Would you like to test your marine SSB? While VALIS is sailing from Friday Harbor Washington to San Francisco to prepare for the Pacific Cup we will be conducting a twice-daily SSB radio net. All boats are welcome to participate, especially those in the Pacific Cup, Singlehanded Transpac and Vic-Maui races. Here is the schedule, starting on or around June 2:

0800 PDT : SSB Channel 4A (4146 KHz USB)
0810 PDT : SSB Channel 8A (8294 KHz USB)

2000 PDT : 4A
2010 PDT : 8A

At the start of the net VALIS will identify on 4A (our callsign is WDB2898), and see if anyone is on the frequency. We will say hello and give signal reports. Ten minutes later we will switch to channel 8A, identify ourselves, and listen for anybody trying to contact us. We will bounce back and forth between 4A and 8A as needed. Depending on our position, on yours, and the propagation, one frequency may be better than the other.

It is very likely that in addition to VALIS there will be other boats participating as net control stations. This will be a great opportunity to test your radio system under real-world conditions. If you can't hear VALIS, do try to contact any other boats on the frequency. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves!

We are planning to start sailing south on June 1, but we will obviously wait if conditions are unfavorable. I expect to be on the water 5-10 days, and will run the Net until we arrive in San Francisco. You will be able to monitor our progress (or lack of same) on the VALIS blog: http://sailvalis.com/wordpress_1/