If you get your shore stations also setup with PSK31, you'll have reliable
text comms from any point on the planet. I worked a Japanese station that
was running a 20 meter dipole and 10 watts! PSK stations will raise hell
with you if you hog the bandwidth with big powerful transmitters. It is
simply amazing how far down in the noise the computer running this software
can copy.....a station you can't even hear!

As it's free.....give it a try!

73, and welcome back to ham radio

DE Larry W4CSC

Very cool!

Will definitely check it out

Any rigs your recommend buying to use the above?

halibutslayer wrote:

wrote:

I would start out
by getting a rig setup that's capable of doing packet and then adding a
pactor or similar into the mix later.

Packet is 2M only, correct? If yes that's very line
of sight on a boat. Yes?

Would pactor be a better choice for sail boat in middle
of sea?

If you are going to be sailing offshore, go take the easy 24 question test
to get your Marine Radiotelephone Operators License. Then get a SSB that has
the ham bands on it also. This way you can call the Coast Guard if you need
to.

Come to think of it I'm not sure if you even need a MROL if your vessel is
volunteerly equipped (not carrying more than 6 passengers, under 300 tons, not a
tug over 26ft. etc.) Your boat still has to have proper station license.

halibutslayer wrote:

halibutslayer wrote:

wrote:

I would start out
by getting a rig setup that's capable of doing packet and then adding a
pactor or similar into the mix later.

Packet is 2M only, correct? If yes that's very line
of sight on a boat. Yes?

Would pactor be a better choice for sail boat in middle
of sea?

If you are going to be sailing offshore, go take the easy 24 question test
to get your Marine Radiotelephone Operators License. Then get a SSB that has
the ham bands on it also. This way you can call the Coast Guard if you need
to.

Come to think of it I'm not sure if you even need a MROL if your vessel is
volunteerly equipped (not carrying more than 6 passengers, under 300 tons, not a
tug over 26ft. etc.) Your boat still has to have proper station license.

ICOM advertises some of theirs as "ham band and e-mail capable"

ICOM IC-M710

I'm not a ham but some people that post here are they might have some suggestions. I
ve spent quite a bit of time at sea on tugs and wouldn,t want to be out there with
out communication to the coast guard etc.

"halibutslayer" wrote in message
...


halibutslayer wrote:

halibutslayer wrote:

wrote:

I would start out
by getting a rig setup that's capable of doing packet and then
adding a
pactor or similar into the mix later.

Packet is 2M only, correct? If yes that's very line
of sight on a boat. Yes?

Would pactor be a better choice for sail boat in middle
of sea?

If you are going to be sailing offshore, go take the easy 24 question
test
to get your Marine Radiotelephone Operators License. Then get a SSB
that has
the ham bands on it also. This way you can call the Coast Guard if you
need
to.

Come to think of it I'm not sure if you even need a MROL if your vessel
is
volunteerly equipped (not carrying more than 6 passengers, under 300
tons, not a
tug over 26ft. etc.) Your boat still has to have proper station license.

That's correct.

ICOM advertises some of theirs as "ham band and e-mail capable"

ICOM IC-M710

It will do the ham bands, but email ready is really AD-hype. It means you
can press a single button to get to your favorite email frequency. HF email
doesn't generally work that way. The computer tunes the radio to the
frequency you choose based upon propogation.

I'm not a ham but some people that post here are they might have some
suggestions. I
ve spent quite a bit of time at sea on tugs and wouldn,t want to be out
there with
out communication to the coast guard etc.

Larry always goes on about PSK31 being better than PACTOR. Fact is that
they are apples and oranges. PSK31 is a very low speed interactive mode
that is reliable in many cases. PACTOR is a high speed packet oriented mode
suitable for email. If you are interested in email, PACTOR is the only real
choice right now. If you want to just converse with others by typing on the
keyboard then PSK31 is a good choice. There is no equivalence between the
two.

Doug, k3qt

"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
wrote in :

I want to get back into some form of free ham radio
comms that would allow me to stay in touch with people
while living in an RV or boat


The boaters have been sucked into the most overpriced, proprietary-of-
course, digital mode, Pactor.

It's all nonsense. You can get the finest digital service on HF on the
planet called PSK31....without buying more equipment, more modems, more
wasted money....

The worldwide homepage of PSK31 is:
http://www.aintel.bi.ehu.es/psk31.html

PSK31 only requires your transmitter to be in the 10-20 watt output class
because it will copy perfect text....right down so far in the noise you
can't even hear the guy you are communicating with. Wanna hear it?
That's
easy. Tune any USB receiver to 14.070 Mhz, the "PSK-band" on 20 meters.
You'll hear this funny "warbling" sound, many of them at once. On this
website:
http://www.qsl.net/wm2u/psk31.html
You'll find pointers to all the different PSK31 programs to run on your
computer....any Windoze computer will do.....like your boat notebook.
PSK31 uses your computer's sound card and does all its stuff in
software....no external "boxes" are necessary.

I, personally, have always used WinWarbler:
http://www.qsl.net/winwarbler/
but most hams are using Digipan:
http://www.digipan.net/

Any of the programs work great. There's even versions for Linux and Mac.

Winwarbler will copy three separate stations SIMULTANEOUSLY, and you can
switch your transmit back to them with just a mouseclick.

If you get your shore stations also setup with PSK31, you'll have reliable
text comms from any point on the planet. I worked a Japanese station that
was running a 20 meter dipole and 10 watts! PSK stations will raise hell
with you if you hog the bandwidth with big powerful transmitters. It is
simply amazing how far down in the noise the computer running this
software
can copy.....a station you can't even hear!

As it's free.....give it a try!

73, and welcome back to ham radio

DE Larry W4CSC

NNNN

AR

Larry,
How do I send an email to my non ham daughter in Orlando from 100 miles
north of the BVI with PSK31?
krj

Larry W4CSC wrote:
wrote in :


I want to get back into some form of free ham radio
comms that would allow me to stay in touch with people
while living in an RV or boat



The boaters have been sucked into the most overpriced, proprietary-of-
course, digital mode, Pactor.

It's all nonsense. You can get the finest digital service on HF on the
planet called PSK31....without buying more equipment, more modems, more
wasted money....

The worldwide homepage of PSK31 is:
http://www.aintel.bi.ehu.es/psk31.html

PSK31 only requires your transmitter to be in the 10-20 watt output class
because it will copy perfect text....right down so far in the noise you
can't even hear the guy you are communicating with. Wanna hear it? That's
easy. Tune any USB receiver to 14.070 Mhz, the "PSK-band" on 20 meters.
You'll hear this funny "warbling" sound, many of them at once. On this
website:
http://www.qsl.net/wm2u/psk31.html
You'll find pointers to all the different PSK31 programs to run on your
computer....any Windoze computer will do.....like your boat notebook.
PSK31 uses your computer's sound card and does all its stuff in
software....no external "boxes" are necessary.

I, personally, have always used WinWarbler:
http://www.qsl.net/winwarbler/
but most hams are using Digipan:
http://www.digipan.net/

Any of the programs work great. There's even versions for Linux and Mac.

Winwarbler will copy three separate stations SIMULTANEOUSLY, and you can
switch your transmit back to them with just a mouseclick.

If you get your shore stations also setup with PSK31, you'll have reliable
text comms from any point on the planet. I worked a Japanese station that
was running a 20 meter dipole and 10 watts! PSK stations will raise hell
with you if you hog the bandwidth with big powerful transmitters. It is
simply amazing how far down in the noise the computer running this software
can copy.....a station you can't even hear!

As it's free.....give it a try!

73, and welcome back to ham radio

DE Larry W4CSC

NNNN

AR

Be very careful of ever listening to Larry...he is often a technical
idiot...but not always. So listen to him only when you well understand the
turf...he has a gem once in a while but not for the newby.

PSK is a toy mode for rag chewing. It is nice. I use it and recommend it.
But it is not for any even semi-serious conversation. It is a different
version of operating AM on the long wave bands. Fine for hobbyist but not
really practical. Good CW for the Morse defective.

Serious boat stuff is done in PACTOR for email and similar or good old SSB
for position stuff or various nets. The email systems are actually pretty
sophisticated and involve a lot more than Pactor. But Pactor is pretty well
required.

Ideally one goes with some combo like an ICOM 710 and 706. The 710 is an
SSB receiver that will work on the ham bands while the 706 is an amateur
radio that will work on the marine HF bands. Non-emergency use of the 706
on marine bands is illegal but works quite well. I would however consider
it an emergency any time I needed to work on marine HF and did not have a
legal marine radio available. YMMV.

Jim Donohue KO6MH

wrote in message
...
If you get your shore stations also setup with PSK31, you'll have
reliable
text comms from any point on the planet. I worked a Japanese station that
was running a 20 meter dipole and 10 watts! PSK stations will raise hell
with you if you hog the bandwidth with big powerful transmitters. It is
simply amazing how far down in the noise the computer running this
software
can copy.....a station you can't even hear!

As it's free.....give it a try!

73, and welcome back to ham radio

DE Larry W4CSC

Very cool!

Will definitely check it out

Any rigs your recommend buying to use the above?

solar power is inefficient, generators are noisy, wind generators are
expensive..

Plus, when you key down on 1000 watts what type of antenna are you going to
be using? A yagi on your mast? Weird!


"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 00:23:41 GMT, "Falky foo"
wrote:

Problem is powering a HF transmitter with enough wattage without draining
your batteries.

=============================

Have you ever heard of:

- generators?
- alternators?
- solar panels?
- wind powered generators?

That's how most people do it except for the ocassional hand cranked
generator advocate.

Serious boat stuff is done in PACTOR for email and similar or good old SSB
for position stuff or various nets. The email systems are actually pretty
sophisticated and involve a lot more than Pactor. But Pactor is pretty well
required.

I see

But is it correct that pactor is a proprietary format?

The 710 is an
SSB receiver that will work on the ham bands while the 706 is an amateur
radio that will work on the marine HF bands.

So which direction would you go above?