SSB - is it really worth all this hassle?

demonboy

demonboy

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Today is just one of those days. Nothing is going my way, so perhaps this thread is just a cry for help more than anything else. I'm currently having serious considerations about my SSB installation.

<u>The Scenario</u>
Currently in Turkey looking to do the Red Sea and then over to India then Thailand.

<u>What We Have</u>
Satellite phone.
VHF
Laptop
SPOT
All the SSB gubbins that is yet to be installed. That's my next job.

<u>The Problem</u>
I'm having some SSB installation issues so I'm trying to research them (involves grounding issues). As I read more on the subject I'm thinking that SSB for me is like an older generation sailor learning how to use a computer for the first time, i.e. a whole new science. When I read threads on grounding and wave heights and capacitors and RF blah blah blah I look blankly at the screen and wonder just how thick I really am.

My question: is it all really worth it? It just sounds like a lot of hassle for old technology. I've got other things I could be spending my time doing so do I need the heartache of learning all about SSB and the frustrations of installing the thing? Am I actually going to use it or will I just use it to listen to the world service whilst eating up my battery? I could sell all my SSB gear and that would buy me 500 minutes on my sat phone.

My question isn't really SSB vs satphone. I'm just trying to work out if all this effort is worth it in the long run.

Anyone?
 
I have to laugh-- I have just logged on to YBW to ask a question about SSB grounding.,.Its all gobbledegook to me too!

I'm def. going ahead with my installation -as just forked out the dosh for all the kit. My long distance cruising buddies who go further afield than the med mostly seem to like their SSBs.... (and i don't have sat phone).
 
Yes it is worth the hassle.

It's another communication mode that offers different benefits.

Weather nets, general information etc.

Consider it an old fashioned forum. Lots of help and discusion etc (it still hasn't taught me how to spell)

As to grounding issues I would have a look at the following sites but remember everybody does it in their own way

http://hamradio.arc.nasa.gov/meetings/HFradioatsea.html

http://www.westsail.org/discus/messages/4/290.html?1113747347

http://www.ropeantenna.com/How%20to%20Order.htm

Hope the above helps, you will have fun at the end

Peter
 
oooh.... now i'm panicking!.... i've followed your lead on the Schenker Watermaker, and seen your issues with skinned knuckles.... I look forward to it.... and have now bought an Icom M710, same as you..... so if you are having trouble, i'm doomed!
 
To transmit? - or just to listen and get weatherfaxes?
Have you access to keelbolts from inside the boat?
What have you bought already ? (what kind of ATU...)
Insulated backstay is good, but big pole is just as effective and easier managed/repaired/not structural.
Are you a qualified Ham, or just using marine nets?
I think it's a great safety tool to have on board, and sociable too.
 
If you give us (the forum) an idea of what you are trying to install we maybe could come up with ideas.

Issues are what ATU, what Antenna system, and what boat

Peter
 
@ Billjratt

- TX in emergency, mainly weatherfax
- No to keelbolt access
- Icom M710, CG3000 ATU, insulated backstay, copper paint
- just marine net, don't know my SSB onions I'm afraid
 
@ Boatman

I was trying to avoid 'yet another SSB' thread as they are asked frequently. My main issue, however, is trying to find 3 square meters of bilge that I can paint with my copper paint. My lazarette gets wet (see thread below) and my aft cabin bunk houses the diesel tanks. Finding this surface area is almost impossible.
 
Icom 710 is an excellent bit of kit, don't know anything about ATU but looks ok.

Once the installation is working you will use it for a lot more.

Can you expand on the copper paint idea as you need real copper.

Peter
 
Have you thought about plating the engine room with copper, old water tanks etc?

Or copper strip glassed into the bottom of the bildges etc

Peter
 
[ QUOTE ]


My question: is it all really worth it? It just sounds like a lot of hassle for old technology. I've got other things I could be spending my time doing so do I need the heartache of learning all about SSB and the frustrations of installing the thing? Am I actually going to use it or will I just use it to listen to the world service whilst eating up my battery? I could sell all my SSB gear and that would buy me 500 minutes on my sat phone.

My question isn't really SSB vs satphone. I'm just trying to work out if all this effort is worth it in the long run.

Anyone?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm a radio ham and I have an SSB on my boat, but for general use rather than use as a hobby - no, SSB isnt worth it. It is old technology, it isnt a reliable means of communication. You would be much better off putting your money into 3G for inshore use and a sat phone if you need the phone / internet on the high seas.

Its a bit like charting. For most people paper charts are yesterday and they use plotters. I dont cos I'm an old fuddy duddy who likes paper. I've even been tempted by wooden boats! For the same reason I like SSB.

SSB is easy to install and it would seem a shame to sell it off now before you've tried it.. A lot of what you read along the lines of "you must do this...." is only really necessary if you are a hobbysist worried about talking to other hams half a world away. My SSB worked fine with a whip aerial on the pushpit and no earth - it would have worked better with a backstay aerial but even when I had that, I didnt find that the earth made any real difference. It should have but it didnt. So - connect the earth lead to a keel bolt with some nice thick wire and as short a run as poss. make a decent aerial by insulating as long a section as poss of the backstay. Connect tuner to backstay. Connect radio to tuner and earth. Put radio on very low power and am or fm, press the transmit button briefly and make sure the tuner tunes up. Off you go.

Just occurred to me that you might not be transmitting but receiving only. If so, then setting up is even easier and far less critical.
 
Thank you, wotayottie.

Boatman: the copper paint is what it says on the tin, paint with copper in it, as sold by www.yachtfunk.com. It's pretty new technology as it is supposed to replace the copper strips traditionally used. At the price I paid for it I expect it to work just as well (despite some SSB sites claiming otherwise).

Let's ask this question another way: if I were to use copper strips, how much of it has to be below the water line and actually on GRP where the outside surface is physically in the water? I could, for example, paint my central water tank in my saloon and ensure that the paint finishes on a part of the bilge directly facing water, but does it all need to be facing the water? The water tank is a good 3 square metres. However most of the surface would be painted onto a surface where the other side is facing the fresh water in the tank, not the sea. Also that particular tank is in the saloon, a good 7-10 meters away from the ATU and the antenna.
 
As a Ham also I am very disappointed that you haven't made more use of your hobby.

As for old technology Yes maybe, but it still works.

Depends where you sail, having been it shituations where the satphone won't work and the VHF is useless the SSB has been quite good, particularly for the 3 de-masted boats in need of assistance.

plus all the social which helps me as a singlehanded bod

Peter
 
demonboy. you are making life difficult for yourself. what I was trying to say in my commnets about installation was that the difference between a quick and dirty as compared to the technically perfect would likely not be noticeable to a non hobbyist. For example, most people recommend copper strip but in reality you wont notice much if any difference using multi strand copper wire which is more readily available and cheaper.

Lets assume you want to transmit and intend using a backstay aerial. In that case you want an aerial as long as you can make it and certainly longer than one quarter of the longest wavelength you intend to use. That wire is half your aerial - the other bit being the sea itself which acts as a ground plane. So you need decent contact with the sea water bearing in mind that RF can jump across insulated gaps. Best of all is a nice sintered bronze plate bolted to the outside of the hull since that gives lots of area but again we are back to the quick and easy. Personally I would go for a keel bolt.

If you have a poor earth more of the RF which is going down that wire will be radiated and picked up by shipboard equipment. I've had my voice coming out of the switched off VHF and the engine overheating buzzer, not to mention causing a pals warning lights to come on 2 pontoons away. So you will soon know if your earth isnt good enough

Got to say I dont like the idea of copper paint on a water tank but try it and let us know how well it works. from water tank through air gap through poly hull through antifoul into the sea sounds like a pretty long path to me.
 
OK, the backstay is already insulated and I have the paint, so the first solution will be to paint whatever I can. My question is what can I paint? For example, my lazarette is probably more than 3 square meters in total surface area, but the total amount of walls actually touching the water is probably 1 square meter, so does this matter? Am I only getting 1 square meter's worth of ground or am I getting 3 because at least some of it is touching the water? Is the surface area painted onto a wall that is not touching the water completely ineffectual?
 
Re: SSB - is it really worth all this hassle? Nope !

Nope.... but that doesn't seem to stop people fitting one..

My next boat might be something that has had a lightning strike rendering the following stuff useless, oh what a shame..
Fridgefreezer,
Electronics,
inboard engine and smart chargers,
Electric pumps,
Holding tanks,
loo,
led/halogen/strobe lights,
Sniffers, detectors,
Hernia inducing battery banks, blah blah..

There. I've just saved 1000s of £ and 100s of hours fixing stuff in exotic locations..(Partly joking) /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
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