Communications

On Monday morning I telephoned Ron Dubois, the recongnised radio expert of Honolulu, about the installation of a Pactor modem (see http://www.techyacht.com/pactormodems.htm) so that I could use my Kenwood HF radio for e-mail communications via the Sailmail service ( see http://www.sailmail.com/ ). I am attracted to Sailmail because for $250 per year I get 90 minutes of air time per week for sending and receiving e-mail. This represents a lot of data capacity because I would compose the messages off line and send them off in one gorp. The emails are standard ones that can include cc's to other parties. Downloaded messages can include modest sized attachments which can represent Grib files and weather faxes. I can arrange to have these items delivered automatically.

The issue was my Kenwood TKM-707 HF radio. Ron asked me to telephone Gary Wood in California for advice. Gary turned out to be a real gun on SCS Pactor modems. Unfortunately he gave me two items of bad news regarding my Kenwood equipment. The Kenwood radio because of its design is not suited to use with Pactor modems. And sadly, my Kenwood antenna tuner is not useable with other HF radios. I thanked Gary for steering me away from that blind alley.

The options were (1) to do nothing (2) install a new HF radio, antenna tuner, and Pactor modem.

My initial decision was the first option. After all, is it worth $3,000 USD to be able to send messages while I'm at sea? I'm quite happy to be out there alone and my Kenwood radio is good for weather faxes, news, and SOS messages.

But then I thought more about it. From the perspective of this being the adventure of my post retirement and maybe my entire life, was I willing to forgo the ability to keep friends who are interested in my progress and care for my welfare informed on my progress in order to save some money? Was I also willing to forgo reliable daily delivery of good weather information? I'll have plenty of resources waiting for me when I get back to Fremantle regardless of whether I spend this money or not. It is now that I can use some resources.

Both Gary and Ron independently recommended the Icom M700Pro marine radio (See http://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/marine/ssb/m700pro/default.aspx ) with an Icom AT-130 antenna tuner (See http://www.anchorexpress.com/ICOM-AT-130-HF-Automatic-Antenna-Tuner-p/at-130.htm ). Ron say that he has installed 16 of these sets this year alone and that they work very well with the Pactor modems. He says that the Kenwood TKM-707 that I am using is a good reliable voice communication radio but the Icom will give me much better voice performance.

Ron will take me to West Marine on Thursday morning and we will pick up the Icom radio and tuner that was shipped for another client who didn't proceed with the purchase. He will order the SCS Pactor modem from Gary in California, and will do the installation with me doing the hack work of pulling cabling through the boat. I've asked for new coaxial cabling from the antenna, and will be asking Ron about how he will do the grounding and about the use of ferrites to minimize interference.

Ron thinks that I might get $500 or $600 for the Kenwood radio. I'll take a stab at selling it but will otherwise be happy to package it up well and keep it as a spare.