SSB receivers

[Hunter34]

I am looking for a HF receiver to use on a cruise of US East coat and Bahamas later this year, basically to listen in on the cruise nets and download the odd weatherfax.

Are the hand held Sony radios suitable or would I be better with a fixed unit with a wire antenna.

Many thanks

Andrew

 

[Bergman]

Fixed unit with a wire antenna - no question

 

[TigaWave]

Target hf3 was very good.....but a friend was getting as good reception on his portable sony, bot used a wire up the back stay.

 

[coco]

I have used a Sony ICF-SW55 with success during various cruises to receive weatherfax and RTTY bulletins on shortwave. Unfortunately this excellent unit is not manufactured anymore, but can be found on Ebay. Drawbacks: rather coarse tuning and lack of selectivity. I have now purchased an ICOM R-75 which is a wonderful receiver for its price and is able tu pull all the tricks in difficult situations. Not manufactured anymore as well, but can still be purchased at Universal Radio http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/commrxvr/0175.html

 

[beneteau_305_553]

Go for a transmitter like the Icom 718 and get the marine bands added as I think you will soon want to talk as well as recieve.

 

[Hunter34]

I was going to go down the road of buying a transmitter but the hassle and expense of obtaining a licence finally put me off so I have bought a Sat Phone instead and will make do with a receiver for now.

Thanks for all the advice

Andrew

 

[Oldhand]

Now you have confirmed you only want a receiver and on the assumption that you intend to receive weather fax means you have a PC onboard, then you might wish to consider the ICOM PCR1000 black-box communications receiver, which is totally computer controlled. It is an excellent bit of kit and covers the frequncy range of 50kHz to 1300Mhz with all normal modulation modes.

 

[tome]

I have the Nasa Target SSB receiver and very happy with it. I have an insulated backstay to which it's connected.

Can listen to the R4 ball-by-ball cricket commentary down in Biscay, bliss.