side band rookie

[Geoduck]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Geo-
I would wonder if you aren't suffering from a skip zone.
Skip zone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
or better
NVIS Army Field Manual 24-18 Appx M see section M2, note that your local communications on HF radio can "fail" at only 2 miles out from your location. I'm not saying this is the problem--just be advised that HF often works better for long distances than it does for "just over the horizon".

Not knowing what "local" is to you...just tossing this in for consideration.

Beats me. Local is Puget Sound, Anacortes, Wa. I was surprised that I didnt get any tug/ship traffic but maybe they dont use ssb inside the sound?
I think it's working ok - I heard the weather report from Panama and some ham bs from Alabama, so it's got ears. I have to hook a meter up to see what the swr is and fool around with the ground some more and then we'll see what happens.
In the mean time, I'm over at my cabin catching trout!

[Cheechako]

My exerience is that SSb isnt listened to extensively.. especially now days. Voice contacts will never be like hailing on VHF , so lower your expectation from that standpoint. If you are in a marina you will have a lot of noise, better to try from an anchorage somewhere. Maybe you could set up a schedule with someone on this forum at a particular time and band and give it a try. Time of day matters for your particular band also. Look up the marine weather nets/bands vs time of day and try to make a contact schedule at a similar time and nearby band.

[hellosailor]

"but maybe they dont use ssb inside the sound? "
That's what I'd expect, for reasons like the dead (skip) zone. And with VHF being more commonly used by other vessels, bases, etc.

[Geoduck]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

My exerience is that SSb isnt listened to extensively.. especially now days. Voice contacts will never be like hailing on VHF , so lower your expectation from that standpoint. If you are in a marina you will have a lot of noise, better to try from an anchorage somewhere. Maybe you could set up a schedule with someone on this forum at a particular time and band and give it a try. Time of day matters for your particular band also. Look up the marine weather nets/bands vs time of day and try to make a contact schedule at a similar time and nearby band.

That's the plan - as soon as I get tired of catching these trout over here - another week - maybe!

[medicrene]

I have the same radio and antenna tuner. It is not great, but I can send and recieve at great distances. One thing I noticed about the radio is that I was getting a great deal of interference that degraded weatherfax transmissions. Eventually, I started turning off my 12 volt refrigeration unit when transmitting and receiving and all worked well. You might try unplugging from the dock and turning off all equipment and see if you get better resuilts.

The Witchdoctor

[Geoduck]

Witchdoctor- Beat you to it! I thought the same thing - unplugged did cut out some static. I've come to the conclusion that I just have to get out in the open and give it a try as soon as I get back to the boat - It's about time to pack up and go sailing anyway - radio or no radio!

[Wotname]

You can be surprised what will create RFI on board, even a digital voltmeter / battery monitor can shut down an SSB receiver with noise.

[Cheechako]

Yeah, my Ham rig was reputed by others to be one of the strongest and clearest... but when I was in the marina with 300 boat masts around me.... it was terrible. Yeah turning the fridge off was a good suggestion. While transmitting, all the lights on my electrical panel would glow... of and on with data tx!

[PhilE]

Geoduck,

If you want to use SSB on lower marine channels to talk to close stations, you may need a different (seperate) antenna for that. It pretty much eliminates the low band skip.

It is designed to only work out about 10 +/- miles to 120 +/- miles. The military and disaster groups use them a lot. Email me your address and I will send you a copy of the USMC manual as I have it in pdf

I live in EWa if you are anywhere close.

PhilE WA7JCE philatair-pipedot com