Communications at Sea
April 11, 2026 · 45 min · 536 views
Radio display shows signal activity with blue bars
What this video covers
A seminar on offshore communications gear covers SSB radio, Iridium Go satellite, SiriusXM weather, NavText, VHF with DSC, and radar as a layered system aboard the Island Packet Navigator. Tom Tersey describes the boat's full communications suite and explains how he uses Airmail over SSB for email and Iridium Go to pull NOAA weather graphics and text forecasts.▶ 2:24 Guest instructor Captain Chip Lohman, a military HF and VHF veteran, addresses SSB frequency selection: 20 meters (14 MHz) in daylight, 40 meters (7 MHz) at night.▶ 7:50 The central question — whether SSB is worth buying when Starlink and Iridium exist — draws a direct answer from Tersey: he would not buy SSB today for a new installation, having added it to Navigator primarily as a teaching tool; satellite is faster and more efficient for data.▶ 17:48 Lohman counters that SSB remains useful because it is infrastructure-independent and broadcasts to all nearby vessels simultaneously, the same argument for VHF over a cell phone.▶ 23:42 The discussion covers SailMail's frequency-selection tool, SSB power draw (100 watts typical, no external amplifier), FCC licensing for international access, MMSI registration for DSC, ham licensing requirements (General class, no Morse code), and the estimate that 30–40% of offshore blue-water cruisers still use SSB.▶ 13:27
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