Any hams have trawlers?

When I was cruising on the sailboat, lots and lots of hams (amateur radio operators) seemed to have sailboats. Is the same thing true with trawlers?

John
AF4WM

You betcha - wo0s

I know a couple of Monk36 owners who have ham radio onboard.
Some years ago I was planning to cruise down the Caribbean Islands so I got my Technician license I was planning to get the General but it doesn't look like that trip is in the cards anymore so I don't plan to put the radio on the boat.
Over about 60 years my Dad was: KH6RL in Hawaii, KP4TC in Puerto Rico, then WA5ESI in Louisiana
Steve W
KE5WLV

KA1CVB no rig on the boat at this time but sometime in the future

Susan is our resident Ham. KG4SFP. We're on the air. Chuck

I'm planning to put a HF radio aboard next year. The Great Northern Boaters Network is a ham net here in the Pacific NW and its pretty active in the summer. I plan on checking in a lot next summer. The nets can be entertaining and informative. On the sailboat in the Caribbean we'd listen to the various SSB and ham nets every morning. Down there it was mostly sailboats but there were a few trawlers too. KC7MEB

When I was running around the Carib , many folks had ham radios (so claimed to be hams) but most used the set for phone contact to the states.

The ICOM was the most popular as a single wire could be cut , and the "ham" radio worked on any frequency .

With a good ground plane , a proper length backstay antenna and antenna coupler , com was great.

Lena has her Ham license and is the communications officer on Hobo. We have the Icom IC-M802 radio and would buy another one. We used the radio from AK, down the West coast and into the Caribbean for radio nets, talking to friends on other boats, email and weather. For Email and weather we have a SCS Pactor III modem.

More people use the SSB frequencies than the Ham frequencies. On SBB frequencies you can conduct business and there are not any tests to pass to broadcast.

Today we see a lot of cruisers with Sat phones (for less money) and no HF radios. What we like about the SSB/Ham radio is the access to other cruisers and the weather. When you are remote, it's any easy way to plan your next anchorage or hear who's in the area, based on what you here on the regional HF nets.

John, If you haven't already installed a radio, here is a post on our blog for our installation, The Trawler Beach House: Is It Hard To Install A Single Side Band Radio? . Chuck

Thanks for that info, Chuck. I haven't even gotten the trawler yet (working on it very hard, though!) so no rig installed yet. I looked at what you wrote about your installation and I think that will be very useful. Thanks.

John

John, your very welcome. Good luck, I remember our time searching and it was a frustrating experience. In the end, after searching from Maryland to Florida, we went back and bought the very first boat we looked at. Chuck

KM4VY

my father died 5yrs ago at the age of 94 he was the oldest l,iving ham operater at that time,he got his licensc at 14tyrs old his call letters were W2ACZ. w 2 able charlie zero

K5GAB Herb
N5ARN Willie

Back in the day, for cruisers,

Ham radios were stable enough to operate a weather fax machine .

Today many $75 SW portable radios can perform this task.

FF said:

Back in the day, for cruisers,

Ham radios were stable enough to operate a weather fax machine .

Today many $75 SW portable radios can perform this task.

Click to expand...

With a laptop, HF radio or SW receiver and some software you have a weather fax by connecting the speaker output from the radio to the microphone jack on your laptop: JVComm is just one of the weather fax software packages that's out there. Their demo works great.

JVComm32 - FAX SSTV RTTY SYNOP NAVTEX program

Here's the world wide weather fax schedule:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/rfax.pdf

Kc5sdi

Haven't used my TS-50 in about 5 years. Prolly use again next year when I retire. No real value inland that I can see. When I sailed deep water in the Gulf of Mex it was very handy and when I lived in USVI. Now it just sits there.

I got my original novice license 40 years ago this month. We cruise with an Icom and often hang out on 40 meters when anchored. if you get a reciprocal license when in the Bahamas, you'll have people waiting in line to DX to your /C6A call sign extension. I must have logged a hundred calls with India, Russia, and Asia from there.

W1ACA

N8AO - Don

K4nhk

Got my Novice license 51 years ago. Now an Extra Class with a 1st Class Commercial F.C.C. with ship radar endorsement. None on board yet but looking into Icom 802.

H'mmmm, you might want to ask the FCC to correct their database then, they list you as having a GROL with radar.

Grol

You are right. I am so used to saying !st Class as This IS WHAT IT WAS WHEN I FIRST RECEIVED IT... BEFORE THE F.C.C. changed it to GROL. So I stand corrected. Does it really matter?? I can still be an engineer at a commercial station as long as the F.C.C. is notified.

jwinner said:

Does it really matter??

Click to expand...

It does to the guys who earned a First Class Radiotelegraph license. In the marine world when someone says they have a first class radio ticket it doesn't mean 'phone.

And in the maritime world, a GROL without a GMDSS ticket isn't worth much. If you want to operate a marine MF/HF radio onboard, a restricted ticket is good enough.

As far as broadcast stations are concerned, no license has been required since 1992 and by that time only a Restricted permit was required anyway.

Sorry, only the brasspounders get bragging rights these days and only a handful of them ever find a job since GMDSS replaced them.

Get a life!!!!

I have a Extra Class Ham License, since you don't know that means.. a 20 WPM code qualification. NOW YOU NEED TO DECIDE WHAT THAT MEANS AS FAR AS LICENSES ARE CONCERNED. GET A LIFE AND DO YOUR RESEARCH!!! YOU ARE SOOOOO SMART!!!!!!!!!!!

I did my research and it seems to have got your blood pressure up.

I'm not the one who showed up trying to impress the masses by claiming to have a license that doesn't exist anymore and ain't worth much anyway.

My license may not be worth much but your's is obsolete!