I posted last week on issues with our Icom M802 not tuning properly. We replaced the plug between the tuner and 802 (a very small and fiddly little thing - 4 hands required to solder it all together!) and seemed to be getting somewhere!
Then Rob (Evening Star on this forum) came down to lend a hand and found a loose coaxial connection which we soldered up.
Superb - working SSB! We were getting lots of stations through on Rx (I was surprised as I didn't expect to get much in the marina with all the masts etc near us). We also tuned into and got the weather fax tones etc - great.
Sunday was computer day - having heard the horror stories of serial - usb connections and Rf noise between computers and radios I wasn't exactly keen to get underway! However, after a quick read of the Sailmail primer, I set the configurations up and drafted a test email - dialed up Belgium and hit connect - result! Emails sent and received first time - wow! Also had a play with weather faxes and grib files - all coming through fine.
Very impressed with the whole set-up, seems to work very well (so far!) and have good Rx, I haven't tested Tx on voice, but the emails sent fine so I can't be too far out!
(Set up for those interested is: Icom 802, AT140 Tuner, Dynaplate for ground, Whip for antenna, Pactor IIex (running Pactor III) modem - the pactor modem connects to the laptop via a USB - Serial adapter (from www.cpc.co.uk) and the 802 connects to the laptop straight to the serial port.)
The sailmail system looks a little scary at first with, but is actually very easy to use when you get down to it. The main window is just like MS Outlook, the only thing you need to do is open the terminal window and select a frequency / station to connect to and hit connect (if you don't have the radio connected you need to tune this manually but the software tells you what to tune it to - with the radio linked to the laptop the computer does all this on its own). There is even a propagation program to tell you which station and frequency is going to be best to try at your location and time of day. Highly recommended to anyone with an SSB ($250 per annum subscription).
Thanks to Rob for his help - just need to find some nets to start chatting on now!
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SSB ... Update on last week's post, plus Sailmail!
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