SSB and /or long range chit chat

[Shearwater]

About ten years ago when I had my own office in the garden I fancied getting a long range radio (SSB?) and chat away with sailors etc on passage in the Atlantic or Pacific and went off to ham radio classes to study for a license. I, and a few other older blokes, quickly found we needed to understand how many diodes it takes to make a transistor and how many miliamps it takes to make kilovoltwat-thingy. So, now? Has anything changed or are they still at their gate-keeping activities to keep the less nimble out of the hobby? I don't need to know about interference if I have a state of the art digital radio do I? and if I really went long range sailing I'd take two radio units as they do on aeroplanes. Is it now possible to have a two way conversation, ham, without a City and Guilds in micro-electronics?

 

[KellysEye]

To use ham frequencies you need a ham licence, it's much as you describe but they've dropped the requirement for morse.

You could get a marine licence for the marine frequencies only (Long Range Radio Certificate, 4 days, little technical stuff).

 

[Shearwater]

Tks, hadn't heard of that - will explore.

 

[jimmcgee]

there are now 3 levels to ham radio , the first level foundation is easy to pass and can be done in 6 weeks , but only in the uk, marine radio can only be used on a boat , not shore to ship

 

[William_H]

The ham radio licence was not originally intended to permit communication but rather technical experimentation. It has over the years turned more toward chit chat as hams buy commercial gear. I suspect that now the whole thing is dying out with internet.
I listen a bit and it seems very quiet these days.
Not only is commercial gear good but the experimenting is far too technical and difficult with so much wrapped up in tiny packages and software.

Now the difficulty is that to set up a communications station to boats from home would need a station licence as well as an operating certificate. it would be difficult to justify a ship station licence without a ship ie from home. You may have to justify it as a SAR base or similar.

Incidentally I just got from an auction a SSB Hf transceiver and tuner for 20 squid. A Wagner it has most 2mhz channels in it but all individula crystrals. I also got another with commercial (mining) ( outback Royal Flying Doctor Service) frequencies in it a while back for a few bucks. All these SSB radios and no idea what to use them for. certianly not my boat it is too small.
It seems to me that boat and other SSB is declining in lieu of sat phones. good luck olewill

 

[Birdseye]

Wlliam H is correct - the original objective was experimentation and hence the need for some tech knowledge. However its not very much knowledge ( I passed my exam as a child at school) so you should easily be able to do it if you wanted. And you will need some tech knowledge to deal with issues like aerials.

The marine SSB licence is less technical I beleive but it will only license you to use marine bands and most probably from ships only. You maay think to yourself "well I'll ignore that" and use the ham bands that most yottie SSB is on - but genuine hams operators will mostly not respond to a "pirate". Nevertheless, thats what a number bof yotties do.

As a means of comms at sea, SSB is on its way out being perlaced by satellite - far more reliable. nevertheless, if you wanted to try I would suggest having another go at the ham licence. It really is pretty noddy these days.

 

[KellysEye]

>As a means of comms at sea, SSB is on its way out being perlaced by satellite

For big ships I'd agree. For long term, long distance cruising yachts I'd totally disagree - it's a 'must have' piece of kit.

It's used for voice weather, weather routing (e.g. Herb), fax (etc) weather, radio nets on passage (safety) and generally keeping in touch. Those that don't have it when they set off often fit it. Satellite will never replace it (we have SSB, Inmarsat and satphone), they all do different jobs.