I’ve recently taken an interest in our SSB radio and would like to learn more about using it as a ham radio. Every SSB radio on every boat I’ve ever been on has been useless as tits on a bull. Sure, we’re required to have it on 2182 all the time, but can any of you really tell me that you have the volume turned up to where you could hear it if someone actually called you or made a distress call? I’ve never been on a boat where that’s been standard operating procedure. Without digressing too much, the merits and short comings of GMDSS are another conversation for another thread, I figure as long as we have to have the damn thing on board I might as well find a use for it. Why not talk to people?
I watched a youtube video on how to call “CQ” (a general call) on a ham radio but I found that the person in the video had a lot easier time of it because he had a dial he could easily skim across the frequencies with to find either an on-going conversation or an open frequency with which to make a call. On our radio you have to enter the frequency manually on the key pad, which makes the process of traversing the airwaves very laborious and time consuming. I can’t help but feel that the whole process would be easier if I had a set of a handful of frequencies where I knew I could find people.
So who’s had any experience playing with their SSB radios on the boat? Anyone got any good stories to tell? Just today while tuning to one of the frequencies I saw in the youtube video I happened on someone from Sarajevo talking to someone from the US.
Once in a while on the backwatch I turn ours on and try to get a weather forecast or listen to something, but no luck. Tough to get. A clear signal, I need to have our electronics guy look at it next time he is around. We have a furuno which is also the keypad thing but need to get the manual out and look I there’s any way to scan. Next time I see some friends I’ll see what frequencies the Italian draggers are using on George’s but that’s about the only people I imagine are using it regularly on the east coast. Any old fisherman had a set in his kitchen at home. Sat phones are so damn cheap now.
Used one on another boat maybe 5 years ago when we made a trip offshore without a sat phone to check in twice a day with another company boat. That’s the total of my experience besides what I did in GMDSS class.
When I worked in Alaska we used to use SSB daily. You could call your old shipmates or if you got bored on watch you could listen in on someone eles conversation. Everyone used to listen to Peggy Dyson on the SSB, I think on 4A.
The frequences used are called 4A 4B 6A 6B 8A 8B. 4 was 4 megs, 6 is 6 megs etc.
[QUOTE=Kennebec Captain;163332]When I worked in Alaska we used to use SSB daily. You could call your old shipmates or if you got bored on watch you could listen in on someone eles conversation. Everyone used to listen to Peggy Dyson on the SSB, I think on 4A.
The frequences used are called 4A 4B 6A 6B 8A 8B. 4 was 4 megs, 6 is 6 megs etc.
The ITU has a long list of channels as well.[/QUOTE]
I really miss the good old days when there was a community of mariners talking and keeping each other informed on the SSB. I especially miss calling Peggy twice a day with my weather observations. i still use the SSB for weather and can get some news, but there are virtually no observations now.
These days, when you see another boat at sea most of them don’t even want to talk on the VHF ---- apparently that would cut into their Facebook time. this is a downside to internet at sea ( on the boats that have it).
4125 khz is the primary calling and distress frequency used in the US and Canada. On older radios, the good ones with frequency knobs, 4125 was preprogramed as channel 4A., 4B was 4143.6, and 4C was 4419. On the new Icom and SEA radios (with keypads instead of knobs) , it is much more difficult to punch in a specific frequency and actually get it to work. You need to punch in the preprogrammed ITU channel numbers. Some SSBs also have a proprietary preprogrammed channel list. 4125 is proprietar channel 2 on the SSB I’m using now. Most SSBs will transmit on Ham frequencies and receive any frequency from 2-21 megs.
I call somebody ( usually fishermen or a fish plant) on the SSB every few days to make sure it still works. Sometimes I talk to a freindly tug or ship on VHF and set up an SSB comms schedule for the next day.
It was interesting seeing small vessel communication transition from AM to VHF-FM and SSB. Then SAT and digital modes. My original goal was to become a radio officer but got sidetracked. I’ve been a ham operator for about 50 years. In the late '70s, the radios were getting small enough to easily tote on and off the vessels. I generally had my gear with me and the guys on board could get phone patches or at least get messages from home. There is the Maritime Mobile Service Net on 14.300 MHz manned by volunteers to handle traffic for vessels and deployed military personel.
In the '90s, we started using SEA brand radios that had keypad entry and auto-antenna tuners. They would operate in the Ham bands up to 15 meters. In 2002, the vessels I worked had SAT email and phone for the crew. HF was almost impossible to use on board because the variable frequency drives for blowers and pumps caused much radio freq interference.
[QUOTE=PaddyWest2012;163311]I’ve recently taken an interest in our SSB radio and would like to learn more about using it as a ham radio. Every SSB radio on every boat I’ve ever been on has been useless as tits on a bull. Sure, we’re required to have it on 2182 all the time, but can any of you really tell me that you have the volume turned up to where you could hear it if someone actually called you or made a distress call? I’ve never been on a boat where that’s been standard operating procedure. Without digressing too much, the merits and short comings of GMDSS are another conversation for another thread, I figure as long as we have to have the damn thing on board I might as well find a use for it. Why not talk to people?
I watched a youtube video on how to call “CQ” (a general call) on a ham radio but I found that the person in the video had a lot easier time of it because he had a dial he could easily skim across the frequencies with to find either an on-going conversation or an open frequency with which to make a call. On our radio you have to enter the frequency manually on the key pad, which makes the process of traversing the airwaves very laborious and time consuming. I can’t help but feel that the whole process would be easier if I had a set of a handful of frequencies where I knew I could find people.
So who’s had any experience playing with their SSB radios on the boat? Anyone got any good stories to tell? Just today while tuning to one of the frequencies I saw in the youtube video I happened on someone from Sarajevo talking to someone from the US.[/QUOTE]
The requirement to guard 2182 ended in 1999 with GMDSS. The CG stopped guarding 2182 in 2013.
What’s a good way to go about getting a weather report? I saw some stuff in Pub. 117 about weather reports broadcast at regular intervals by different stations on 2670 and a few other frequencies but whenever I try to pick one up I get nothing but static. I have successfully been able to tune in the time ticks from the atomic clock in Colorado, and I even faintly heard the Hawaii station in the background too, but that’s about all I’ve been able to hear on the damn machine. It would be nice just to hear the weather once in a while.
[QUOTE=PaddyWest2012;163347]What’s a good way to go about getting a weather report? I saw some stuff in Pub. 117 about weather reports broadcast at regular intervals by different stations on 2670 and a few other frequencies but whenever I try to pick one up I get nothing but static. I have successfully been able to tune in the time ticks from the atomic clock in Colorado, and I even faintly heard the Hawaii station in the background too, but that’s about all I’ve been able to hear on the damn machine. It would be nice just to hear the weather once in a while.[/QUOTE]
I can ask an uncle who’s ex-Navy/USCG and an avid ham operator. But, he may ask what kind of radio do you have on board. What do I say?
The USCG station at Portsmouth, Virgina transmits weather forecasts for the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf several times a day on several different frequencies. It should be easy to find out what frequencies. I’d try 4 megs and 8 megs first, forget about 2670.
It’s a fairly new-fangled thing, it’s a Furuno FS-2570. I’ve had a look at its operations manual but there’s not too much in there that would help in this instance, the radio simply isn’t built for ham purposes. Sure, you can scan frequencies, but you have to tell it which frequencies to scan. No different really than having to put them in one at a time and search them manually.
[QUOTE=PaddyWest2012;163347]What’s a good way to go about getting a weather report? I saw some stuff in Pub. 117 about weather reports broadcast at regular intervals by different stations on 2670 and a few other frequencies but whenever I try to pick one up I get nothing but static. I have successfully been able to tune in the time ticks from the atomic clock in Colorado, and I even faintly heard the Hawaii station in the background too, but that’s about all I’ve been able to hear on the damn machine. It would be nice just to hear the weather once in a while.[/QUOTE]
One thing to remember with auto antenna tuners is that it is tuned to the last frequency you transmitted on. If say you last transmitted on 4125 and then switched to receive on 8502, you may get diminished reception if you don’t key up on an 8 meg channel to retune the unit.
[QUOTE=PaddyWest2012;163357]It’s a fairly new-fangled thing, it’s a Furuno FS-2570. I’ve had a look at its operations manual but there’s not too much in there that would help in this instance, the radio simply isn’t built for ham purposes. Sure, you can scan frequencies, but you have to tell it which frequencies to scan. No different really than having to put them in one at a time and search them manually.[/QUOTE]
This is starting to turn into a good and informative topic.
Peggy at WBH29 in Kodiak retired from the weather quite awhile ago.
I was going to suggest tuning into Herb at Southbound II on 12359 for Atlantic weather, but I now discover that Herb retired two years ago. Herb in Bermuda and Ontario was great. He not only gave you the weather and pasted along observations to NOAA, but he also provided weather routing advise custom tailored to your voyage.
I almost forgot, you can still get the weather, make phone calls, and send email through WLO in Mobil & KLB in Seattle. Go to shipcom.com to get the ITU channel list and broadcast times for weather and traffic lists. The coverage is often weak in the Bering Sea.
Ah, the good old days, when the the office radios didn’t work so well in daylight (during office hours) and they only way the office could contact you was to call Peggy, ask where we were, and ask her to pass a long a message during the next weather report. No phone calls from the office. No emails from the office. Not much paperwork either. They had to leave everything up to the captain. A much better seagoing experience.
I just think it’s ridiculous how we’re required to have all this junk but it either doesn’t work, no one knows how to use it, or both. The SSB is just another in a long line of over-regulated and under-utilized crap that’s been imposed on us by a bunk of desk jockeys who’s idea of going to sea came out of a Matthew McConaughey movie. I hope this thread does some small part to rectify that wrong.
Hey Paddy, great topic. ye ole sideband. It is a great tool and by all means we all miss Peggy. Sat many a nite inside Hagemeister listening to the guys along the Aleutians giving their positions and wx conditions and using all that info to get out and head for Unimak pass trying to get south across the gulf. We had our old furuno paper faxes spitting out the wx from Kodiak and Hono tuned and receiving from the SSB. Used to be a fella could step on deck and check the stars and if the wx was socked in you could just stare into the wx and figure the location of the low and procedd on the proper course to avoid most of the worst of it. Seems now days you can’t even get these new mariners to leave the house, feel the boat and the sea, I could go on but I’m off course. the ssb … having traveled many times to the south pacific (down there '89, ‘90, and ‘91) from Alaska we counted on the sideband. Esp during the fishery. Chasing albacore for Starkist in Am Samoa. we had about 40-50 boats down there and everynite you shutdown and get on the radio with a couple of buddies and discuss the water temp and fishing results. And if someone had a problem the fleet had every walk of life on board the different boats. There were Drs, lawyers, guys with excellent engineering background, Cat, Cummins, Detroit you name it some one had the experience and no matter what your situation someone would always come back eventually with good advice. I was always having trouble with my refridgeration and a Kiwi rig from Nelson came to my rescue, when I burned up my 5H40. I had on about 50 tons @ 2,200 a ton for the fish and was looking at running back to Pago hoping they would stay hard (blast freezer) Well those Kiwis’ came along side, dropped a 20’ alum skiff over the side, and showed up on my boat with their first mate Tom, a Japanese refer expert, 6 cases of beer and a 5h30 compressor. We worked through the nite and got my refer blowing frozen air again and I went fishing the next morning. Oh and yes the Kiwis do their best work drunk. the story goes on but the SSB brought us all together in those days as we had to rely on each other. We were fishing 40-50 south X 130-160 west. That’s a lot of area to cover. We got our weather from Auckland and Hono. You don’t hear much on the sideband these days.
You need to know how to use your SSB, and you need to know that it works.
The problem is that no one is required to stand guard on 4125 anymore, there are only a few of us left who routinely do that. If everyone had to listen to 4125, it would be used a lot, and we would all be a lot safer. Not to mention we would have a much better community of seafarers. Listening watches were dropped in favor of digital selective calling, DSC. Unfortunately, no one, except Government shore stations and ships with GMDSS use DSC. cheap to use Sat phones also killed SSB use. Unfortunately, a sat phone does not give you any way to call unknown nearby ships. The SSB does, if they are using it. There is no sat phone broadcast that goes to every vessel in the area— SSB use to do that.
When I become a vetter, I will be asking the current generation of seafarers “when the sat phone is not operational, how do you communicate in an emergency”? I’ll also be looking at the radio log to make sure that the SSB is being tested at least once a week. I may even ask the young fellows to make a SSB call for a radiocheck, to test both them and the radio.
[QUOTE=PaddyWest2012;163375]What’s the best way to go about getting weather on the SSB today? Also, what can and should be done to bring SSB back to relevance again?[/QUOTE]
Thanks! I should have thought to look on the NOAA website but it didn’t occur to me. By the way, speaking of weather, does anyone know if that Canadian ham operator “Southbound 2” is still on the air? I was mate on a boat once that used to use him for offshore weather routing but that may have been a long time ago.