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I have a very old (24 yrs) HF system that came with the boat.
ICOM IC-M700 HULL H402CU Coupler
Backstay antenna, huge copper ground plane under entire cabin with a 3″ wide copper going to HF chassis ground. Seemed to work OK when in Bahamas a few years ago.
Now am planning for some extended cursing (3-? yrs) and want to set up for email, weatherfax, GRIB forecasts and more. Got the HAM Tech license and am working on General.
Is any of this old stuff worth keeping?
Would appreciate info on where to go from here on equipment and how to.
I have Capt Marti Brown books “HF Radio E-Mail for IDI-Yachts” and “Marine SSB Radio for IDI-Yachts”
Spent an evening trying to figure out what a “IDI-Yacht” is and gave up and just drank wine.
On another issue there have been several emails concerning “Bow Section Oil Canning”.
All the problems seem to be in early hull #’s. MARIPOSA #216 (1983) has a balsa core and after close inspection does not seem to show evidence of any of any problems. Has anyone with later hull #’s had any problems?John #216 Cutter
Need a new ride? Check out the largest site for U.S. used car listings at AOL Autos.
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John,
I'm not familiar with the Hull Coupler, but I did have an M700 on board for several years.
The short answer to your question is the M700 was not designed for the type of full power operation that the Pactor modems demand. Further it does not have a TNC (Terminal Net Control) interface necessary to connect it to a Pactor modem. So if email is your objective, you probably should look for a different rig.That said, I did use my M700 for email for several years, but principally on a sail to Bermuda in 2001. My friend, who installs HF radios as a small business, modified the M700 to provide the TNC. In spite of the warning of engineers I never fried this rig using it for email. So it can be done. The modification is a fairly simple soldering job, but as they say, ” It took fifteen minutes to solder the wires, but 30 years of experience to know where to put the wires.” So it can be done. Whether that is the best way to go depends on how important email is to your cruising plans.
I switched to the M802 just before departing Florida and just before getting my Ham license because I knew I was going to be very dependent on HF email for weather data and keeping friends and family informed. I also planned to use Herb Helgenberg's weather routing service during the trip. I didn't want to find out just how long that M700 would really hold up to the Pactor workout. Also you can't control the M700 frequencies from a PC. They must be manually entered into one of program slots then dialed with the channel control. With the M802 and similar radios with a RS232 interface I can select the frequency in the Airmail program and let it set the radio the right frequency. This was a great help when propagation conditions forced me to try several stations and at several different frequencies before getting a good connection.
So for me replacing the M700 was worth the many boat units it cost. Mitigating that cost there are a lot of people for whom the M700 is a great box, and I had no trouble selling it on eBay.
John
On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 11:43 PM, < ([email][/email])> wrote:
I have a very old (24 yrs) HF system that came with the boat.
ICOM IC-M700 HULL H402CU Coupler
Backstay antenna, huge copper ground plane under entire cabin with a 3″ wide copper going to HF chassis ground. Seemed to work OK when in Bahamas a few years ago.
Now am planning for some extended cursing (3-? yrs) and want to set up for email, weatherfax, GRIB forecasts and more. Got the HAM Tech license and am working on General.
Is any of this old stuff worth keeping?
Would appreciate info on where to go from here on equipment and how to.
I have Capt Marti Brown books “HF Radio E-Mail for IDI-Yachts” and “Marine SSB Radio for IDI-Yachts”
Spent an evening trying to figure out what a “IDI-Yacht” is and gave up and just drank wine.
On another issue there have been several emails concerning “Bow Section Oil Canning”.
All the problems seem to be in early hull #'s. MARIPOSA #216 (1983) has a balsa core and after close inspection does not seem to show evidence of any of any problems. Has anyone with later hull #'s had any problems?John #216 Cutter
Need a new ride? Check out the largest site for U.S. used car listings at AOL Autos.
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Regards,
John Stevenson
http://www.svsarah.comPost generated from Pearson424 Forum using Mail2Forum
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John
The coupler is worth keeping. I would also suggest keeping the radio and adding a decent ham rig. The marine radio would be used for the marine bands and the amateur radio would be used for everything else including reception of wefax. The coupler should be usable with the second radio if you add an ICOM such as an IC-706.If you want someone to look at the radio and see if it is serviceable or worth repairing, send it to me. I don’t charge for this kind of thing, but you’ll have to pay for shipping in both directions.
If you chose to add a second radio, there are an lot of options available. The most cost effective way to do this is to buy a used ICOM IC-706 on ebay (approx $400). If you want to remove the marine rig and replace it with a ham rig, I would suggest getting something that is stable enough to use on the marine bands. If the coupler you have still works, a replacement ICOM makes sense. It would be difficult to find a used 706 with a high-stability oscillator (pn CR-282). You would probably have to buy this new and add it. Contact your local ham radio dealer to ask them if this fits the radio you plan to purchase. You should be aware that you are on shaky legal ground using an amateur rig on the marine bands, but I know a lot of folks who do this.
Here’s a link to a free SGC publication that has lots of information about mounting SSB radios on boats.
http://www.sgcworld.com/Publications/Books/hfguidebook.pdf—
Rich Carter
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