SSB e-mail - anyone able to connect from Solent?

[mixmaster]

I've just finished installin a SSB/pactor modem on our boat and have had local expert Bob Smith check over the installation. He informs me it is OK.
I'm not able to connect to Sailmail in our marina but he reassures me that we are too close the Belgian station to connect over 6k KHz and it should start working past Weymouth.

Now I could just listen to someone like Bob who knows but I'm going to ask on here instead:

Anyone able to connect to Sailmail in solent area a regularish basis?

 

[Bilgediver]

You don t always get the best link by going for the closest. If you have all the gumph then you could try selecting a station further away say on 14 MHZ if ham and 16MHZ on SSB . Long time since I played with data modes but used to have great fun working across the Atlantic on about 0.5 Watts ..

Listen around on the diferent frequencies and see who you can hear and then put out a pactor call.

 

[rogerdog]

Agree with Bilgediver - it's all to do with what is called the skip distance (or the resultant zone where you can't 'see' the signal) - ground wave (ie 'local' )will often only travel a surprisingly short distance as HF propagation normally relies on ionospheric propagation.(ie 100s or 1000s of miles depending on frequency) for daytime - yes 14 MHz or thereabouts is a good starting point and try mid Europe for contact (Germany Italy etc)


The other point -at present we are at a (very) low ebb of the sunspot cycle and HF propagation is (particularly on hinger frequencies) limited -but this is not the factor you are experiencing - just be forewarned and choose a frequency / time suitable for the skip at that moment.



Hope this helps

PS @Bilgediver lowest for me was 5 watts (at rig) using PSK31 -to ZL!! Atlantic - one watt

 

[Bilgediver]

PS @Bilgediver lowest for me was 5 watts (at rig) using PSK31 -to ZL!! Atlantic - one watt

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Must try PSK 31 as have the bits....I used to play with Amtor using a Commodore 64 and FT 102 . It kept the relays clean /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Another problem with short range Pactor may be a timing issue of the RX TX slots. This was certainly the case with Amtor where if the modem timing was set for long range then short range was impossible like ways if set for short range then long range was out.....exactly the same problem as with digital mobile phones which run out of range at about 15 kM.

Pactor 3 might have similar problems if the timing of RX and TX is critical within the slot.

 

[hightech]

I have installed a few of these setups and have not hit a problem with sailmail etc while in the solent area.

Finishing off an install next weekand will post how I get on.

 

[mixmaster]

Thanks hightech. Let me know. We spoke to Lyngby radio with good reception but no luck with Sailmail via Belgium.

For all the ham guys responding, Sailmail doesn't really have any easy to reach station from around here. And you're getting geeky on us with all the 5 watt rig talk. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Bilgediver]

For all the ham guys responding, Sailmail doesn't really have any easy to reach station from around here. And you're getting geeky on us with all the 5 watt rig talk.

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If you work the propagation then easy reach tomorrow means anywhere down the east coast of america round about noon and before that try to the east anywhere btween here and the middle east.

Don t concentrate on the station just over the hill!!!!

Being geeky sometimes helps with sitor and pactor as too much power can result in RF getting into the works and screwing things up... try Belgium in the morning on 6MHZ or 8MHZ if they have frequencies in those bands....I shall have to check them out as I am a geeky ham and more familiar with their networks.

Unfortunately radio waves don t always do as it says on the tin and have a mind of their own. Just like a woman. But boy can you have fun trying to get your way.

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[mixmaster]

Great advice bildgediver. I'm down on the boat from about 1030 tomorrow so I'll give it all a go. I'll give Belgium on 6MHz (they don't have a 4MHz station) 1st thing and then the US coast.

 

[Bilgediver]

Try Nova Scotia and South Carolina mid day tomorrow on around 14 MHZ and maybe again in the evening. The States has been quite good up here in Bonnie Scotland.

 

[Anonymous]

If Bob's happy with it then you can reckon the setup is OK. I also agree with Bilgediver. I installed mine when in Chichester and was able to connect via Belgium -- but it doesn't prove anything, atmospherics change. When you open Airmail, are you able to select the propagation display i.e. red, orange and green sectors for each station vs time? If not, you need to download that from Sailmail. I think it's called ITS HF Propagation, is that right, Bilgediver? Generally, only try to transmit when you are getting a good forecast connection unless you are a genuine anorak and know what you're doing. Try the Red Sea station, that was re-vamped last year, I think? Check on the propagation display when is best to try.

 

[wotayottie]

HF radio signals go up to radiation layers in the sky and bounce back down to the land, skipping some of the distances in between transmitter and receiver. the skipped distances vary according to frequency, and time of day but are unavoidable. you have to learn to live with them using lower frequencies in the morning and evening and higher at lunchtime. fact of electronic life.

so you can have nil reception when all your expensive kit is working 100%. Your installer is right.

and thats before you take into account the "noise" level in a built up area. for example, I have an SSB on board since I'm a radio ham. I find its almost unuseable in Swansea marina because there is so much unshielded electrical kit around emitting its own radio waves. illegal but ofcom are the proverbial chocolate poker.

 

[Bilgediver]

Great advice bildgediver. I'm down on the boat from about 1030 tomorrow so I'll give it all a go. I'll give Belgium on 6MHz (they don't have a 4MHz station) 1st thing and then the US coast.
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Try and get a copy of propagation tables which apparently are in the Sailmail program and try to understand the pattern of frequencies and directions and distances as the sun passes from one horizon to the other. To some geriatricss it becomes second nature but you do need to pay attention to this to get the best out of the system.

If you imagine that up in the sky is a big mirror . When you transmit some signal goes up and some goes horizontal. The signal that goes up returns to ground however it usually reaches the groud at a point that the ground signal does not reach so between these two signals is a deaf area though you are in range of the station. This could have been the case when you tried Belgium.

You should get the Red Sea station around the middle of the day.

I don t know if they still do them however good old Auntie (BBC) used to publish propagation tables though of course they were always to and from the UK.

 

[Bilgediver]

Yes Propagation tables need to be to hand and as the day passes you have to switch to different bands to get the best connections. Pactor 3 is an amazing mode and will work in conditions where you can not hear the signal however the more help you give it the faster it will be.

I shall have a snoop around to see what propagation tables are around however usually sites involved in shipping comms have them though less and less ships are using HF as they switch to satcomms.

 

[Anonymous]

It's actually built-in to Airmail 3. I installed it in 2005 and it was all running fine then I came across this highly complex-looking propagation package and decided I'd uninstall it as I thought I'd never used it. Wrong...it was being called by Airmail so I had to re-install it again.

I am not connected via the Pactor right now so can't describe what's in front of me, but when you try to open the SSB interface it gives the option of 'propagation'. For Winlink you get all the ham Winlink stations around the world and for Sailmail (different section) you only get the Sailmail ones. Makes it easy-peasy even for a completely non-technical guy. Anyone who got through the LRC will find that a doddle if they can find the correct setting in Airmail. Bob would talk him through it on the phone.

 

[Bilgediver]

I have just been reading the Sailmail/Airmail docs and it seems straight forward to load the propagation engine into the default directory. I must get hold of a pactor modem maybe even a PK232 and fire up some of the antique radios here /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Here is another Propagation Machine which runs on its own and can do any point in the world however you have to get the Solar Flux (Ooomph) index from elswhere.

I found this UK based Propagation Table which shows how different frequencies travel at different times of the day. Just click on the path you want for full details. Though a good indicator fr UK based sailors you need more for wandering the globe .

 

[mixmaster]

Well tried again with all the stations but no luck. I do use the propagation table supplied with Airmail and always call when it's in the green zone.
I think something is not right. I called Falmouth CG on 2152 and they responded that they could hear me but faintly. Likewise I was just hearing them.
Should this not been a clear signal calling from the Solent?