Ham, $$B, Iridium ?

[svcambria]

Congratulations

Michael
K9YE

[btrayfors]

Originally Posted by SaltyMonkey

Yippie! I just ACED my "extra" class license exam - the phd of geek!!!

Congratulations, Monkey! Welcome to the exalted ranks :-)

What's your call?

Bill
WA6CCA

[donradcliffe]

Congratulations!

Now you can join the ranks of the VE's and GIVE the exams.


KK6DQ

[SaltyMonkey]

thanks guyz. that was a tough one, but feels good.

[capt_douglas]

Congrats on making it to the lower 25khz of the bands.

de NS1A

[Akka]

I agree with many contributors on this thread, that SSB is worth the money (if you can afford it). In some parts of the world (e.g., offshore and in remote places like the San Blas Islands of Panama) SSB is the only way to stay connected to fellow cruisers. And of course you can use it for Pactor digital communications, at a very low cost.

However, let me make a pitch for satellite phones (Iridium or Inmarsat, in particular): They are the best safety equipment money can buy. When your boat is taking on water and you need to send out a Mayday, how much use is your SSB, really? The emergency frequencies may or may not be monitored by people within propagation range of you, and even if you get someone on the line, it's not clear how diligent they will be in helping you.

On the other hand, with our Inmarsat Mini-M I can call my daughter in California, give our lat/lon and tell her the conditions on board. I absolutely guarantee that she will then involve the Coast Guard, the Navy, and anybody else who might be of assistance to us. More than that, I know that she will not give up on getting us help -- if one source of assistance doesn't pan out, she'll try another, and another, until we get what we need.

A cool thing about our Inmarsat contract is that our service provider only charges us for minutes used; there is no monthly fee. So, while we almost never use the system for calls (except periodic checks to be sure it's still working), we also almost never pay anything for it, either.