Are there any members out there planning to sail back to Europe from the Caribbean/USA this spring and who would like to start an OCC SSB Net?

Last year (2011) OCC Member David Blackburn ran a very successful SSB net for OCC members and others which resulted in a number of new memeber applications. For further details and recommended frequencies contact David Blackburn PO for Rosas, Spain.

For general advice on SSB nets I can aslo help.
John Franklin

Since my last posting nearly 3 weeks ago I have learned that new Associate Member Martin Lamport (Sadko) will be crossing from the BVI to Milfprd Haven via the Azores starting in late May and member Mowbray Whiffen (Samphire) will be leaving in July from (I think) Maine to the UK.

I really am keen to put together members who may be making a west to east Atlantic crossing this summer amd for someone to start an SSB Net for both members and non-members. David Blackburn did this last summer, very successfully, and it resulted in several new members joining. Please register here if you are interested.

Hi John

Adrian on Lalize here.

Yes we are leaving St Thomas around the 1st May.
Planned route.

St Thomas to Azores.
Azores to Cork, in Ireland.
The South Coast of UK to Ipswich.

We have one other boat who wants to join a net with us.

Hi John,from Samphire.
To confirm that we hope to leave Camden,Maine on 1st June approx,via Azores to Falmouth.

If it 's of any help, here 's some info from the 2011 OCC net: We started on 4030 and 6215khz but soon realised that we needed more power with boats leaving from the Virgin Isles, Florida and the Chesapeake, so we changed to 8131khz.
This worked well for the first week but, because of the continual Easterlies, all the others stopped in Bermuda and were delayed in leaving, whilst we had gone North and found strong Southerlies and were flying Eastwards...so we changed to 12353khz and this worked well too.
Whilst talking to the fleet near Bermuda, we were also talking to Mark Holbrook who was approaching the Azores from Lagos.
A good net to contact from the Caribbean/Bahamas/Florida area to the Bermuda area is the Cruzheimers Net 6516 and 6227khz at 1230gmt...because of this large area, the net uses three or four Net Controllers spread around this area and if one Controller can 't hear you then the next one will, [and one of them might be our own George Marvin on 'Trumpeter ']. This Net is geared to safety as you just report in with your ships name and position, if you can say that much then you must be 'OK '!
It 's all a lot of fun too.
David Blackburn

David Blackburn,Comments from 2011 noted.What time of the year did you leave US and where ,approx,did you find the westerlies?I will be leaving Maine in early June 2012 for Falmouth.
I am no net expert but weather reports would be most usefull from others to the east of,say, Boston.

John,
I 'm not a big fan of "rallies", "group sailing" or "buddy boating".....but I have seen good value in having weather info from other boats out there, especially those a few days ahead of me...and I do love to talk on the radio :)
So, while I 'm mostly stuck tied to the dock again this summer, handling family matters, I believe I can be of some help....

I have a very good HF set-up on-board, and much of last year spent a couple hours each afternoon relaying for Herb on his Weather Net, on 12.359mhz...and will probably be doing the same again this summer (starting in early May)....
http://www3.sympatico.ca/hehilgen/vax498.htm
In addition to ~ 40 years of HF radio experience, I also have over 40 years of offshore experience, so perhaps I can offer some advice regarding HF Radio Nets for offshore sailing.....

If desiring shoreside communications / net control, then using 12.359mhz as primary (with 16.528mhz and 8.294mhz, as secondary 's), would be good advice...
Perhaps using 12.359mhz from 1830z or 1900z, ending at/before 1930z.....which is immediately prior to Herb 's net....

If wishing for just for en-route / vessel-to-vessel contact, for boats sailing across the Atlantic, the easy advice would be to just tell you to start your voyage using 8.294mhz as your primary freq, (with 6.227mhz and 12.359mhz secondary 's), changing to 12.359mhz as primary, if needed as vessels spread out....

But, these brief thoughts don 't give you much in the way of information to make your own decisions when conditions and/or applications change.....

So, here are some details that may help....
(the first few sections will be generic....with the specifics following further down....)


1) First, you 'll need to determine "where" you wish to communicate to/from.....
Meaning:
a) Do you wish shoreside contact, or do you desire only en-route, vessel-to-vessel comms????
b) How far apart will the vessels be??? (at the start, while en route, and as the fastest of the group nears the destination)


2) Secondly, you need to determine what time(s) of day you wish to conduct the net....although, a morning net, an hour or so after sunrise, is typical for brief vessel-to-vessel / en-route nets, this isn 't a necessity.....and an afternoon net might be a necessity if shoreside comms is desired from across the Atlantic to the US, etc....
Also the time of the year, and location, both have an effect on HF freq choice.....as well as solar flux / sunspot numbers, etc.(but, in this example it is summertime, across the Atlantic....and the solar flux is MUCH better than just a couple years ago....so we 'll not complicate things further....)


3) Next, determine how long do you want the net to last each day?? / How long do you desire to "be-on-the-radio" running/checking-into your net each day??? (and, along those same lines, verify "where" you need to communicate to/from?? vessel-to-vessel or to/from shoreside??)

This, of course, is primarily determined by:
a) How many boats are participating???
b) How much info does each boat need/desire to pass on???
c) Are you planning an open or closed net???

If you have one or two boats who act as "net control stations" (or a shoreside station) and call a roll of vessels each day, and have trained / experienced radio operators on each vessel, the total duration of the net can be very brief....It does not take long for a vessel to reply when called, and supply their position / current weather conditions, and ask any query they have....figure about one minute per vessel in this case.....
BUT....
But, if you run an "open" net, asking for all check-ins, and/or do not have trained/experienced radio ops on all the boats, it will take longer.....possibly as much as 3 - 4 times as long....

So, if you envision a dozen (or so) boats at any time, you might figure on about 30 - 60 minutes, maximum.....and certainly even much less, if you do a "closed" net first, and then call for any "new vessels" (this is what I 'd recommend)....

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4) For making specific plans, after the above questions are handled....you 'll need to understand all the following:
a) how HF signals of different freqs propagate....
b) how the received noise level effects the communications....
c) how the radiation pattern of our on-board HF vertical antennas effect the communications link....
d) how daytime HF comms, needing to cover from 100 miles to 2000 miles, might be difficult using just one frequency....


5) Trying to impart a detailed understanding of the pros and cons of different frequencies, including the received noise levels, radio wave propagation, antenna patterns, etc...is beyond the scope of internet discussion boards, but a brief overview is possible here....
And, although the following are generalizations, they are generally true!! :)

a) Although I personally find the lower HF freqs to be VERY useful and applicable for long-range nighttime comms....
Depending on the time of day, typical daytime on-board received noise levels (mostly atmospheric noise) tend to limit the use of the lower HF freqs (such as 4mhz to 6mhz) to stronger signals (which are typically available early morning...the earlier the better....)

b) HF groundwave communication using vertical antennas over salt water, works MUCH better than shoreside stations attempting this using horizontal antennas, particularly on lower/mid HF freqs....(I 've personally experienced > 100 miles groundwave at 12mhz-14mhz, using vertical antennas over the open sea, vs. ~ 20 miles over typical land paths with horz antennas)...

c) HF Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS) comms (which almost always take place below 9mhz, and mostly below 7 - 8mhz), use high radiation angle antennas, not the low radiation angle vertical antennas on-board most offshore sailboats....

d) High levels of ionosphere D-level absorption, effect the lower freqs first and more severely.....and require high radiation angles to penetrate (NVIS), not the low radiation angles of our typical vertical antennas on-board.....making daytime skywave comms on the lower HF freqs (such as 4mhz), from our boats difficult....

e) Combining the extended groundwave communications possible with vertical antennas, communicating over salt water...with a broad vert lobe or multiple vert lobes....allows for narrower skip zones on mid HF freqs (such as 8mhz thru 12mhz)....
This can mean that 8mhz is sometimes usable during the daytime, all the way out to 800 miles or more (depending on time of day), with no (or little) noticeable skip-zone.....and that daytime use of 12mhz can mean groundwave out to 100 - 150 miles and skywave from 400 - 4000 miles, many times giving you a narrow skip-zone from 100 - 400 miles....


f) Higher HF freqs (14mhz / 16mhz and up), will have still have definite, broader, skip-zones and nicely corresponding higher signal levels on longer range contacts....certainly those > 3500 - 4000 miles and many times noticeable higher signal levels even on paths of 1500 - 2500 miles.....




6) Understanding and using the above info, shows that those planning an en-route, vessel-to-vessel net, for boats leaving on a long offshore passage, would severely limit their communications abilities by specifying daytime contact using a 4mhz (or 6mhz) freq, as the Carib 1500 does/did....and certainly prevents most shoreside comms (should a club or organizer desire a shoreside contact, even if just for back-up) during those nets, after they 're more than a day or two out.....


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PLEASE UNDERSTAND and REMEMBER that daily variations in solar flux, solar activity, geomagnetic activity, etc. combined with the variations in distances to/from different boats (as well as variables in each of the boat 's antennas), mean that some days your primary freq will work great, and some days the secondary freq will work better!!!
And, all participants in the net should be aware of this!!!!


7) So, if anyone wishes to put together even a simple informal HF net for use while sailing offshore and/or to far flung locales, please understand the limitations of the different frequencies, at different times of the day, taking into account the typical antenna radiation patterns that we have....as well as take notice of the wide variations of communications path distance....

So, perhaps, the best overall approach if the OCC is looking at sponsoring / doing this would be:
a) an informal / optional "chat" net at 1200z (or 1000z/1100z for those east of the Azores), on 8.294mhz primary (6.227mhz secondary)....as an informal, en-route, vessel-to-vessel communications net....
b) with the official OCC Net at 1830z/1900z thru 1930z, on 12.359mhz primary (16.528mhz and 8.294mhz secondary)....
With everyone informed to try the secondary freq at a specific time.....such as run the Net on the primary freq starting at 1830z, switching to 16.528mhz at 1900z and 8.294mhz at 1905z, etc. and then return to 12.359mhz to finish.....


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Looking at all the above, it becomes evident why critical users of HF (such as military, etc.) use HF-ALE (Automatic Link Establishment), and why commercial users have used ALE, SelCal, and DSC to get thru to their intended stations, without requiring anyone to know much about HF propagation, antennas, etc....
So, if you could be assured that everyone had ALE equipment on-board (never going to happen with pleasure craft), or at least everyone had HF-DSC equipment and had it turned-on and scanning (a future possibility), then choosing the "best" / "proper" freq for the comm path and time of day would be as simple as pushing a couple buttons and waiting a minute until the radios "connect-to-each other".....(But don 't hold your breath for this to be normal daily operations with pleasure craft!!)




I hope that you find this "brief" message to be helpful.....

Fair winds....

John
S/V Annie Laurie
WDB6927 / KA4WJA
MMSI# 366933110

A few important points here....

1) The frequency 6215 is one of the six International GMDSS Distress and Safety Calling Frequencies, and should NEVER be used for routine operations, nor any cruising net.....[quote="Blackie" post=210]We started on 4030 and 6215khz...[/quote]




2) Since there are fewer users of HF maritime freqs these days, and since there are planty of HF Maritime simplex channels available for worldwide routine (non-distress) use (such as 4146, 4149, 4417, 6224, 6227, 6230, 6516, 8294, 8297, 12353, 12356, 12359, 12362, 12365, 16528, 16531, 16534, 16537, 16540, 16543, 18825, 18828, 18831, 18834, 18837, 18840, 22159, 22162, 22165, 22168, 22171, 22174, 25100, 25103, 25106, 25109, 25112, 25115...)
I 'm not sure I understand the "push" to use shared-access channels....

Further, I know that while use of the non-maritime, shared, fixed / land-mobile, frequencies by properly licesnsed US flagged vessels, operating inside ITU Region 2 (the Americas and waters surrounding the Americas) is completely legal and acceptable....
I do not know if this is the case for other vessels (unless specifically authorized under their nation 's radio rules), nor for any vessels operating in ITU Regions 1 or 3 (Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania, etc. and their associated waters).....

These are the "extra channels" that some pleasure craft in the US/Caribbean started to use a few years back....(channeled every 3khz, from 4.000 - 4.060mhz and 8.101 - 8.191mhz)
I do know that in Region 2, these are shared access channels, with little probability of causing intference to users in other parts of the world, with limited transmit power of pleasure craft, etc. and 1000 's of miles separating the vessels from other users.....but just wondering if using the "normal" HF maritime freqs/channels wouldn 't be a better idea????



3) David 's experiences here show what I posted in detail about...[quote="Blackie" post=210] If it 's of any help, here 's some info from the 2011 OCC net: We started on 4030 and 6215khz but soon realised that we needed more power with boats leaving from the Virgin Isles, Florida and the Chesapeake, so we changed to 8131khz.
This worked well for the first week but, because of the continual Easterlies, all the others stopped in Bermuda and were delayed in leaving, whilst we had gone North and found strong Southerlies and were flying Eastwards...so we changed to 12353khz and this worked well too.
Whilst talking to the fleet near Bermuda, we were also talking to Mark Holbrook who was approaching the Azores from Lagos.[/quote] Use of the lower HF freqs will severly limit your HF communications range / capabilities....
Use 12mhz and 8mhz channels as your primary freqs, depending on time of day / distance of communications needed (and supplimenty with other freqs, such as 16mhz, 6mhz, as needed)....




4) Actually the Cruisehiemer 's Net uses 8.152mhz as their "summertime" primary frequency (from March thru November)...[quote="Blackie" post=210] A good net to contact from the Caribbean/Bahamas/Florida area to the Bermuda area is the Cruzheimers Net 6516 and 6227khz at 1230gmt...[/quote]Switching to 6516 or 6227 in wintertime for their primary freq....
http://www.bigdumboat.com/network.html




I hope this helps...

John
S/V Annie Laurie
WDB6927 KA4WJA
MMSI# 366933110