Caribbean Compass Yachting Magazine January 2016

— Continued from previous page
If you respond with a terse comment or phrase, the other station with which you’re
communicating won’t know whether to reiterate their last transmission, and might
not understand that you’ve received and understood what they’ve been saying.
As we’ve been discussing, HF signals are often quite weak, and it may be difficult
to determine whether the other station has finished what they’re saying. This is when
good radio procedure helps. In the course of an HF SSB radio conversation, say
“over” only when you’ve completed your thought and are ready for a response. When
you are completely finished commenting, and wish to convey this to the net controller,
stating your boat’s name, e.g. “Leakytub clear” will open up the net for others.
When conversing directly with another station, you can say “Leakytub out” when
you’re ready to move on.
On HF SSB nets, due to geographic or atmospheric effects, you might well be able
to hear a particular station better than can the net controller. Give your boat name
and say “relay”. If you require a relay, kindly do the memory cells of the relaying
station’s operator a favour, by keeping your comments brief.
On HF nets, it’s extremely important for each station to be clearly invited to speak
by the net controller. They will address you by your boat name and tell you to go
ahead. Speaking out of turn will likely result in a mashup of unintelligible signals,
and the net controller will then have to waste time restoring order.
If you need the other station to reiterate their last statement, the use of “say again”
is much more effective than saying “repeat”.
Please, let’s try to leave behind those meaningless and hackneyed Hollywood radio
phrases such as “roger that”, “repeat”, “be advised” and “over and out”.
Compass Cartoon
JONNY HAWKINS
JANUARY 2016 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 34
Ken Goodings cruises the Eastern Caribbean with his wife, Lynn Kaak, on S/V
Silverheels III. As a Designated Maritime Radio Examiner with Industry Canada, he
taught and examined students in VHF and HF-SSB DSC Maritime Radio boating
classes in Toronto from 2002-2008. Working as a broadcast television and radio electronics
technologist for 38 years at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario, Ken was
licensed for Canadian Amateur Radio in 1981 with Ham call sign VE0SH.
PS: WE ONLY WANT TO GET WEATHER REPORTS
Depending on where you plan to cruise, you might not need to invest in a SSB
station at all. With the advent of modern, powerful WiFi antennas for your boat,
coupled with the great proliferation of shore-based WiFi routers, receiving current
weather information in the comfort of your vessel’s saloon is now very easy. In the
Greater Antilles, and all the way south through Leeward and Windward Islands to
Trinidad, you’re likely to discover WiFi signals in most anchorages. Using WiFi, we
receive weather updates and routing advice in daily emails on our smartphone. HF
SSB is still a valuable weather and safety aid to vessels that travel well offshore.
New technology: weather updates in the palm of your hand
Some cruisers wish only to receive the US National Weather Service weather map
faxes and High Seas text bulletins. There are now some very capable, modestly
priced portable SSB receivers available. In addition, enterprising individuals have
now developed apps for your smartphone or tablet that enable you to plug into a
small receiver and retrieve and view official government weather updates on your
portable smart devices. All this information can now be received over modest distances
with a small, US$100-ish radio receiver using only a long piece of outdoor
wire for an antenna.
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