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Thread: March 14 Communications Seminar

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
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    Default March 14 Communications Seminar

    Hi, this is Paul (VALIS). I'm going to be presenting at the March 14 Communications Seminar, and as I prepare for this I would really appreciate any questions or comments you might have.

    Here's an outline of the areas I think would be useful:
    • SSB
    o Installation -- typical costs, options
    o Antenna and ground systems
    o Power – connections and power budget
    o Operation – Sailmail and other email choices, cost, practical limitations, spam email
    o How to communicate – microphone technique, headset use, practice, relaying, other radio traffic
    o Onboard radio noise – sources, mitigation
    o Common problems – antenna, low battery, noise, propagation, interference from other vessels, crazy autopilot
    o Return passage coordination and emergency communications with Pac Cup boats.

    • Satphone
    o Installation -- typical costs, options
    o Antenna options
    o Power – connections and power budget
    o Operation – XGate, Sailmail, and other email choices, cost, practical limitations, pre-paid minutes
    o How to communicate – just like a phone.
    o Always-on?
    o Onboard radio noise – sources, mitigation
    o Common problems – dropped calls, running out of minutes, spam email, spam filters
    • Related topics
    o Getting weather info – satphone email, SSB email, SSB WFAX, SSB voice broadcasts
    o Computer – laptop, netbook, ?, power budget

    Any thoughts? I don't want this to be a rehash of what everybody already knows, but I'm thinking there might be a broad range of experience in the room. I do hope that some of you will be willing to help answer the hard questions and provide real-world advice (my own experience is on my crewed heavy cruising vessel).

    Hope to see you there!

  2. #2
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    Default

    Hi Paul,

    Thanks for doing this key seminar. I'm guessing more Bug-lighters will check in after they recover from the EYC festivities.

    A couple things come to mind:

    1) I did my own SSB installation (Icom 802). I thought I assembled the counterpoise carefully and well (copper strapping down the hull to a keelbolt) but it didn't work until I also ran a piece of strapping to the engine. Last year I ripped it all out and bought a KISS-SSB coil. It seemed to work fine during the LongPac, although the boats were a lot closer together. Also, know whether your keel ballast is encapsulated or not.

    2) I had a lot of trouble getting the satphone properly connected to the laptop, including the Mail program being the default to send/receive GRIBs from SailDocs. Just lots of pieces to the puzzle, both hardware and software. (This was 2008 - I rented a 9505A from Luis at Global Marine Networks and connected it to a MacBook running MacENC. The requests were sent through Mac's Mail program via XGate.) Most skippers rent the satphone - don't have it delivered the day before the race - allow more time to get everything working.

    3) If you have an Icom radio, take a spare mic. I think three Icom mic's crapped out during the 2006 race.

    4) I can't speak for Rob of course, but if you can't demonstrate decent SSB signal strength off the antenna or a working satphone in Tiburon, you probably won't be allowed to start. The Coast Guard made it VERY clear in the race permit that all boats had to be able to maintain communications.

    All I can think of right now.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2009
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    Default

    Hi Paul, I look forward to the presentation. Your agenda looks really great. When I was preparing for the Transpac in 2010 I spent a ton of time making sure I had a rock solid installation (and amazingly, it really worked), but not enough time getting familiar using the radio. Not intuitive. By about the 4th day out -- on my return leg -- I guess I figured out enough to get by. So, for the SSB newbies among us, I'm thinking some of these topics could be useful:

    Tuning and autotuning
    Selecting the right mode
    Finding the right channel quickly (with 2 confounded knobs, and too many channels in between)
    Saving desired channels
    Which band to use for short/long distances
    What time of day is best
    Getting the high seas weather broadcast
    Finding radio news and other interesting stuff
    Listening to members' nets
    Etiquette for taking your turn, breaking in, etc.
    Use of special terms and how to respond to them
    Like "over" vs. "out" "clear" "how's my signal" "standing by" "decimal" vs. "point" "niner" etc.,
    Oh, and "that's a roger" "roger, roger, roger" and "roger that" "

    Thanks... and see you there.
    Paul/Culebra

  4. #4
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    Default

    Bob and Paul, thanks for the great feedback -- these are excellent topics and they typically aren't discussed in the usual SSB how-to presentation.

    I still get confused by the two channel-selector dials on my Icom 710! Finding the channel I'm looking for can be a real challenge.

    A head's up: I'm going to be running the SSB Test Net again this year, on Opening Day (Sunday, April 29), after the Blessing of the Fleet. Gordon West will be participating from San Diego, and I hope to get some boats up in the PNW to join in. Frequencies and schedule TBD.

  5. #5
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    In the satphone section, it would be good to emphasize the prohibitions against Outside Assistance. The RR&C's are very specific.

  6. #6
    pogen's Avatar
    pogen is offline Sailing canoe "Kūʻaupaʻa"
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    I'm pricing out satphones now -- trying to get the best deal and determine rent vs. buy. For example, a three month Iridium handset rental seems comparable to the cost of the Isatphone Pro purchase price. And the dock, external antenna, and cabling will run about $1200, and these items cannot be rented, as far as I can tell. So $650 on top for an ISatPhone Pro does not seem bad. Is this the way it is? I was pretty surprised how expensive the dock/antenna turned out to be, maybe I am missing something.

    The PacCup has a satphone-only option, I don't remember if the SHTP has gone this route. Perhaps after this year's races the SSS will examine the experience of the PacCuppers and also decide to allow this.


    Also, Paul, if you could make your presentation slides available shortly after the meeting that would be great.

    And of course, don't be shy about plugging NavMonPC, the best marine software value out there!

  7. #7
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    I rented the satphone with all accessories. I had to buy a minimum three month subscription to X-Gate but that was the only extra. By far the most expensive part was the minutes but by contracting ahead with GMN I got a good rate, plus an 800 number to call first which routed the calls through a cheaper source. GMN charged my card twice a month for the minutes I used.

    I thought about buying (vs. renting) the Iridium 9505A but I'm glad I didn't. Two smaller, lighter, cooler Iridium models have come out since then, and I wouldn't have used a satphone much after the SHTP anyway. All this was four years ago so things may have changed.

    The SHTP doesn't require SSB's - you can go w/satphone only - but you'll miss out on a lot of the camaraderie if you can't participate via SSB during the race. This has been debated here EXTENSIVELY.

  8. #8
    pogen's Avatar
    pogen is offline Sailing canoe "Kūʻaupaʻa"
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    Yeah, I know, I did not want to start a new discussion/debate. Thanks for the tip on renting bases, that option is not on their website I think, and I haven't yet called Luis. Paul mentioned to me that OCENS might be giving West Coast racers a deal this summer, but I don't know what is going on there. OCENS pricing is pretty comparable to GMN, and others as well. I would want to go with a vendor who had experience working with our type of situation.


    FWIW, I have archived several past presentations (SSS and PacCup) on SSB installation and usage on my website here

    http://downtothesea.org/david/SSB/

    All are .pdf format.

    Cheers

    D.
    Last edited by pogen; 02-21-2012 at 12:43 PM.

  9. #9
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    Default Will miss the Seminar

    Hi Paul,

    I'm really sorry I will miss your seminar, but I will be bashing my way back up from Guadalupe Island on the 14th. There were a few Seminars I was going to push & get up there to attend, both to learn and to meet some folks. When I saw you were doing it, I was doubly disappointed I won't be there.

    Cheers,

    Whitall
    Slacker

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ragnar View Post
    Hi Paul,

    I'm really sorry I will miss your seminar, but I will be bashing my way back up from Guadalupe Island on the 14th. There were a few Seminars I was going to push & get up there to attend, both to learn and to meet some folks. When I saw you were doing it, I was doubly disappointed I won't be there.

    Cheers,

    Whitall
    Slacker
    I'm looking forward to meeting a whole bunch of you folks, sorry you can't make it. Sail safe and have fun!

    My plan is to have the PowerPoint slideset plus some fairly extensive notes and details available on various websites before the seminar.

    I completely agree, do not wait until the last minute to get your comms system reliably working. Example:

    I've got a fancy new Asus "Zen" netbook (it's flat, shiny, and runs Win7-64.) The plan was to use this as the main machine for satphone comms. My new Iridium phone has a USB connection, and it works great with XGate running on my old XP-based netbook. I can *not* get the new netbook to work reliably with XGate. The drivers work, I can even send and receive short satphone email. But when I attach a few KByte attachment, the handshaking fails and the message is almost never delivered. I've done A/B testing with the new and old netbooks, and it's definitely the computer. GMN has looked at the logs, and can't figure this out (they claim to have many happy customers using Win7-64.) I worked on this for a couple of weeks, and have now kind of given up. I may need to leave the new computer at home.

    I just got the Iridium AxcessPoint WiFi hot spot box, and will be testing with that (although I really don't like way it keeps the satphone connection running until you push the "Off" button.)

    The moral: Test early and often. Try the corner-cases -- don't just send a "Hello World" message and think you're good to go. My initial tests looked good, and I didn't discover the problem until much later.

    Regarding the upcoming SSB test (April 29), I'm getting some good response from folks willing to be available up and down the coast (including the Vic-Maui gang.)

    FYI, Vic-Maui will be holding an SSB test session during the Swiftsure (May 26-27), and they would appreciate some out-of-the-area boats to communicate with. I will keep you all informed as the details come together.

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