Originally Posted by
jakmang
I will have both on board. The phone gets expensive for fetching weather, so it is a backup or for serious emergencies. The phone minutes expire, so you can end up burning them in the end.
The checkin becomes a big highlight of the day especially on the way back where things are slower and weather more variable.
A Ham license can be useful to get more/free airtime and for talking to the Pacific Seafarers Net. There are some pretty good cram and test sessions put on in San Francisco. You can get an Expert rating in a weekend.
Installation is not really that complicated, though there are a fair number of wires running hither and fro.