NOAA website has lots of info
PT Reyes NMC 4346 8682 12786 17151.2 for wx try 0400 and 1600
If you have the old Furuno book for facsimile all the freqs are lsted in relation to transmission time, which transmission, ( as in wave info wind info water temp info depending on what you are looking for) rpm/ioc # (for your fax tuning) and map area. I amonly pacific guy and have gotten freqs for Auckland, Pt Reyes, Hono, Japan, and Kodiak. no saying what is on the other coast across the big land.
[QUOTE=PaddyWest2012;163375]Whatās 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]
www.shipcom.com lists the times and ITU channels for the WLO Atlantic and Gulf weather forecasts and traffic lists. It also lists channels and times for KLB Pacific weather.
You can also call WLO (Mobile, Alabama), or KLB (Seattle) for routine radio checks. They do not mind responding to radio checks. They ask for your general geographic location (i.e., 100 miles east of Cape Cod)to find out where they are being picked up.
The National Weather Service offices also broadcast Alaska weather twice a day from Kodiak, Cold Bay ?, King Salmon, and Nome (Summer only). If you have trouble hearing them, you can request that they repeat the forecast for the area that you are in. If that still does not work, you can call Kodiak on the sat phone, and they will read you the forecast, and give additional advice based upon your exact location. They will ask you for a current observation.
Unfortunately, Herb of Southbound II on 12359 khz retired two years ago. Herb was a terrific resource.
This is 40 yr old info, but at one time it was necessary to go into the radio to do some tweaking in order to get on the ham frequencies. Maybe that has changed.
Paddy, you will listen to the weather and say wtf? My trick when I had to use it is to know what area Iām in so I know what info to take note of. Pencil and paper for sure. They tend to break it down to lat/lon areas that can be confusing. I preferred a weather fax. Sometime I want to re-activate and test too.
NMN should be on at 0430 eastern time I think?
Anyone on the east coast wants to try one of these days, let me know. Hopefully I can get the thing to work.
ALSO, I know the furunos can be unlocked or hacked so you can put in whatever rx/tx frequency you want. Italian draggermen used to use the last 4 of their phone number.
[QUOTE=water;163393]This is 40 yr old info, but at one time it was necessary to go into the radio to do some tweaking in order to get on the ham frequencies. Maybe that has changed.[/QUOTE]
In the old AM marine radios we had to install another pair of transmit and receive crystals for each frequency, and most radios would not hold very many crystals. As I recall the early VHFs only had a few channels. Things have changed a lot.
I mostly use SEA and Icom SSBs. These radios will allow you to set almost any receive frequency within roughly the 2 to 25 meg range. Some allow you to select Ham transmit frequencies, others do not. I think the manufacturers sell pretty much the same radios to users in different types of radio service, marine, avation, and government. The differences are mostly software which restricts or enables frequency selection. I imagine that these radios can probably be unlocked or jailbroken fairly easily by people that know what they are doing.
[QUOTE=tugsailor;163398]In the old AM marine radios we had to install another pair of transmit and receive crystals for each frequency, and most radios would not hold very many crystals. As I recall the early VHFs only had a few channels. Things have changed a lot.
I mostly use SEA and Icom SSBs. These radios will allow you to set almost any receive frequency within roughly the 2 to 25 meg range. Some allow you to select Ham transmit frequencies, others do not. I think the manufacturers sell pretty much the same radios to users in different types of radio service, marine, avation, and government. The differences are mostly software which restricts or enables frequency selection. I imagine that these radios can probably be unlocked or jailbroken fairly easily by people that know what they are doing.[/QUOTE]
Itās amazing how technology has advanced. The SSB radios late '60s and early '70s were crystal controlled. Mid '70s the phase lock loop was in common practice. The early Harris, Apelco, Raytheon, Drakes were all crystal controlled. Most had internal antenna tuning circuits. Late '70s, the Harris had programmable synthesizer boards per channel. And things got smallerā¦
The first VHFs I remember came with Channels 6, 13, 16, 22, 24 and 26. The rest of the channels had to be installed. Usually a total of 10 or 12.
I still have some Harris equipment. One amplifier with a 3-1000 tube is capable of 2kw easily from 1.8 to 30 mhz.
[QUOTE=PaddyWest2012;163375]Whatās 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]
Iāll address bringing SSB back to relevance again. I can only speak for my amateur radio experience, but you only need a couple of radio operators, a time and a frequency to get things started. Once others hear a conversation, they are more likely to add to it.
Whereās C.Captain on this? He usually likes doing things the old fashioned way, I would have to believe he would have some valuable wisdom to add to the conversation.
I kind of thought Herb had retired and Iām sorry to hear that itās true. I think I might have heard somewhere that someone tried to sue him or something for being damaged in a storm that he advised them on but it turned out the boat didnāt take his advise anyway so there was no basis for a case, or something along those lines. What is this world coming to?
[QUOTE=rbc;163401]Iāll address bringing SSB back to relevance again. I can only speak for my amateur radio experience, but you only need a couple of radio operators, a time and a frequency to get things started. Once others hear a conversation, they are more likely to add to it.[/QUOTE]
In the late '60s and early ā70s it was a meleā trying to get your morning and afternoon reports on the old AM channels that were common. 2292 and 2398 mhz.in the GOM. Boats and base stations stepping on each other and nobody giving an inch. It was still a battle in the '80s and '90s on the SSB channels on the East Coast and GOM. The PNW was a little more civilized. The first SAT digital communication I experienced was boatracs. Canned messages were cheap and efficient but any dialog ran the bill up. Satcom has gotten much cheaper and more efficient than trying to maintain a large communication array to reliably communicate on HF.
āWhile the NET, which operated daily for over 25 years until June 2013, remains closed, Herb may be available
to assist vessels in difficulties while en-route. When possible he will monitor 12.359.0 Mhz USB during periods of heavy weather or when advisable, south of 45N between 75 to 40W, during 2100Z to 2200Z, or if contacted viaemail/phone.ā
From one of his contact sites. I Listened to Herb when crewing on sailboats across the Atlantic. Great service he provided. Hereās the webpage: http://www3.sympatico.ca/hehilgen/vax498.htm
[QUOTE=z-drive;163394]Paddy, you will listen to the weather and say wtf? My trick when I had to use it is to know what area Iām in so I know what info to take note of. Pencil and paper for sure. They tend to break it down to lat/lon areas that can be confusing. I preferred a weather fax. Sometime I want to re-activate and test too.
NMN should be on at 0430 eastern time I think?
Anyone on the east coast wants to try one of these days, let me know. Hopefully I can get the thing to work.
ALSO, I know the furunos can be unlocked or hacked so you can put in whatever rx/tx frequency you want. Italian draggermen used to use the last 4 of their phone number.[/QUOTE]
The mates should all know how to use the SSB, in fact PSC sometime asks the mates to demonstrate that they can use it. It would also be good be aware of and be in practice receiving weather by that method.
However getting wx by voice is not very convenient for daily use. The three main sources for weather info for me are first, the twice a day email updates for the weather progam that runs on computers in my office and on the bridge. Secondly is the weather from the Inmarsat C EGC. Thirdly is the wx fax.
The weather program on the computer is by far the easiest way to understand the overall situation as well as what I can expect to encounter. I can click ahead in 6 hr increments and watch the fronts, pressure systems, sea and swell height and direction plus currents and sea temps. The program automatically adjusts the ships SOA according to the conditions. Itās surprisingly accurate, most of the time.
I also have the most current available text forecast posted in the wheelhouse. I (try to) have the mates mark the salient information rather then just rip it off the printer and hang it up. Itās much quicker to mark them up if you know the area as you say. I use BA pubs so I go into the Admiralty List of Radio Signals and find the page with the map of the area we are in. I copy the map and post that alongside the WX text. The ones we use often are laminated and kept in a folder.
Here are the areas Z-Drive mentions.
The high-sea areas.
Handy to have while listening to the voice broadcast.
Here is the offshore areas:
Inshore:
Marine (CAR) Eastport, ME to Stonington, ME out to 25 miles
Marine (GYX) Stonington, ME to the Merrimack River, MA out to 25 miles including Casco Bay and Penobscot Bay
Marine (BOX) Merrimack River, MA to Watch Hill, RI out to 25 miles including Boston Harbor, Cape Cod Bay, Nantucket Sound, Vineyard Sound, Buzzards Bay, Rhode Island Sound, Block Island Sound and Narragansett Bay
Marine (OKX) Montauk Point, NY to Sandy Hook, NJ out to 20 miles including Long Island Sound, Long Island Bays and NY Harbor
I have this stuff all posted for whatever area we are in.
Weather fax charts can also be downloaded via SSB if you have a laptop and the right software.
Nobody does time ticks anymore ? Also, itās a good idea to know how to use it for ps inspections
Time ticks are still coming in good
[QUOTE=PaddyWest2012;163428]Time ticks are still coming in good[/QUOTE]
To me, that is the primary function of time ticks, to see what frequencies are being received well without too much noise and interference. Its been quite awhile since of I have actually done any celestial, or set a chronometer against anything other than a wrist watch or cell phone.
If you google around, you can find various lists of shortwave broadcasts in English or any other language. 75% of the American shortwave broadcasts are rightwing religious. Its hard to find a good American news or commentary broadcast. The BBC and CBC use to have really good news, talk shows, and music, but they have really cut back in the last few years. Sometimes the Australia and New Zealand stations come in good at night and are fun to listen to.
Radio New Zealand International comes in pretty decently in California:
I donāt have a copy of the frequencies with me, but we are usually able to tune in BBC News world wide
[QUOTE=tugsailor;163429]To me, that is the primary function of time ticks, to see what frequencies are being received well without too much noise and interference. Its been quite awhile since of I have actually done any celestial, or set a chronometer against anything other than a wrist watch or cell phone.
If you google around, you can find various lists of shortwave broadcasts in English or any other language. 75% of the American shortwave broadcasts are rightwing religious. Its hard to find a good American news or commentary broadcast. The BBC and CBC use to have really good news, talk shows, and music, but they have really cut back in the last few years. Sometimes the Australia and New Zealand stations come in good at night and are fun to listen to.[/QUOTE]
Checking the various WWV freqs only tell you the propagation from Ft Collins to where ever you are. CHU in Canada on 7.333 and 14.666 was another. The USSR had several stations years ago.
I lived and worked in South America in the '70s for a couple of years. Armed Forces Radio was my regular stations I listened to. I believe they have shut down. BBC, VOA, and a few other Euorpean stations were the norm also.
In '77 working in the Gulf of Alaska, we had weather fax machines that were akin to mimeograph types. In bad weather they spilled chemicals all over the chart room.
Just curious. I checked on line for the marine VHF marine operator channels for my area and tried to contact them with no results. I tried all marine operator channels and still zilch. Are there any marine operator systems still in operation? Before I retired there were a few HF GMDSS digital stations that were used but SATCOM seemed to trump them.
