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SAILING and AMATEUR RADIO by David and Brenda Johnson VA3MRJ
What got me re-established an ham radio was a desire to sail, actually cruising in a sailboat for a year. Although I had met several hams at the local flying club and became friends, it was customers of mine, Joe and Sue Barabas of Guelph that led me to a course to acquire my licence and take the exams. Sue teaches Morse code for the Guelph club and provided me with learning aids to get those very rusty CW skills up and running again. Once deciding to get my licence it became almost an obsession, listening at night to W1AW, reading all the books I could find, magazines like QST replace d my Flying magazines at home and of course looking through the equipment catalogues for my first purchase of radios. Mission was accomplished, licence in hand I went to the Ham Radio store and bought a 2 meter radio t hat got me on the air, of course much more equipment followed, all designed to take a place on the sailboat. The final station consists of a TS-50, SGC-200 automatic antennae tuner (a magic box) and a long wire from the back of the boat up to the top of the mast, about 45 feet long. I added a PK-2 32 for packet and a 2 meter 440 uhf although they see limited use on the boat.
Amateur radio has been the reason many of the people have become our friends, the friendships forged on the air carryover into our daily life. There is something special about meeting someone in per son that you have talked to on the radio but never met. We can continue that friendship even though we will be miles apart and no telephone for communication and the limited range of marine VHF. Amateur radio has introduced me to new friends at home too. One of the things I miss about being away is the trips to the flea markets with Fred (VA3ERF), Ben (VA3BNY) and Jerry (VE3DYY). How do I use the ship station to help the boating aspect? Here is a brief summary: weatherfax received on the hf radio, decoded by a modem and a laptop; e-mail though upgraded PK-232 mbx to pactor and linking to the internet through an HF gateway, this gives us daily contact with our family, (this message was sent through that gateway); marine nets help with traffic weather and safety bulletins and track our progress as we continue south; phone patches, thanks to Ben, to our family; emergency traffic from home when my mother was ill passed by Jerry, and daily Ontario news updates from F red. We have been using, almost exclusively, 80 meters back to Ontario and 40 meters for the marine nets . Many people have helped us with advice on getting the email working properly. Don (VE3COE) got us started and a sailor from Texas we met in Annapolis (W5TFY) finished the project. Ham radio makes us the envy of those sailors that are not hams, they marvel at the weather fax, e-mail and nets. Amateur radio adds a new dimension to an already enjoyable and exciting hobby. I hope this letter will encourage people to pursue with diligence the acquisition of a ham radio licence and those of you that are hams to continue to upgrade your skills and encourage and elmer new ham wannabees.
73 from Lo N Slo
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Sailing and Amateur Radio Each of us as amateur radio operators
have a story to tell how and why they worked to get the level
of experience in ham radio that they have. My story started in
Orillia , Ontario at radio station CFOR, where at the age of 13,
I was employed as an operator, that's the person who turns all
the dials and knobs behind the scenes for the radio announcers.
At CFOR there was an engineer, Peter Roe, (ve3eqa) who had maybe
a grade 8 education but was a wizard with electronics and he was
a ham. Peter and a friend helped put up a receiving aerial and
found a Halicrafter s-85 receiver, I spent man y nights in his
ham station listening to CW contacts from all over the world.
When I entered High School, the army cadets needed Morse Code instructors
so I became mildly proficient in Morse Code and earned a little
money teaching the cadets. At age 16, with no licence, I left
amateur radio when I moved to Kitchener Waterloo in about 1963,
although my involvement continued in radio since I was employed
for the next 5 years by CKCO-TV and the sister radio stations.
Radio and electronics continued to be my hobby and career for
the next 25 years but no ham radio.
The boat is a 36 foot sloop, center cockpit and will be our home
for a year so it was important that we could maintain communication
with family and friend back home. My first mate, Brenda, and I
left Penetange on July 16th bound for the Bahamas, as I write
this story we have traveled over 1500 miles and put over 400
hours on the boat to arrive in Florida. Throughout the trip we
have had almost daily contact with our ham friends in Kitchener
and made many many new friends on boats, who by the way are mostly
hams as well.