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Post by On y va on Jan 26, 2015 14:11:41 GMT
Although I am still not 100% sure about getting a SSB radio, I am considering my options. On the one hand a satphone is much easier, in the end and looking at cruising say 3 years or more, it is also more expensive and it totally lacks the social side of being able to communicate with other yachts or weather gurus that guide you over the oceans.
One of the issues for me is the antenna. Most yachts with SSB have a isolated back stay, but on my SO40, i have a forked back stay. This makes isolating it a lot more complicated.
The other option is a 7,03cm whip antenna. It is quite a bit cheaper too, but "they" say performance is not as good in especially the lower frequencies.
Anybody has a: an SSB radio and b: a whip antenna? If so, what are the experiences?
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Post by hoppy on Jan 26, 2015 15:39:36 GMT
No idea on the SSB but as a safety item, I think having a satphone even if you have SSB is a good idea. It would be nicer if the sat companies would release their grip on our balls and offer a plan that allows you to have a phone with an active sim for a reasonable cost if the phone remains unused.
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Post by On y va on Jan 26, 2015 17:31:38 GMT
Speed is another issue. I.e. Irridium is sooooo S L O W......... Getting a gribfile in takes forever. Inmarsat is better, but also more expensive. So, for gribfiles and emaills and keeping in touch with other cruisers and weather people, SSB remains the winner really. In that respect, it is a very good secundary safety feature. But, I would also have a satphone or Yellow Brick. With Yellowbrick you can send SMS messages and loved ones can follow u wherever u are.....(if you like that  ). |
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Post by hoppy on Jan 26, 2015 20:01:49 GMT
Speed is another issue. I.e. Irridium is sooooo S L O W......... Getting a gribfile in takes forever. Inmarsat is better, but also more expensive. So, for gribfiles and emaills and keeping in touch with other cruisers and weather people, SSB remains the winner really. In that respect, it is a very good secundary safety feature. But, I would also have a satphone or Yellow Brick. With Yellowbrick you can send SMS messages and loved ones can follow u wherever u are.....(if you like that ). Shhh don't call them Yellowbrick... The rights holders of "The wizard of OZ" forced them to change the name, so they are now just YB Tracking. I have a YB tracker and like that the family can keep track of me if the are so inclined. Also it's good for me to look back on where I went and was handy to keep an eye on my father and uncle when they had my boat. Aside from sending SMS it is also good for me to add a short blog post but I have not used these last features as I have not gone far enough offshore yet. Yes Iridium is slow and if you want faster speeds, their Pilot antennae is massive. If I recall, Iridium can get to 2.4k (LOL) but how fast is SSB? |
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Post by windward54 on Jan 26, 2015 21:24:25 GMT
There are also a couple of other options for the backstay antenna. I have used a GAM antenna, and zip tied it over the split backstay. It worked fine. I liked the GAM, and it does have its limitations. But all in all, it is a good product. On the last boat, I took out the split backstay and rigged up a double backstay in its place. I had to replace the backstay anyway, so I had the split taken out and installed two backstay, one to each side. I used the one backstay closest to my tuner as the antenna. You can also do a rope antenna that gets hoisted by a halyard when needed.
The whip will work really well, as it is close to the water and will reflect your signal well. They do look odd on a sailboat though!
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Post by hoppy on Jan 26, 2015 23:34:05 GMT
can't you add the isolator above the split and use the single part as the antennae?
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Post by windward54 on Jan 27, 2015 4:30:11 GMT
can't you add the isolator above the split and use the single part as the antennae? You can, and the tang becomes part of the antenna. The one person that knew who did this didn't have as good of a signal. Also, as long as the upper portion of the backstay is longer then 23 feet (7 meters) you can use just the upper portion of the backstay. Only issue with doing this is you have to run the GTO-15 up the side of the backstay. It can be a pain to do this. |
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Post by abgreenbank on Jan 27, 2015 8:12:04 GMT
The antenna length includes all the cable (gto15 or whatever HV cable you use ) from the antenna tuner, so you may find you antenna length is much longer than u think.
rgrds
ab
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Post by chuckr on Jan 28, 2015 16:25:14 GMT
like windward we have a gam electronics antenna. we have had it for almost 9 years now and we really like it. when we were in the caribbean we were constantly told we had one of the best radios in the carib. when we sailed across we used winlike to put in daily locations and to download grib files and we used a combinations of a fla station and halifax until we were 2 days out of horta.
in the med we are using stations in swiss, bulgaria, and hit russia once. we use it for gribs when we do not have internet to check the wx.
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Post by On y va on Jan 28, 2015 21:46:26 GMT
can't you add the isolator above the split and use the single part as the antennae? Yes, I have considered this. But, the antenna is everything above the tuner. So includes the cable going up to the split. So you would have near enough 15mtrs of antenna, but also a cable from the split down (with spacers to keep it away from the 1x19 stay. |
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Post by rxc on Jan 29, 2015 2:36:28 GMT
I just ran an insulated wire from the antenna tuner (ICOM 140) thru a fitting , up the side of the arch (using PVC pipe as standoffs), and then tied to the top of the mast using a length of dyneema cord. I cut the wire to the length that was suggested for the antenna tuner, and was able to communicate with Herb, in Canada, from the middle of the Atlantic, in 2008 when the SSB connectivity was quite low, because the solar activity was low. I also use a simple gound connection(3" copper strap) to a small dynaplate installed aft of the engine. The antenna tuner makes it all work. I have never had to do long-range email, so cannot comment about that, but voice comms were fine. ICOM M802 SSB.
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Post by Zanshin on Jan 30, 2015 16:47:47 GMT
I've got an SSB aboard and opted for a removable antenna, I haul it up via the spinnaker halyard and tie off the rail in the back of the boat with some spectra line. It works really well and I don't have to worry about the backstay insulation at all.
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Post by On y va on Jan 30, 2015 21:52:07 GMT
Zanshin: that seems a sensible way of looking at things too. I recently spoke to someone in Palma de Mallorca who had this setup. Seems simple enough and it keeps your antenna wire in good nick, as it is only temporarily exposed to the elements and UV.
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Post by chuckr on Feb 1, 2015 11:34:21 GMT
zanshin nice idea but when we crossed the atlantic we had 5-6 days of 25-35k winds and 3-4m seas. last thing i wanted to do was trying to haul thigs up down and attachings to a railing. we just plugged in and used winlink, seemed simplier. and if we do not have wifi i plug in and fire up computer and quickly download the gribs while having my first cup of coffee in my jammies and bunny slippers.
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Post by Zanshin on Feb 1, 2015 11:48:03 GMT
ChuckR - I tend to put it up at the beginning of my sailing season and don't take it down until the boat goes into storage; I just mentioned that there is a capability of removing the antenna.
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