I have dedicated the last two weeks of my life to learning all the necessary information to become a Ham operator. Here is the hook. You must be a General level Ham to use the free WinLink system or pay an annual $250.00 fee to Sailmail in order to be able to use the email function of the 802 ICOM radio with PACTOR modem. We decided on the SSB over the sat phone and have finished the instillation. What they don’t tell you is that for the DSC function to work on the little red panic button you have to install a second receiving antenna. Now it can’t just be any run of the mill antenna but one that receives HF band transmissions. More fun with holes being drilled in my deck and crawling around in tight places.

Now as for the test. This is truly an electronics geek club with private membership and a difficult hazing test to get you in. Yes, they removed the Morse code requirement but who knew about all that spurious transmissions going on. I mean did you know that for DX skywave transmissions that you need to set your frequency just below the MUF! This stuff should be required in the public schools. We’ve been going at this communication thing all wrong. They stress things like being courteous. Ok enough for now back to studying about propagation. Hmmm…….

6/13/2013 Update on SSB

We have passed the General Ham test and received an official call sign (KK6EYE) from the U.S. government agency of the FCC. We have downloaded the Airmail program checked propagation connected the computer to the SCS modem and the HF radio and made contact with a station in San Diego. Winlink is now up and running and all systems appear to be a go. Now I just need to create my, “White List”, and learn how to down load grib files from NOAA and saildocs.com. I would like to add that technology is out pacing the idiot guides to use it. Which means a lot of tech manual study to fill in the holes.