SSB E-Mail

[summerwind]

I am soon attending a course to obtain SSB qualification.

I have been reading about using SSB for e-mail. This appeals to me as you have world wide coverage without hyper expense of sat phones.

Is anyone using SSB e-mail pleaase? Which provider do you use? Does it work well?

Thanks for any responses.

 

[salamicollie]

There are a few services on the marine bands e.g. www.keilradio.com but there are more on the ham bands (which a marine HF set can't access) in either case you need a radio modem...

I believe it works but rather slowly, definitely text only!

 

[snowleopard]

try Sailmail

i think the address is www.sailmail.com

they are based in the US (E&W coasts) but you won't get decent reception from more than say 1500 miles. modems are expensive but the service is cheap

 

[HaraldS]

I'm using SSB E-mail, provided through Kielradio. ( www.kielradio.de )
Results were mixed, but I will renew next year since I found it quite useful.

I also have e-mail and Internet access via Iridium and found that the two complement each other. For example: For most of the passage from Ireland to the Azores Iridium 'worked o.k. for voice, but data connections kept getting stuck apparently due to quite long propagation delays. Those were also a bit disturbing for voice calls, but quite manageable there. I'm talking of about a one second delay.

So on that stretch I did considerably better getting my daily short e-mails in and out via SSB and most of the time I was able to get a fresh GRIB file (around 10k to 15k) for the weather routing.

Inversely, in the immediate vicinity of the Azores the SSB connection was very bad, and Martin Reincke from Kielradio confirmed that this was a known, yet unexplained phenomena. And indeed, about 200 miles SE of the Azores, en route to Madeira, I had the finest SSB connection ever, with the transmission going near the maximum speed of the new PACTOR III protocol, which is said to be 2700 bits/second.

I need to say that a tenth of this is more typical, which means it is VERY slow and I had to go beyond the daily budget of ten minutes several times to get my basic needs satisfied. So far they have been tolerating this, and I found the channels that I could receive, not very busy; It was always more a question whether you would get a signal at all.

You sort of need to "listen in" a couple times per day to determine when there is a good signal. They operate on 2, 4, 8, 12 and 17 MHz, but I never, at any time or location, found a signal on 2 or 17. For where I was sailing the 8 and 12 MHz seemed to be what worked.

To use SSB e-mail, you need a special controller or modem. You can get through a provider like Kielradio, or directly from SCS. ( www.scs-ptc.com ). I have opted for the more expensive PTC II-pro, but the IIe does the job as well. These controllers are a masterpiece of engineering and can decode about anything including NAVTEX, Weather fax, Sat images and more. PACTOR III is the latest trick and it is fascinating to read how it works. I think Kielradio is the first e-mail service, working with the new PACTOR mode.

I found the software rock solid (as opposed to the crappy software on Iridium) and it is very impressive to see how it manages to get data over a connection on which you can barely notice an audible signal.

The rest of my equipment is an Icom 710 RT, with a remote control head and the open firmware that allows accessing any frequencies including HAM and ITU channels.

I have both an isolated backstay and a Comrod 5.7 meter whip antenna. Tried both this year and found the Comrod equal or better most of the time, so I'll revert to a solid backstay soon.

What seems a bit odd with my setup, or maybe there is a problem in the Icom receiver, is that I'm usually better transmitting than receiving. That means that if I can get the faintest signal from Kielradio, I can always quickly send outbound mail. This is a bit counterintuitive and as Martin Reincke from Kielradio says, inverse to what most other boats experience.

It seems consistent with another experience I made when I did a radio check with Malin Head from some 180 miles, I didn't get a response, but when I checked in over VHF later, they told me that they had received my MF call quite ok. So there is still something left to figure out.

But as I said, I'll subscribe to Kielradio again for the next year.

Hope that helps.

 

[summerwind]

Thanks very much. That is exactly the kind of information I was looking for and has helped a great deal