Who is still using SEA 222 (or equal) SSB system. Is it worth it

[RunningCool]

My Rafiki double-ender I saved last year came with SEA 222 setup with tuner.
I am re wiring boat.
Pulled all old stuff from tuner and radio, still have 222 connectors, etc.
Is it worth reinstalling?

Oh, just had a rerig done and did not get backstay rigged for antenna.
Rigger told me I can add a external one.
thx

[Tupaia]

Depends on what sort of sailing and where.
If planning to do any ocean crossings a SW radio is great to have on board. There are still lots of impromptu radio nets that make such trips very convivial.
If you are in the Med or Europe then probably not worth the effort.
US and Caribbean has lots of social stuff on HF.
If you already have it and it works then not much effort to reinstall.

[SailingHarmonie]

SSB is slowly drifting off into hobby territory. It is not useless, but it is by no stretch required on long distance cruising boats any longer. The fraction of boats that have one installed is small, and getting smaller every year. We have one installed and other than confirming it is operational, we have not used it in many years of ocean crossings.

I don’t have numbers, but I’ll bet that more boats that are ACTUALLY crossing oceans have Starlink than an SSB. If not now, in another year for sure.

Today about the only thing you can do on an SSB that is not practical on other communication systems is the long distance “party line” radio net. We are anti-social enough that we actively avoid those even when we are in places with local VHF nets. You might certainly feel differently.

[AA3JY]

Originally Posted by RunningCool

My Rafiki double-ender I saved last year came with SEA 222 setup with tuner.
I am re wiring boat.
Pulled all old stuff from tuner and radio, still have 222 connectors, etc.
Is it worth reinstalling?

Oh, just had a rerig done and did not get backstay rigged for antenna.
Rigger told me I can add a external one.
thx

Still using a SEA 322 & tuner aboard

[Madehn]

i installed an icom HF radio, tuner, speaker, KISS ground, backstay antenna etc on boat because i was given the radio for free-- if i had to do it over again i dont think i would have spent the money even though a friend gifted me the radio and tuner for free.

[stormalong]

I still have an SEA 222 installed and working right next to my Ham transceiver. The Ham radio is much easier to use. For coastal cruising the 222 is just a dust collector. The 222 is a primitive marine SSB by today's standards. If I were going offshore again I would upgrade to an Icom M802 or 803.

At $250 a month for Starlink I doubt many world cruisers are using it. With both Ham (winliink) and marine SSB (sailmail) you can do email, get current weather, etc. Accessible anywhere in the world for free (ham) or low cost (sailmail) is a much better deal that Starlink.

PS. The SEA 1612B auto antenna tuner is an excellent tuner. Any ham on a boat or with an end fed antenna would love to have it.

[RunningCool]

Thx guys.
Still a hard decision. I have the gear, but new options and of course more money.
Starlink is a hard sell for me at 250bucks. Plus hardwaare.
My cruising journey starts next April.
Dont have the money for that, unless I am the next SV Delos (wink).

So, I want to get wefax for sure. Looking at SDR with laptop. Tried the shortwave radio thing and getting tones, etc. No success.
Still working on antenna problems.

So, now full on SSB. gotta buy the external antenna add on. As my backstay is not setup for ssb.

Also, have a good handle on opencpn and plugins.
Getting the radio tuner SDR and gribs and wefax inported in seems like where i want to go.
SSB seems so complicated right now.
Got boat work to do, ya know.
thx again

[AA3JY]

I use both (SEA 322) HF with SCS Pactor and Starlink to obtain WX. Both are useful and compliment one another..though SL is so much quicker in down load..