SSB Radio, or not?

littleelse

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Would be interested to know whether anybody thinks the outlay (of around £3000) on SSB radio plus Pactor modem is justified by the results - email, weather etc. Is it relatively easy to get internet access rather than just email? Or is it only for those doing Atlantic crossings and circumnavigations?


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ccscott49

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Unless I was crossing the atlantic I wouldnt consider SSB and even if I was crossing the atlantic, it would be down my priority list, (satellite phone/e mail would be mid priorty list), especially the pactor thingy. But you can get an SSB for a lot less than 3k. IMHO
 

TigaWave

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Next trip I'm having ssb for inter yacht chat, keeping in touch and weather sharing info on passage. I found the simplest ssb receiver and laptop all I needed for weatherfax and rtty data.

I go sailing to get away from e-mails and phones.
 

jerryat

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[ QUOTE ]
Next trip I'm having ssb for inter yacht chat, keeping in touch and weather sharing info on passage. I found the simplest ssb receiver and laptop all I needed for weatherfax and rtty data.

I go sailing to get away from e-mails and phones.

[/ QUOTE ]

Precisely! No need to spend anything like the sort of money 'littleelse' is talking about unless getting a marine set and having the whole installation done 'professionally'. I've yet to hear an inter-yacht or any other 'net' carried out on a sat-phone!!
 

wanderlust

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I agree entirely. Used SSB in Caribbean and for weather routing with Herb on way back. Email is cheap and easy in internet cafes. You would never recoup the cost of the pactor modem in internet cafe costs.
 

Jake

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Hi Littleelse- have a similar dilemma myself having just bought a cheap ferro-cement 40-footer intended for blue-water and set up for SSB, but with the hardware itself missing. (Power, backstay ariel etc all in place.)

Don't forget to add the necessary training course fees (around £800) and exam fee (£105) to get qualified to actually use SSB as part of the GOC (General Operators Certificate.) Doing my course in October.

Alan Priddy has just completed half of his circumnavigation in Lively Lady (Sir Alec Rose's original wooden boat) and has said that new anti-terror laws means that long-range comms are vital in some areas. These countries are demanding you report in when still up to three days out, and ask for all crew details to be emailed at the same time. They also want to keep track of you as you close in, still beyond VHF range, and he also reports that some authorities take a dim view of boats just 'turning up' unannounced.

He solved the problem with a Fleet 33 satelitte phone system, backed up with a simple VHF DSC. It also allows him to send back updates for the Lively Lady website, including photo's, but more importantly gave him some very useful weather routing information. This helped him to avoid some of the worse weather in a year when it's all gone a bit crazy.

(There is an interesting feature in next months PBO on how Lively Lady has been fitted out as simply as possible for her circumnavigation. No vane gear, no solar panels or wind generator, and all electric power coming from a 25hp diesel via a £90 Ford Escort alternator. KISS principle in action, and so far - faultless.)

So it seems you're going to need some kind of long-range comms to stay legal in some areas, and avoid the attentions of twitchy officials with a sense of humour failure.

No experience of this myself (yet) but it' a point worth considering during the fitout. Sat phones are coming down in price and becoming more widely used by Blue Water yachties. There's also less chance of losing comms with a dismasting, as with SSB using a backstay.
 

TigaWave

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Thats interesting Jake, I've had a quick look at the lively lady website...but theres loads of diary entries. I'm interested in which countries need the advance warning, the only country I've had problems with was the US. We were given parole papers in our passports and told to leave!
 

littleelse

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Thanks for all the posts, but I still haven't got a 'feel' for whether this is a good investment in communications for a pair of wandering liveaboards when the money could perhaps put to more effective use on other things, kitting out the boat for blue-water stuff etc. Anyone got SSB who can't imagine life without it please, and why?

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G

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Me for one. Scream for help on a phone and only one person hears, scream on an SSB net and your problem is solved in minutes.

It is like saying why have forums when we can email each other anyway. Or why have pubs when there is an off license. It is part of the social side of cruising and the community that I miss so much.

Give you a true story in the Pacific. 5 days out from California an elderly couple calls in on the SSB that their mid shroud bolt has sheared and the mast is a little wobbly. Thinking about turning back as they still have to do the ITCZ.

Out of the blue someone, that they do not know, comes along side swims across pulls over his tools. Then climbs the mast fits a new bolt and sets up the rig. He then swims back and disappears. We saw the boat later but I never found out who was their SSB angel.

If you plan to be away from VHF land contact for more than a few days then SSB is a must unless you are out there to be alone. Some people like it that way but if you are the type that signs on to a forum you are probably the type that would benefit or give help on SSB nets.

Our longest conversations we had to a shore station was over 2500 miles and the longest ship to ship call was 1200 miles. The longest mayday relay we did was 200 miles. The furthest weather fax was 3300miles. The biggest unofficial net got to 70 boats and had to be divided in 2. We went a different way to the other boats and were alone for weeks but that did not stop us talking every few days. There are a lot of unused and legal SSB channels that allow easy talking and contact but just listening to Herb etc is essential if you are, like us, fair weather sailors.
 

charles_reed

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The length of the traditional piece of string?

It's probably not worth it for European waters - WLAN coverage is increasing exponentially in marinas and internet cafes abound at reasonable prices despite the attractions of Sailmail.
The alternative is using 3G cellular, T-Mobile were offering 15Mb for UK15p this summer in Croatia, few counties are as expensive as the UK for data transmission.

The local nets are quite useful for up-to-date info, but above all for gossip. If one gets out of local European waters, away from cellular coverage, SSB could be attractive for GRIB files as well as comms. However even in Africa cellular coverage is increasing by leaps and bounds.

In a nutshell, if I were starting now, I'd invest in something else - however I still find the ICOM useful and wouldn't trade it in for the pittance it's worth to someone else.
 

HoratioHB

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A bit of a forum chestnut this one. I originally thought satphone and e-mail then other forumites convinced me that SSB was also worthwhile for intership etc. But paid £435 for a ham set tweaked to maritime frequencies and £200 for aeriel tuner- got to be better than £1800 upwards for a marine set.
As for training course B****cks I just read the intructions and am quite happy to be a pirate - won't be using it in UK waters anyway.
 

Pincoya

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With our ssb we can:

obtain regular weather information via Bouyweather, for either passages or specific locations/times,

stay in touch with our folks back in UK and anyone else we fancy via regular email using SailMail,

receive Grib Files and NOAA (and other) weather faxes.

listen to weather broadcasts and info, cruiser nets (and particpate in them) talk to friends also out here, over thousands of miles,

send/recieve DSC messages.

Why on earth wouldn't we want to have this essential piece of kit on board?

We also have a satellite telephone but only because we bought it used from another cruiser. We view the ssb as the essential.

Paul
 

Onyva

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Just returned from 2 year circumnavigation and would not have traded SSB in for anything, particularly a sat phone. Absolutely excellent but DO NOT CUT CORNERS ON INSTALLATION! Came across lots of boats with very poor reception & transmit. We went all the way back to the south coast from La Rochelle to get Greenham Regis to install ours and it was worth it as it was generally regarded as one of the best........bon voyage!
 

AnnapolisStar

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SSB can\'t be beat in my opinion

We have an ICOM SSB and would not go anywhere without it ($4000 including backstay antenna). Most of our cruising friends also have SSB but a few have sat phones(mostly GlobalStar). The Sat phone users are always complaining about coverage and that they are having trouble getting email and weather info. We have to rebroadcast our ssb weather to them over VHF. They also complain about the cost per message. The SSB email via SailMail ($200 per year) is extremely reliable and we have never had trouble receiving or sending. Our weather is mostly private services like Chris Parker in the Carrib and we always get him and Herb everyday. But we also get the SailMail Grib File weather (comes with the $200 subscription) that gives wind and waves, pressure etc in a daily email. You set it up to receive automatically each day and it can't be beat. Everyone we know that has SSB loves it. My radio also works on HF HAM freqs and I recently got my Extra licesence. This opens up a whole new world of free email and weather. But the best part is that no matter where you are there is always someone monitoring the HAM freqs. So if you get into trouble just call on almost any channel and Hams love to help going way out of their way to do so - thats their whole purpose. All of our cruising for the last two years has been along the East coast of the US from Maine to the Bahamas.
 

Onyva

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Yup, Pincoya sums it up beautifully and support that view 100%. Well said.

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Here's to tall ships
Here's to small ships
Here's to all the ships on the sea
But the best ships are friendships
Here's to you and me!
 

Sea Devil

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[ QUOTE ]
Would be interested to know whether anybody thinks the outlay (of around £3000) on SSB radio plus Pactor modem is justified by the results - email, weather etc. Is it relatively easy to get internet access rather than just email? Or is it only for those doing Atlantic crossings and circumnavigations?
Life is sailing and little else.

[/ QUOTE ]
In my opinion it is a total waste of time and money in European waters including the Med. Much better ways of getting weather and easy communications.

If you are going to the Caribbean or a circumnavigation it is an almost essential piece of kit... well worth the investment.
Michael
 
G

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I think you mean SSBs are useless with Europeans. In general Europeans are useless on the radio wherever they are in the world. They are either rude and talk over others or insist on getting emails during net times. They are certainly stubborn when it comes to clashes in frequencies when one net moves into the reception area of another. If a persons physiology does not allow them to queue then do not expect polite negotiation on a radio when Tx collisions occur.

Maybe that is why it is not popular in Europe except with the more civilized nationals that are passing through!
 

richardwatson

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Littleelse.

Where do you think you might go?

We spent 3 years in the Med without needing an ssb and only fitted it prior to our atlantic crossing. I bought it online for $1400 and had it shipped from the US. It takes some setting up, particularly the grounding, but now we are in the Caribbean I couldnt do without it. Many anchorages here do not have cellphone signals and are beyond the range of vhf nets so its the only way to get weather, plus we join-in the cruisers nets which really adds to our social. Incidentally, I hired an old Motorola Iridium phone to cross the Atlantic. It would not send or receive texts, and often there were no lines available, perhaps due the 250 ARC boats that were also out there phoning home.
 

Bajansailor

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Here is a good website about SSB and ham radio nets at :
http://www.cruiser.co.za/radionet.asp
While here is a lot of useful info re SSB and ham rigs and modems from Sailcom in Bursledon at :
http://www.sailcom.co.uk/

I am planning on going off sailing soon (was going to be next year April, but it is looking more like 2008 now...), and I shall have a ham radio on board (my call sign is 8P6DG - 8P6 is Barbados).
If finances permit, I shall try to acquire a Pactor modem (and associated kit) for doing email via ham radio, probably via Winlink. Although a very valid point was made by (I think) Tigawave earlier, re sailing across oceans to get away from email...... must admit that this philosophy does appeal as well.... can always catch up with emails via wifi or internet cafes when in port!
 

ccscott49

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What on earth is your problem?? Why are you being a complete [--word removed--]? I am a european, I am getting a little sick and fed up with your constant sniping at us, desist! Most of the folk on here are also european, so if you dont like us, exercise your right to sod off!
 
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