Hi Frank: In our computer business here we are often asked to connect folks to the Internet. We are aware of two of our customers who (against our recommendations) attempted to use the DirecWay system and both came back to us to get rid of it and go with another solution. They reported constant outages, disconnects, very slow speed and very poor customer support. You will note that DirecWay will not give any type of speed estimate or service guarantee. Note also the need for a rather large dish and extremely precise orientation. We have no direct experience with this service ourselves so this is just hearsay but I suspect this is still not ready for prime time. We are further North up here in Oregon so maybe it works better in the South of the US. A better angle and less distance to the satellite? Your experience may vary. Joe Engel Portland. OR -----Original Message----- From: Frank & Carol Worden [mailto:fworden@isd.net] Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 8:28 AM To: trawler-world-list Subject: TWL: DirecTV and DirecWAY I am looking for anyone using DirecWay the two way satellite Internet service supplied by Hughs. This capability may be quite new. I know that a few years ago I looked into internet via satellite and the service required a separate ISP for the up link. I understand that this new system is two way and no phone line or separate ISP is needed. I can not spent the money for a stabilized system that will work when underway. If I can place an antenna on the dock and use the system while in port it would be good enough. We will be living aboard and cruising within the next 2 years and am thinking ahead about TV and internet service. _______________________________________________ http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/trawler-world-list

There are all sorts of answers. The pretty close to standard cruiser rig nowadays is a ham rig modified for marine ssb use. Make it real clear that this is illegal...it is a clear cut no question violation of the law...but it is the cruiser standard. - Cruisers don't always pay a lot of attention to the details. There are very few radios equivalent to the 560 Pro family. I use one as my primary for my role as a net controller on the Pacific Seafarers Net. The cruisers however would point out that you obviously have too much money. If you are really going cruising I would suggest two radios...one a legal SSB with the ham extensions and one a good ham rig modified to transmit on the marine bands. This provides redundancy which I think reasonably important on a cruising boat. If not cruising buy a better single radio. The antenna also gets into this play. A 560 has a built in tuner. For many marine applications a remote tuner would be much better...place the tuner at the antenna not at the transceiver. If you are going cruising get email. It is very nice to be able to get weather etc. and to send your computer off to send a message when it finds some frequency that works. These things will hunt around by themselves for hours looking for a way to get the email into the internet. Sure you can do it yourself but it can take hours when well off land. As to brands for this stuff I am an ICOM fan. Own three at the moment. The crucial thing for a cruiser is the antenna. Power boats are generally at a disadvantage. The whips simply are not long enough to be competitive with the backstay. With a whip though get the tuner at the antenna...radiating inside always causes problems. As any cruiser will point out to you ham radios are readily available on the used market. My primary backup is an ICOM 735 that is at least 15 years old. They really don't go bad in the normal course of time. Another option might be a good marine with say an ICOM 706...This gives you all the good stuff plus 2 meters and 440. Might be modifiable to the marine frequencies though I have not checked. Jim > -----Original Message----- > From: trawler-world-list-bounces@lists.samurai.com > [mailto:trawler-world-list-bounces@lists.samurai.com]On Behalf Of Kim > Boyce and Eric Thoman > Sent: Friday, January 31, 2003 6:28 PM > To: trawler-world-list > Subject: TWL: All Hams > > > Kim and I are studying for our Ham licenses and are shopping for Ham rigs. > There is lots of interest and excitement out there about the new Icom 802 > SSB/Ham. The folks who sell email systems for boaters are > pushing them hard > and claim great success with Pactor II and III. > > Our question for the List (licensed) experts is if we really want > to do Ham, > should we buy a true Ham rig, i.e an Icom 756 Pro II? Or, should we stick > to the boater standard and buy an Icom 802? > > We do not intend to use it for email. We hope to never use it to yell > "help" (i.e. DSC) but we understand that we certainly may need to someday. > We want to use it primarily to talk to other Hams. No one has yet told us > that there is a better radio for true "Hamming" than the 756 Pro II. > > We also understand that a true Ham rig is not legal to broadcast on Marine > frequencies and may not be licensed as a ship station because it does not > meet Title 47, Part 80 requirements. How much do Listees transmit on the > marine SSB frequencies? Listening is, of course, legal on any radio. > > Our reading indicates that it would be unusual for us to want to > transmit on > the marine SSB frequencies. The chit-chat that we are interested in seems > to occur on Ham frequencies. > > The land based Ham folks prefer the true Ham rigs whereas the boaters seem > to prefer the marine radios. > > Ruggedness and water resistance (the marine radio guys' arguments) is not > much of an issue for us, or is it? > > Any help? Thank you in advance. > > We hope to talk to you via HF soon. > > Eric Thoman and Kim Boyce > www.seanet.com/~kimeric > _______________________________________________ > http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/trawler-world-list >

Kim and I are studying for our Ham licenses and are shopping for Ham rigs. There is lots of interest and excitement out there about the new Icom 802 SSB/Ham. The folks who sell email systems for boaters are pushing them hard and claim great success with Pactor II and III. Our question for the List (licensed) experts is if we really want to do Ham, should we buy a true Ham rig, i.e an Icom 756 Pro II? Or, should we stick to the boater standard and buy an Icom 802? We do not intend to use it for email. We hope to never use it to yell "help" (i.e. DSC) but we understand that we certainly may need to someday. We want to use it primarily to talk to other Hams. No one has yet told us that there is a better radio for true "Hamming" than the 756 Pro II. We also understand that a true Ham rig is not legal to broadcast on Marine frequencies and may not be licensed as a ship station because it does not meet Title 47, Part 80 requirements. How much do Listees transmit on the marine SSB frequencies? Listening is, of course, legal on any radio. Our reading indicates that it would be unusual for us to want to transmit on the marine SSB frequencies. The chit-chat that we are interested in seems to occur on Ham frequencies. The land based Ham folks prefer the true Ham rigs whereas the boaters seem to prefer the marine radios. Ruggedness and water resistance (the marine radio guys' arguments) is not much of an issue for us, or is it? Any help? Thank you in advance. We hope to talk to you via HF soon. Eric Thoman and Kim Boyce www.seanet.com/~kimeric