Any Ham operators?

[S/V Ethan Grey]

I just got my Technician license for amateur radio and am thinking about getting a setup for my CD30. Any other Cape Dory owners around that also have their ham radio license? I'm really interested in listening in to the various cruising nets if I can figure out a way to pick them up from either my boat at dock, or my house. I'm a total pretender cruiser and have no issues admitting to it

[hilbert]

I wonder if amateur radio for sailors will go the way of celestial navigation, with the advent of more affordable and capable satellite systems for offshore sailing.
https://www.cruisingworld.com/7-afforda ... e-sailing/

[S/V Ethan Grey]

I think it probably will. Most will use satellite while a few enthusiasts will still like using amateur radio. The thought of connecting to someone in the middle of a passage and talking with them real time is interesting to me, but I haven't committed to buying the necessary hardware yet.

I wonder if amateur radio for sailors will go the way of celestial navigation, with the advent of more affordable and capable satellite systems for offshore sailing.
https://www.cruisingworld.com/7-afforda ... e-sailing/

[hilbert]

I would think that the first step would be to identify what cruising nets are active in your geographic area, the frequencies, average broadcast power and time of day.
With this knowledge, you should have an idea of how likely will it be to pick them up from your home or boat dock and what kind of antenna you might need.

To listen in, one does not need a license or expensive hardware. There are shortwave receivers capable of listening to amateur broadcasts.
With patience, one probably could find a good second hand inexpensive receiver (ham or shortwave) on eBay.

At one time I had an amateur license, but I didn't keep it up. I found that I really wan't interested in communicating with strangers.
Of course at that time, I didn't have a common interest like offshore cruising.

[bottomscraper]

I'm a relatively inactive ham. I do have have an Icom IC-7000 HF rig installed on Mahalo using an antenna tuner and an insulated backstay. I don't have anything permanent set up at home! I do listen in on 14.300 MHz on occasion.

[Terry]

I wonder if amateur radio for sailors will go the way of celestial navigation, with the advent of more affordable and capable satellite systems for offshore sailing.
https://www.cruisingworld.com/7-afforda ... e-sailing/

Celestial nav hasn't gone bye-bye. And I predict ham radio on a sailing vessel won't either. After all, with the advent of engines, sails didn't exactly go by the way.

"Just Saying."

[Terry]

I just got my Technician license for amateur radio and am thinking about getting a setup for my CD30. Any other Cape Dory owners around that also have their ham radio license? I'm really interested in listening in to the various cruising nets if I can figure out a way to pick them up from either my boat at dock, or my house. I'm a total pretender cruiser and have no issues admitting to it

Congratulations on getting your ticket. I think most of the nets will be on HF. But there are plenty of repeaters that you'll be able to hit along the coast or from the dock.

If you upgrade to General, then there is a whole world out there just waiting for you. 14.300 is the Maritime Mobile Net. Runs several hours a day.

73 de Terry N6BVZ

[barfwinkle]

S/V Ethan

You can listen here http://k3fef.com:8901/. Living where I do I cannot copy 14.300 but the Waterway Radio and Cruising Club has a dailey net on 7.268 (https://waterwayradio.net/).

HF radio is good to have if you're running up and down the coast or offshore. Personally, I think ham radio is the way to go and you can get good radios far cheaper than marine SSB. Yes they are not "marineized" but they work just fine. To access the frequencies you want, you will need to upgrade your license to general.

FW

[S/V Ethan Grey]

Thanks for the info guys. I'm pretty new to this radio stuff, so I appreciate any info I can get. It's been fun learning about it.

[John Stone]

Thanks for the info guys. I'm pretty new to this radio stuff, so I appreciate any info I can get. It's been fun learning about it.

SV Ethan Grey
I have done a fair amount of offshore work with just a HF Receiver. About $130. Incorporated an external long wire antenna. I can also download wx fax. I can receive NWS and USCG high seas weather forecasts as well as all the cruiser nets. I can listen to Chris Parker’s daily offshore weather forecast. My portable radio receives HF and SSB.

Point is, get a HF SSB/HAM transceiver if you desire it. But there are options other than investing $3,500-$4,000 in a set up that’s not required. It’s not a be all, end all solution. But it works for me.

Here is a link to our set up on an old forum post. Scroll to the bottom of the page.

http://www.capedory.org/board/viewtopic ... io#p204998

And a link to our website including some info as well. Scroll down and you’ll see a picture with some info.

https://farreachvoyages.net/2019/07/11/ ... #more-1680

If you have specific questions I can provide more info.

[Terry]

Point is, get a HF SSB/HAM transceiver if you desire it. But there are options other than investing $3,500-$4,000 in a set up that’s not required. It’s not a be all, end all solution. But it works for me.

That's a great point, John. The newer short wave receivers do a pretty good job with SSB, and are easy on the battery draw. And a simple long wire would easily run up from a burgee line.

Being a ham, and able to operate HF (general class or above license), getting a ham transceiver is the way to go if for no other reason than that's what hams do. Also, there are plenty of great HF radios available new for between $700.00 and $1,000.00, and much less for used radios. Sure, there are top-of-the-line radios with linear amplifiers to push 1,000 watts transmit power that run far more, and even up to the $3,500-$4,000 range you mentioned. Those aren't really practical, as they are too big and the current drain too great, and seriously over kill for most of us hams.

One thing I'd also mention is that most of the modern ham transceivers are capable of receiving a very wide range of frequencies, (like a short wave listener radio) while only transmitting on the approved ham bands. Some radios can be modified to add transmitting on other frequencies outside ham bands, too. While I haven't tried it, that might include marine SSB frequencies.

One of my radios is just about twice the size of a short wave receiver while not only receiving and transmitting on the HF frequencies, it receives the VHF and above frequencies, too, e.g., NOAA, marine VHF, aircraft, and more (while I haven't tried it, probably epirb frequencies, too).

All the best. . .

[S/V Ethan Grey]

Thanks John. I bought a Sony 7600G, nearly identical to the 7600GR you have, and I've messed around with it a little bit. I can pull in New Orleans weather faxes pretty well (I'm in Niceville, FL so it's somewhat close to me). What I need to do is find out when the cruiser nets meet, write down the times, and see if I can tune them in. I probably won't be able to from my house, but maybe I can from the boat.

I'm also interested in trying to find an inexpensive marine radio, preferably with DSC and AIS receiver, that can be modified to transmit on Ham bands. I realize I'm probably hunting for unicorns.

Thanks for the info guys. I'm pretty new to this radio stuff, so I appreciate any info I can get. It's been fun learning about it.

SV Ethan Grey
I have done a fair amount of offshore work with just a HF Receiver. About $130. Incorporated an external long wire antenna. I can also download wx fax. I can receive NWS and USCG high seas weather forecasts as well as all the cruiser nets. I can listen to Chris Parker’s daily offshore weather forecast. My portable radio receives HF and SSB.

Point is, get a HF SSB/HAM transceiver if you desire it. But there are options other than investing $3,500-$4,000 in a set up that’s not required. It’s not a be all, end all solution. But it works for me.

Here is a link to our set up on an old forum post. Scroll to the bottom of the page.

http://www.capedory.org/board/viewtopic ... io#p204998

And a link to our website including some info as well. Scroll down and you’ll see a picture with some info.

https://farreachvoyages.net/2019/07/11/ ... #more-1680

If you have specific questions I can provide more info.

[John Stone]

Hi David
So far as I know AIS operates off the VHF band. And I would not recommend an integrated VHF radio with AIS as they don’t transmit. All the ones I have seen are receive only. A stand alone system, like a caper Watchmate 850 is a great investment...and this from a guy that has almost zero electronic systems on board. You can also find transmitters that use a splitter for your VHF antenna and display contacts on your iPad or laptop.

You can check on-line for HF cruiser nets. There are a number of them out there. I don’t frequent them so I can’t provide the specifics. Local cruiser nets are usually VHF.

John

[barfwinkle]

https://waterwayradio.net/

https://www.mmsn.org/

http://www.docksideradio.com/Cruising%20Nets.htm

[mathiasben]

I've added an Icom M710 to my 27' Cape Dory and have come to think as well that perhaps in years to come it might be redundant as satellite coms have matured and become much more practical and affordable to operate. but none the less after spending time and effort obtaining a general class license, tuning the rig and counterpoise, investing in learning email coms with winlink and VaraHF I'm satisfied to see it as a healthy complement to my communication capabilities and look forward to being able to access local cruising nets and weather info. The key difference being that broadcasting to all who may be listening is quite different than the as it is now point to point two party capabilities that the sat coms offer. perhaps there's some market for marine nets over satellite that will emerge - I can imagine sailors using delorme, spot or likewise to talk to those within a 2-5 hundred mile radius during passages, or signing onto an for example eastern med net through a device. most interested to see if the starlink service will evolve to fill this utility perhaps

There is a VHF radio that offers AIS TX/RX - the B&G V60-B does such a thing - and I'm curious to hear reviews from sailors who have outfitted it as to how it's preformed. it doesn't have an integrated splitter however - perhaps that's to come later