Er...blimey. Was off-line for a couple of days and didn't realise this thread had turned into a bun fight! Thanks to all for your opinions but please try to avoid the play-ground scraps. It makes reading your valued advice a little more frustrating.

I forgot something off my list: Pactor modem. Now is a modem ONLY for airmail or can I download synoptic charts/grib files with it? Ultimately this is why I would like SSB - to download weather data. I guess the USB version of the modem would be best (I'm bored of buying USB to serial converter cables!).