For $99 more you can buy a Icom 718, a full fledged ham transciever. (Kenwood and Yaesu have comperable transcievers) That with a a couple of $30 "ham sticks" (75 meters, 40 meters and 20 meters will do) and a ground to a thru hull, will give you excellent reception on the various ham bands, plus a real emergency rig--which you can use in the case of a real emergency. The ham radio has a not more features and is a better SSB reciever than the hand held. The ham license no longer requires morse code--so it is basically taking a test--and the Mexico license is by reciprocity and takes a few hours just South of Tujuana--while you are picking up your medical supplies and Pecos at the local bank. I would not buy the Icom portable reciever--if you have a good antenna, a good Grundig (400 or 800), Sangean ATS909, or some of the Sony's will also pickup most of the ham and weather channels. I personally would not leave port without both SSB and ham radios--or a combo radio. But at this point, you are running short on time. I am not sure if my friends are still running the Baja and central American nets--but they are a great bunch of guys and there is a lot of information to be had: The times and frequencies may change slightly. Baja Net: 7259 (currently)@ 1600 UTC: http://www.bajanet.jackclarke.net/ Manana Net: 14340 1530 UTC : http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/3989/ Sonrisa net: 3968 @ 1415UTC Chabisco Net: 7294 @1430 UTC Maritime Mobile Serivce Net: 14300/14313 @1600-2200 UTC A list of other nets: http://www.mayaparadise.com/mmfreq1.htm There is also a lot of good information on this forum: http://www.hfradio.org/forums/ With the ham radio you can also listen to the Marine SSB nets. Basically boats cruising down the coast and thru the Canal keep in touch via ham or marine SSB-often they start their own mini nets--and keep in touch. But what the heck--I am an old guy and do it the old fashioned way! Bob Austin