Offshore Communications 2004: Latest Information

Created by doina. Last modified on 2004-03-16 13:54:46
Contributors:
Topic: Communications

An update to the "Offshore Communications Memorandum" Version 2.03 dated March 2004 has been posted on the CCA's website at www.cruisingclub.org It is available free to anyone. This update is greatly expanded over previous versions and now has an Appendix to reduce the individual file size.

The Memorandum is oriented to the North American yacht headed offshore with a marine SSB radio onboard. Subjects include Satellite communications, the SSB radio in emergencies, voice and fax weather broadcasts, ship to shore communications and email, GMDSS, transmission ranges, VOA and BBC broadcast frequencies and their schedules for the winter of 2003 - 2004 in Europe and the Caribbean, emergency antennas and so on.

The Appendix lists the FCC authorized frequencies for SSB, SSB and Ham nets worldwide, WX Fax schedules and frequencies, Navtex, SailMail, conversion tables and more.

These files became too large and to reduce their size and download time, they have been converted into Adobe's Acrobat. The latest free version of Acrobat Reader (Ver 6.0) is also available at the website. You will need this version if you are using Windows XP and want to print these papers. Note the margin settings to get a proper printout.

Also under this sidebar are updated papers about using the Icom 700PRO, 710 and 710RT SSB radios and separately, their use in an emergency. The manuals for these radios are difficult to follow and hopefully, these papers make things easier. We've found that most crew are reluctant to touch the SSB and we now have them go through the emergency procedure in case we need them to make a call (for us).

Also on the CCA's website under a separate tab on the sidebar is a paper titled "Cruising European Waters". It was written for the benefit of cruisers who are planning to cross the Atlantic in 2004. Subjects include buoyage, charts and cruising guides, European datum, nautical almanacs, regional identification, tidal ranges, Beaufort wind scales, part shipments from the US, VAT, Shengen countries, cruising charges, Med mooring, telephones, electricity, propane and so on.

Updates of these papers with corrections are posted from time to time.

Walter Paul, Cruising Club of America