Then comes a whole new concept, kind of. I think I had heard of this sometime before but forgot about it a long time ago. Counterpoise Grounding. This helps the transmitting power leaving the antenna bounce off the water and gives you better everything that makes a Ham’s eyes twinkle.
These are several wires that form an array in the bottom of your boat. These are based on the frequencies you wish to transmit on. They must be below the waterline, even when healing, if you want to use you radio while underway. Problem. My boat has both fuel and water tanks that are part of the hull. They come right up to the bottom of the saloon sole, which is a few inches below the waterline. A challenge. That is a whole other posting. Now there is a school of thought that says if you use grounding plates, you do not need the counterpoise grounding system. There is another school of thought that says you use both grounding plates and counterpoise grounding.
Last weekend was rainy and the weekend before was racing. This weekend forecast was dismal. Saturday had the possibility of sever thunderstorms. Sunday was to be better. By noon, the few storms that were around had dissipated and I got the itch to go.
Currently I have to back out of my slip to the starboard. Then turn hard left to head out the cannel. That is my normal prop walk so one would think that this should be easy. The clipper bow is about 6 feet off the water and has a lot of area for the wind to catch. This was one of those days. Instead of turning about 70 degrees while backing out, I turned about 20. Then the wind got the bow. A friend of mine who is an excellent boat handler and has taught many a new power boaters always said that if you have to rev-up your engine, either you do not know what your doing or you screwed up. Well, I used enough RPM to cover both categories. Even got my neighbor across the cannel out on his deck to watch. When I am cross ways in the cannel, I have enough room between my dock and said neighbor’s dock with about 5 feet to spare.
My game plan in this type situation is to move the bow in to where it will be blown against the last piling of the pier. There are those on board that do not believe I have a plan and what ever the maneuver is, it really stinks. After 42 years you do not get a lot of respect from the mate. After leaning against the piling, one just waits for the wind to swing us around. Everyone needs a little excitement to make the pleasures of sailing really have meaning.
We sailed in 12 to 15 knots for about 3 hours. Wonderful, magnificent! We decided to come in for the night because of the forecasted warmth of the night. Good choice. Not only did we have the air conditioner, the storms finally arrived around 11 P. M. Remember Sunday was going to be a better day. It started raining about 11:30 and did not let up till around 4 P. M. Coming in Saturday evening was the right thing to do. God looks out for us dumb ones.
Another education. Most sailboats use the backstay on sloops or the triatic on ketches. My main backstay is split to go around the mizzen. The mizzen does not have a backstay. Because of the height of the mizzen, my triatic is to short. One of those hams who is also a sailor has a ketch with similar problems. He has a rope antenna. He runs his up the mizzen mast then across to the main mast. Works more then excellent. That’s is the type antenna I bought, but I am running mine from about where the main mast backstay runs from the chain plates to the top of the mast. That is 51 feet and I ordered a 48 foot antenna. The supplier suggested 41 feet to stay away from the stuff on top of the main mast.
I think I have read more than I needed to (causes confusion in my old mind) and talked to enough people about choices. The latest in a SSB is the addition of DSC. I have that feature in the VHF along with all the other bells and whistles. I enjoy being able to punch in on the VHF a friend’s code who we are meeting at some anchorage and have his location show up on the plotter. Cool. I have never used the DSC function, thank God, but have heard it go off a few times. That is very neat. Being able to activate the function at greater distances and have a ship well over the horizon hear and hopefully respond to an emergency is worth the new price. This function became the decision making point. Therefore, I was going to have to buy a new unit.
I also talked to some local Ham operators. After sorting through all the verbiage on new verses used and tuner and no turner, I came to the conclusion that Ham operators are very much akin to sailors. It is not so much where we are going, getting there is the fun. Seeing the twinkle in the eye of an operator as he explains the fine tuning using the jargons of the “trade” is like listening to a sailor telling about a particular fast or heroic passage. Will I get my Ham license in the future? Probably. But I will buy a tuner for the antenna. I do not have a shack to sit in to wile away my evenings.
I did not know there were as many brands as there are. Furuno and Icom seam to be the brands most known in the US. Our plans are to cruise the island and the east coast of the US. I would like to do the Med, but that is a real pipe dream at this time. Therefore I did not give a lot of thought to those units made in Europe. There seams to be a lot of Icoms out there, including in this area. Therefore, I bought an Icom M802.
As we outfit the boat for cruising, we look at our needs and time of installation. Products like plotters, radar and other electronics are in a period of rapid development. It reminds me of computers in the 90’s. Therefore, we will wait on updating those type electronics.
Do you need a SSB? We have read a lot from those that cruise and have them. Having weather info available, email and being able to talk to family is important to us. Therefore, it is one of those luxuries we decided to get.
The SSB has not changed a hole lot since the 1930’s. Yes, there are no longer tubes, they are much smaller and more reliable. The choice then became new or used and why. Then the final choice would be the brand.
Is it worth it? Probably not if your only think in terms of dollars. It does help the AC units, but it cost as much as the large unit. I am on my second awning with this being the third season on the latest edition. It is 88 degrees as I write this. You can go out on deck and survive under the awning, whereas standing in the direct sun would be very unpleasant. When this on rots away, I will get another one.
Our schedule for its use is to put it up when daytime high temps get above 80 degrees consistently. This is usually around May 1st. We usually leave it up until sometime in October, when the fronts start getting down here. In the fall we will go from the awning to the cockpit enclosure the same weekend. The enclosure will come off in early April, giving us a good month of sunlight on the deck.
It takes from twenty to thirty minutes put it up. I can take it down in a little over five when motivated. Strong storms motivate me. Day or night. I try to keep the bird droppings hosed off. If left on they can leave stains that are very difficult to remove. The color is an off white as are the hull and deck. We do not water proof the awing as we do the bimini. Because of the bow of the awning there is very few places that will catch water.
The bows are made of PVC pipe. I started using the lightest they make. Because of the tension they are under, the pipes became warped and started breaking with each strong breeze. I went to the next heavier schedule and it has held up much better. I have had to replace two of the sections and have moved up another schedule in pipe heaveyness. The heavier PVC still warps but has a natural spring back that keeps everything nice and tight.
