Rod
We use the kiss SSB ground plate http://www.kiss-ssb.com/ in a plastic boat as we didn’t want to make extra holes for conventional ground plates. We don’t use SSB much as our set is elderly and and I get frustrated by the unpredictability of transmission and reception. Maybe we will use it more as we head into temperate latitudes? For us, IridiumGO does all that we need for weather, email, tracking and sms but that might be a bit controversial in this thread!

We did Bob Smith’ 4 day SSB course in 2006 and really enjoyed it.
Simon

+x

 

Rod Halling - 1 Feb 2021

Hi Roger & Dick,

Your thoughts are very much appreciated - thank you! Jane and I have found a 4-day course put on for the Oyster World Rally that would work for us, but it involves being away from home & children) for 4 nights which is no easy task in these COVID ridden times! Thankfully, there is also a local company in Plymouth that is running the full "professional mariner" version which is 2 weeks and very comprehensive - https://westernmaritimetraining.co.uk/course-calendar/gmdss-goc-general-operators-certificate-4/ 

This is the General Operator's Certificate. It is expensive (£1,300) but currently not paused due to COVID...

We have an ICOM SSB installed, but with no working ground plate or aerial, although we have an insulated backstay that we could use. Do you have any recommendations for installing a ground plate system?

As far as satcomms are concerned, we currently have 2 old but working Iridium phones and are looking at an Inmarsat Fleet One device. Not sure if we will have the loot left for this, as the refit has hoovered up rather a lot of loot!

I have always been of the "old school", being of the attitude that if you are out there, you should be able to "self-rescue" in pretty much all circumstances (last boat was aluminium for that reason, Magic Dragon is Kevlar reinforced with watertight bulkhead for the same reason). Having three young children aboard tends to moderate that mindset, so safety and comms gear is a little higher up the priority list that it used to be. Each to their own - I feel no pressure from either the Health & Safety brigade, or "look after yourself" mob! I do try to listen to good advice from salty seadogs like you guys, so thank you again.

All the best to you and your loved ones in these strange times,

Rod   

Hello Rod,

If the GOC course is currently the only option, that’s unfortunate.

The trouble with MCA “professional mariner” courses is that they are aimed at a specific audience and are not necessarily very practical or hands-on. That was certainly my experience of the Approved Engine Course. It was five days long but only a few short hours were spent in the workshop; the rest were in a classroom memorizing answers to theoretical questions, in preparation for the all-important written examination. I could well be wrong, but have a suspicion that the GOC might be similar.

The Long Range Radiotelephone Operator’s Certificate is aimed at yachties and would probably be much more suitable for your needs. You can find a list of LRC course providers here: https://www.amerc.ac.uk/courses.php?action=lrc That list looks a bit out of date (e.g., I am pretty sure that Bob Smith - previously mentioned by Brian earlier in this thread - is no longer in business), but is a place to start.

I would also suggest telephoning both the RYA [www.org.uk] and the AMERC to enquire about the availability of LRC courses during Covid-19. While the Internet is great, sometimes a phone call to the right person yields reliable information a lot quicker.

In any event, please get trained. I would not suggest reliance upon the hope/expectation that UK rules governing radio usage cease to apply to UK-flagged vessels once they leave home waters.

Regarding your installation question, here are a few links that may perhaps be helpful:

http://www.yachtcom.co.uk/comms/antennas/index.html

https://www.practical-sailor.com/marine-electronics/conjuring-up-some-ssb-magic

https://icomuk.co.uk/An-introduction-to-Marine-SSB-Radio/3995/166/

https://www.cruisingworld.com/gear/installing-ssb-radio/

http://www.yachtwire.com/ssb.pdf

https://www.oceannavigator.com/fitting-a-new-ssb-antenna/

Best wishes, Roger

+x

 

Dick - 1 Feb 2021

+x

 

Rod Halling - 1 Feb 2021

Hi Dick,

I think Sailmail would be good, although I have had recommendations to "Mail-a-Sail" who have good compression algorhythms for satellite and SSB use. We haven't looked in detail at the whole comms area yet. I am in the middle of (hopefully! touch wood) selling two companies which will allow us to disappear over the horizon with limited comms. If the sale doesn't proceed as planned, I may need to stay in touch, hence the possible need for Inmarsat Fleet One....

on another note, where are you at the mo'? It would be great to meet up when we are on our travels!

Wishing you the best as always,

Rod

Hi Rod,
I still have no fixed/land abode. My mobile abodes include Alchemy (in Newfoundland where I am unable to get to her) and a small RV now in Florida visiting friends. I hope the sale goes through smoothly. The 2 "past-life" headaches most plaguing widely wandering cruisers were business related (sometimes even if sold) and house rentals.
I have heard good things about mailasail, but have no experience. You might call Jeremy or John at UUPlus for land based support for sat-phone, SSB compression etc.. They are extremely helpful, and very much on top of their game.
Gotta run. More to follow. Dick

Hi Rod, What is your radio and what is your coupler (tuner)? Dick

+x

 

Rod Halling - 1 Feb 2021

Hi Dick,

I think Sailmail would be good, although I have had recommendations to "Mail-a-Sail" who have good compression algorhythms for satellite and SSB use. We haven't looked in detail at the whole comms area yet. I am in the middle of (hopefully! touch wood) selling two companies which will allow us to disappear over the horizon with limited comms. If the sale doesn't proceed as planned, I may need to stay in touch, hence the possible need for Inmarsat Fleet One....

on another note, where are you at the mo'? It would be great to meet up when we are on our travels!

Wishing you the best as always,

Rod

Hi Rod,
I still have no fixed/land abode. My mobile abodes include Alchemy (in Newfoundland where I am unable to get to her) and a small RV now in Florida visiting friends. I hope the sale goes through smoothly. The 2 "past-life" headaches most plaguing widely wandering cruisers were business related (sometimes even if sold) and house rentals.
I have heard good things about mailasail, but have no experience. You might call Jeremy or John at UUPlus for land based support for sat-phone, SSB compression etc.. They are extremely helpful, and very much on top of their game.
Gotta run. More to follow. Dick

Hi Dick,

I think Sailmail would be good, although I have had recommendations to "Mail-a-Sail" who have good compression algorhythms for satellite and SSB use. We haven't looked in detail at the whole comms area yet. I am in the middle of (hopefully! touch wood) selling two companies which will allow us to disappear over the horizon with limited comms. If the sale doesn't proceed as planned, I may need to stay in touch, hence the possible need for Inmarsat Fleet One....

on another note, where are you at the mo'? It would be great to meet up when we are on our travels!

Wishing you the best as always,

Rod

+x

 

Rod Halling - 1 Feb 2021

Hi Roger & Dick,

Your thoughts are very much appreciated - thank you! Jane and I have found a 4-day course put on for the Oyster World Rally that would work for us, but it involves being away from home & children) for 4 nights which is no easy task in these COVID ridden times! Thankfully, there is also a local company in Plymouth that is running the full "professional mariner" version which is 2 weeks and very comprehensive - https://westernmaritimetraining.co.uk/course-calendar/gmdss-goc-general-operators-certificate-4/ 

This is the General Operator's Certificate. It is expensive (£1,300) but currently not paused due to COVID...

We have an ICOM SSB installed, but with no working ground plate or aerial, although we have an insulated backstay that we could use. Do you have any recommendations for installing a ground plate system?

As far as satcomms are concerned, we currently have 2 old but working Iridium phones and are looking at an Inmarsat Fleet One device. Not sure if we will have the loot left for this, as the refit has hoovered up rather a lot of loot!

I have always been of the "old school", being of the attitude that if you are out there, you should be able to "self-rescue" in pretty much all circumstances (last boat was aluminium for that reason, Magic Dragon is Kevlar reinforced with watertight bulkhead for the same reason). Having three young children aboard tends to moderate that mindset, so safety and comms gear is a little higher up the priority list that it used to be. Each to their own - I feel no pressure from either the Health & Safety brigade, or "look after yourself" mob! I do try to listen to good advice from salty seadogs like you guys, so thank you again.

All the best to you and your loved ones in these strange times,

Rod   

Hi Rod,
Glad you got sorted. Traveling with children, marine SSB will be very much appreciated: they are social animals.
Do you plan to use Sailmail? I used the equivalent in ham (Winlink) for all email, gribs, wxfx, etc for decades. The last two years I have been coastal cruising where internet by cell is so much easier.
Fleet (no personal experience) is if the internet needs are high and/or complex and very pricey. Where SSB did not work for me (only Greenland) we used iridium with a data hook-up. Worked a peach. More info if wished.
Short time now, but will come back on your other questions.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy

Hi Roger & Dick,

Your thoughts are very much appreciated - thank you! Jane and I have found a 4-day course put on for the Oyster World Rally that would work for us, but it involves being away from home & children) for 4 nights which is no easy task in these COVID ridden times! Thankfully, there is also a local company in Plymouth that is running the full "professional mariner" version which is 2 weeks and very comprehensive - https://westernmaritimetraining.co.uk/course-calendar/gmdss-goc-general-operators-certificate-4/ 

This is the General Operator's Certificate. It is expensive (£1,300) but currently not paused due to COVID...

We have an ICOM SSB installed, but with no working ground plate or aerial, although we have an insulated backstay that we could use. Do you have any recommendations for installing a ground plate system?

As far as satcomms are concerned, we currently have 2 old but working Iridium phones and are looking at an Inmarsat Fleet One device. Not sure if we will have the loot left for this, as the refit has hoovered up rather a lot of loot!

I have always been of the "old school", being of the attitude that if you are out there, you should be able to "self-rescue" in pretty much all circumstances (last boat was aluminium for that reason, Magic Dragon is Kevlar reinforced with watertight bulkhead for the same reason). Having three young children aboard tends to moderate that mindset, so safety and comms gear is a little higher up the priority list that it used to be. Each to their own - I feel no pressure from either the Health & Safety brigade, or "look after yourself" mob! I do try to listen to good advice from salty seadogs like you guys, so thank you again.

All the best to you and your loved ones in these strange times,

Rod   

+x

 

Dick - 30 Jan 2021

+x

 

Roger Harris - 30 Jan 2021

Hello Dick,100% agree that there are many different styles of cruising, and no ‘correct’ way.As you feel safer having an SSB, by all means do. Or if you just like the social aspects of cruising nets. No skipper should feel it necessary to justify their decision to use, or eschew, SSB communications ... certainly not to me, anyway!My previous post was not intended to deter Rod from becoming licensed or using his SSB. Other than the cost of purchase and installation headaches, I see no real downside to having an SSB (and apparently his is already fitted, so he doesn’t have to worry about those issues).Best wishes, RogerP.S. I don’t know if you have yet had the pleasure of meeting Bob, but he is excellent company and in no way dogmatic.

Hi Roger,
You mention SSB in the context of “safety” and I thought I would kick off that to say:
With respect to safety alone: I would probably suggest, in most parts of the world and in a contest between SSB and a sat-phone, a sat-phone. Money seems no longer to be the deciding factor. 20-30 years ago, SSB was the easy choice I made (sat-com was far too much $$) for safety concerns and later appreciated its other benefits. That, I feel, is no longer the case. A sat-phone just provides pretty much instantaneous comm anywhere at any time and is useable (with a small amount of instruction) by any crew. On most boats, there is usually only one experienced SSB user and emergency comm using SSB is complicated and not always possible. (When in Greenland, with effort, I could not use SSB comm, either marine or ham, but the sat-phone was reliable for both voice and data.)
SSB was always a possibility for emergency comm and, although easy to find examples of its use in that way, generally was not that effective or the first choice: VHF and EPIRBs took precedence. But marine SSB comes into its own as way to connect a vessel and its crew to the recreational boating community through the nets that are common in, for example, the Caribbean, the Bahamas and the US east coast. I would also venture a guess that the majority of the boats (and the area is huge as is the number of boats) rely on Chris Parker’s SSB wx reports to get their weather: it certainly was the case for me and I would think even more so now.
I also received my email, gribs, wxfx’s for decades over SSB, as a ham this was for free. This can be done, for an ongoing price, more easily by sat-phone and will be the route many reasonable mariners take.
Random thoughts, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy

Hi all,
Perhaps of interest, at least with respect to my thoughts on what makes for a successful passage is my article "Key Attitudes in Passage-Making" which can be found in the Forum. Dick

+x

 

Roger Harris - 30 Jan 2021

Hello Dick,100% agree that there are many different styles of cruising, and no ‘correct’ way.As you feel safer having an SSB, by all means do. Or if you just like the social aspects of cruising nets. No skipper should feel it necessary to justify their decision to use, or eschew, SSB communications ... certainly not to me, anyway!My previous post was not intended to deter Rod from becoming licensed or using his SSB. Other than the cost of purchase and installation headaches, I see no real downside to having an SSB (and apparently his is already fitted, so he doesn’t have to worry about those issues).Best wishes, RogerP.S. I don’t know if you have yet had the pleasure of meeting Bob, but he is excellent company and in no way dogmatic.

Hi Roger,
You mention SSB in the context of “safety” and I thought I would kick off that to say:
With respect to safety alone: I would probably suggest, in most parts of the world and in a contest between SSB and a sat-phone, a sat-phone. Money seems no longer to be the deciding factor. 20-30 years ago, SSB was the easy choice I made (sat-com was far too much $$) for safety concerns and later appreciated its other benefits. That, I feel, is no longer the case. A sat-phone just provides pretty much instantaneous comm anywhere at any time and is useable (with a small amount of instruction) by any crew. On most boats, there is usually only one experienced SSB user and emergency comm using SSB is complicated and not always possible. (When in Greenland, with effort, I could not use SSB comm, either marine or ham, but the sat-phone was reliable for both voice and data.)
SSB was always a possibility for emergency comm and, although easy to find examples of its use in that way, generally was not that effective or the first choice: VHF and EPIRBs took precedence. But marine SSB comes into its own as way to connect a vessel and its crew to the recreational boating community through the nets that are common in, for example, the Caribbean, the Bahamas and the US east coast. I would also venture a guess that the majority of the boats (and the area is huge as is the number of boats) rely on Chris Parker’s SSB wx reports to get their weather: it certainly was the case for me and I would think even more so now.
I also received my email, gribs, wxfx’s for decades over SSB, as a ham this was for free. This can be done, for an ongoing price, more easily by sat-phone and will be the route many reasonable mariners take.
Random thoughts, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy

+x

 

Roger Harris - 30 Jan 2021

Hello Dick,100% agree that there are many different styles of cruising, and no ‘correct’ way.As you feel safer having an SSB, by all means do. Or if you just like the social aspects of cruising nets. No skipper should feel it necessary to justify their decision to use, or eschew, SSB communications ... certainly not to me, anyway!My previous post was not intended to deter Rod from becoming licensed or using his SSB. Other than the cost of purchase and installation headaches, I see no real downside to having an SSB (and apparently his is already fitted, so he doesn’t have to worry about those issues).Best wishes, RogerP.S. I don’t know if you have yet had the pleasure of meeting Bob, but he is excellent company and in no way dogmatic.

Hi Roger,
There exists a very wide range of sailors in the OCC: from among the most skilled and experienced in the world, to those who have yet to do their first ocean passage and are planning their outing.
I am far from among the first group, but in my responding to Forum questions and comments, very much have the second group in mind.
I do not know the audience that the author you quoted had in mind when he wrote his words, so his comments may have been perfectly matched to his audience and I have absolutely no problem with him saying them.
I do know those quotes found their way into a posting where the audience now reading them includes those who may have little passage experience as yet. I am not sure about dogmatic, you bring that up. But I am clear that a budding off-shore passage-maker (after reading the quotes) might feel vulnerable to ridicule if he/she wished to “keep in touch” with other boats or report actual conditions when talking with a weather person on SSB or sat-phone. Further, I have been reading synoptic charts and watching clouds and the barometer for decades and am very clear that a meteorologist will glean important-to-passage forecast data that I do not. That does not mean I use outside sources on every passage, quite the contrary, but I would not wish a budding passage-maker to shy from doing so because he might be perceived as not going it alone and be subject to a comparison where “The contrast was glaring”.
Again, the audience and context of the author might have made these comments completely anodyne, but to the OCC audience, I would wish to have a skipper, new to it or experienced, feel free to access supportive information and activities without worrying that he/she was abrogating the lost days when “peace and solitude of ocean sailing” prevailed or that elusive and often unrealistic ideal not doing something if “you canna look after yourself”.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy
Ps. I can’t leave alone the, to my experience, incorrect assertion that weather forecasters and routers “direct which way to go”. (Some skippers may choose to experience them that way and may treat their suggestions as gospel, but that is more on the skipper than the router.) In my early years, I benefitted greatly and learned a great deal from weather people and routers such as Herb Hilgenberg and Chris Parker. Neither would tell any skipper what to do or where to go. Herb might (and did) say that if you do such-and-such you will have a hard time and would counsel against certain skipper suggestions: but it was always clear that the skipper decided. And then there was a time when Herb told me (rather abruptly I thought) a few days out of the Azores that my barometer was off. Calibrating it when arriving ashore proved he was correct.