Day 14 - Radio Communications - How Copy? Over?

Greetings all from SS, BL, and TC,

Date/GMT: 2016/04/18
Status: Enroute - all good enough
Position: Somewhere S of the Equator
Winds (T): Too much or too little from All Directions
Perf: Boat Speed Over Ground 6-10 kts COG 210 M

(TC)

I was a little surprised a while ago when Sylvia expressed an interest in getting her Ham/Amateur radio operators license. What? I thought that was for electronics nerds and geeks , of which she is neither. Turns out, for some radio bands useful for cruising on a boat (The Pacific SeaFarers Net, for example), a Ham license is required. She studied very diligently and got her General Class license a little while back. (So did I. I AM a nerd (of sorts) and I just couldn't be outdone here!).

A lot of long distance radio communications is still done by HF (High Freq) radio and boaters make use of this equipment. There are Ham bands and SSB (Single Sideband) bands. The SSB bands do not require a special operator license like the Ham bands, and so most boaters use SSB bands and do just fine. There are networks (nets) where boaters/cruiser agree to meet regularly to discuss stuff all things boating-related in a foreign lands. Where are the best anchorages, where to get fuel, wifi, groceries, etc. Where are people headed, what is the weather, are there any emergencies that folks can help with? Some nets are permanent, some are temporary, like when cruisers go on long passages (like this one), there's a daily check-in on the HF radio where essential info is exchanged (e.g. locations). If there were any emergencies, recent info could be given to rescue authorities if needed. Mostly, cruisers work to help out each other and authorities are seldom contacted.

Well, since obtaining her Ham license, Sylvia has been active on the airwaves, especially on this trip. She's on the HF radio about 30-60 mins, 2x each day on 2 different nets. Sometimes she's even the net controller, taking the rotating role of coordinating the daily/weekly call-in. She's been talking to folks from Tennessee to Hawaii to Mexico to New Zealand, sometimes all in the same night. Also, she's even talked with some of our shoreside friends, like Rich in San Jose, CA and Seth in La Honda, CA. You could even call us if you wanted to (details were provided in an earlier post). It's usually a real moral booster out here alone on a boat to hear friendly and familiar voices as well as some news over the radio.

Handling the radio is also another time-taking chore on the boat in addition to the myriad of other tasks to be done. People have commented that Sylvia has a pleasant radio 'personality'. calm, clear, and positive, even when the ocean conditions are often unpleasant. From my standpoint, I think she sounds good too and it seems like she's having fun connecting with others from our 'nautical tribe'. Now, I've become quite fond of Sylvia getting her Ham license and putting it to good use. Bravo Zulu, as our good friend from the Navy would say, from N6TJC to KK6NQT.

Pic - Sylvia at Radio Central aboard Cinnabar - the navigation station, in red-lighted night mode.

PS - Q - Why not use satellite comms?
A - It is very expensive, even in this day and age (like $1-$5 per MINUTE), it's very slow, and it is person-person private (no community broadcast).
It's great benefits are for emergencies and for getting weather data and low bandwidth email.