Northern California Marine SSB Net Home Page

Monday Night 9PM Local Time
During PST (Pacific Standard Time) 0500Z
During PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) 0400Z

Primary Freq. 4B 4149.0 kHz, Alternate Freq. 6B 6227.0 kHz

Letter to Latitude 38 Editor (September 2002)

Marine SSB Net

I wanted to thank your publisher for supporting the Baja Ha-Ha.  My family and I had a great time last fall on our
sailboat Sorina.  I also enjoyed the net check-in and the fish report run by the Grand Poobah.

While in Mexico we found the VHF channel 22 net in La Paz to be very helpful.  Also the ham nets such as
Chubasco, Sonrisa and Manana were very informative and entertaining.  The only Marine SSB net we found was the
Picante Net and we regularly checked in with them as we made our way back to San Diego.

Lately I have been listening to the check-ins for the racers going to Hawaii (SSS Traspac, Vic-Maui, and Pacific
Cup).  One thing that these boats had in common with the Baja Ha-Ha cruisers rally was that about one-third of the
radios had lousy signals; either too faint or too much electronic interference.

I suspect that many installations were done just before the voyage as my installation was done.  I figure I just got
lucky.  Unlike the ham bands there are few Marine SSB nets that would allow for some radio practice before the
voyage.  In fact the Marine SSB bands around here are a desert compared to the ham radio bands.

I would like to see if we can do something about this.  So starting this September 2nd, Monday, at 9 pm I will be on
Marine SSB channel 4B, 4149.0 kHz (upper side band) every Monday night at 9 pm.  Lets call it the Northern
California Marine SSB Net.

People checking in should give their call sign, boat name, location and some information about their radio.  We
should discuss the net frequency, net schedule, and the format for the radio net.  Some possible net check in topics are
the following; emergency or priority traffic, radio checks, hailing other stations and then changing to another channel,
local weather information (temperature, wind speed, wind direction, etc.), boating news, marina or yacht club news, items
for sale or items wanted, crew positions available or crew positions wanted, general questions.

I decided to start the net using 4149.0 kHz because this frequency gives good ground wave propagation over the
horizon and around hills (unlike VHF) and should be able to reach 100 to 200 miles even in daylight.  Also it should be
pre-programmed into many marine SSBs.  The negative is that it has a lot of background noise, at least on my radio.
During our first net I am hoping for a good discussion and maybe some tests of other channels if this one is not
suitable.  If we switch to another frequency and/or schedule I will continue for the month of September to come on Monday
night at 9 pm on 4149 kHz to tell people where to find the net.

When you are on your boat consider monitoring the net frequency even when it is not net time.  Let's try to make the
Marine SSB bands less of a desert.  I will write in next month to let your readers know the latest net news, frequencies
and schedule.  Also check out website http://home.netcom.com/~edhoff/ssbnet.html for the latest net information.

Ed Hoff
s/v Sorina
WDA5925
Brisbane Marina
 
 

email (Mon-Fri) hoff@gene.com (Sat-Sun) edhoff@ix.netcom.com