed for operation at sea) is not trivial. Most people require some fairly serious study time to pass.
 
Or, I could sell you my old G1 callsign lol, never reused... just missed the G6 series in the early 80´s.
Or, I could rent it out...

to quote the royal surrey gas board..

"When studying for the Advanced Radio Communications Examination there is currently no requirement to take a formal training course, this is because the examination is currently theory based, with no practical training element in the syllabus. It is possible to study at home on your own if you so wish. However, many local amateur radio clubs and societies and technical colleges run courses specifically for the Advanced Radio Communications Examination. Alternatively there are some correspondence and Internet courses available."

Its all in the gas board manual if needed, Guys like Lemain are prepared to help others study, and that offers an easy route to a full licence if you winter in a liveaboard marina.. there are plenty of sample exam questions available.

So, its not tooo difficult, and not a patch on years ago,
Wheres me Zimmer Nurse, and me good ol Iambic keyer.....
 
I don't disagree, just don't trivialise the effort needed. Some people find it easy, many, I know, find it very demanding.


Personally, I 'studied' entirely by myself and then sat the 3 exams back to back in a UK club. I scored 100% on both foundation and intermediate and took a fraction of the required time. I thought they were an insult to my intelligence, although I understand that it is possible to fail them. But the advanced exam, I actually enjoyed sitting because I found it challenging. I don't know what I scored (unlike the other two it is marked centrally and you just get a pass/fail result). But I know it wasn't 100% because at least one question had me flummoxed. I hope I got all the others correct.

To prepare for it, I jut read, re-read and understood the 3 RSGB books on the syllabus. For me that involved some months of regularly picking it up and looking over different bits (I kept the advanced book in bog). For fun and because I am something of a perfectionist I also got my cw to a reasonable speed.
 
_ . .. _. _. . _ _ _ _ . .

I dont intend to trivialise it Sir, not at all, but like any other subject, there is stacks of info out there, and as its theory only, it makes it a lot more straight forward than years ago. The internet has reduced learning times incredibly for most subjects.

For most, it should only be a bog study over the winter, not much more.. the best things are learnt on the throne, and the best ideas come from there too.
 
That is a bit misleading. It isn't that easy for people with no science or engineering background. It is do-able but not easy. I have an honours degree in electrical and electronic engineering and while it wasn't hard for me, I put the hours in. Like whipper snapper I am a perfectionist and scored 100% on the first exams and got a couple wrong on the advanced. Quite a bit of the exam is about the terms of the licence and nothing to do with radio engineering or usage and like any exam on law it simply has to be learnt, you can't 'reason it out' in the exam hall.

Practical tests are required, not for the final exam but to be granted a Full licence you need to be signed off for practical work. RSGB will advise. Of course a Full licence is needed for use afloat (on tidal waters).

You have to have passed the Foundation to be eligible to sit the Intermediate, to take the Advanced.

I have not heard of any correspondence or Internet courses - indeed I tried to find one in 2004 and couldn't, maybe they are available now? Can you let us have a link?

In 2004 there were no sample papers as the exams were all new; I took the first sitting of the new exams at the RSGB HF Conference in Crawley, and it was a problem then. Presumably it is a bit easier now but unless they have produced lots of dummy papers the selection of genuine past papers will be poor.

There is no need to swot for the Morse. You are given a look-up card, the examiner says "dit-dit-dit, dah-dah-dah, dit-dit-dit" and you have to decode the letter. Then you have to 'send' a few letters with a dead (unplugged) Morse key. There should be no need to study for that, it really is like falling off a log. I don't see why everyone is so upset about the demise of Morse. For 99.9% of amateurs the only need for it now is to determine the callsign of transmitters and you can easily look that up. Same in marine or aviation.
 
it does not need an honours degree lol
try the rsgb website for details of current procedures, courses available etc etc.
it is like any other new subject, yes it takes time to learn, but it is not rocket science, not difficult and not overly complex

As they say about degrees etc, what do you say to an honours student on first meeting them, ? - "Hold the Mayo" /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Find a middle ground, it just involves a bit of study and application. Nothing more.

No wonder there are so many pirates out there if people frighten them off with tales of wee hours studying and graft. For most, normal, reasonably educated people, then they only need to buy and study the gas board manual, thats it, cos thats what the exam is based on, if they struggle on a particular aspect, then the net is there to assist, so are clubs and mates.

As for morse, morse is great and still used by many amateurs worldwide, it is fun, and it gets through when other systems fail. the beauty of morse was that it kept the bleeding cb mentality, or lack of, wallers off the shortwave bands and acted as a filter. Yes, I personally think its a shame its gone, but thats another story. Now we have a very basic tech exam more about interference to others than functionality of radio systems, and also procedural, as there always was.. but that is it. !

make up your own mind folks, buy the rsgb manuals, about 25 quid for the three, easy going, not overly challenging, no need to get 100 % of anything, and thats it. a licence for life. At one time you had to at least build your own GDO lol, now you just need to choose the shiney set that fits in a space and learn to press a few buttons and talk.. dont make a mountain out of a molehill, just another subject to learn, the highway code test is probably more realistic in it´s use, more complex, and more worthwhile.
Joe /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Hmm. Well, judge for yourself. The syllabus is here:

www.rsgb.org/tutors/advanced/pdf/syllabus0707.pdf

I know that many people at the club I used were having pink kittens at the prospect and had attended a long series of evening classes.

Most questions were straightforward and involved applying formulae or recalling facts. Many were less than obvious, some contained traps for the unwary by framing an apparently straightforward question in an unexpected way, and 1 or 2 were really 'nice' questions that required true understanding.

None of the old farts (including my father, a G3) that I have discussed this with think the requirements are much easier than in the 'good old days' - with the exception of the dropping of CW.
 
Less of the old farts !!! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif


Yes, it all looks terribly complicated to the unitiated, but so does the highway code etc....

But thats why, rather than look at a syllabus, it is best to look at the books themselves.. ALL new subjects are complicated at first sight... new terms etc...

I used to teach junior doctors and paramedics to interpret 12 lead ECG printouts for assisting diagnosis of AMI, If I show you a Syllabus for that, it looks horrendous, but once they understood the conductive pathways of the heart, and added a few simple rules, like, say, changes in leads 2 3 and AVF could indicate an infarction in a different location to leads 1 AVL and the V leads, they sort of went, oh .. is that it.... you learn one bit a time, basic concepts make apparantly complex concepts basic in themselves.
If you dont understand aerofoil section basic theory, how can you determine what makes a boat sail apparantly upwind ? etc etc...

I will be honest, the syllabus is quite comprehensive now, the fact you can have a copy of the procedual and licence document at hand is amazing, but fairs fair, the tech side is diluted, but not too much...

as with all things seemingly complex, start at the beginning, one foot in front of the other, and soon you can run.

old farts ?? pah.... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
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