SSB Channels along the Carolinas

[akin_alan]

I am in Charleston South Carolina. Just got a Kaito 1121 SSB reciever. Last night I was browsing stations and got alot of spanish news. Thats good cause I am learning spanish but a little english too would be nice as well. Are there any channels that are popular here in the Carolinas. I was hoping to get weather fax. Now I am just hoping that I can tune to any listed number and get anything. I went to Google and typed in SSB stations. Over and over I would type in the listed number in MHz and get nothing but static. Does anyone know any stations that are standard in this area? It would be nice to have a list of stations that give something reliable.

[Hartley18]

AA, being so far away I'm of little help to you I'm afraid but hopefully I can point you in the right direction:

In most parts of the world there are Coast Radio Stations, either run by CoastGuard or some other Marine Rescue crowd that will maintain a listening watch on 2182. A web search for your local Coast Guard station should point you to the channels they use - or link to the nearby Coast Radio station. One of these will broadcast weather at set times during the day, and if you listen in at that time you can go from there.

EDIT: I got bored and decided to look it up for you. You guys definitely have too much bureacracy!! Anyways, start here..

Enjoy!

[sailingdog]

Another good page is this article from Lat 38

Here's a list of SSB channels with fixed services and a list of East Coast SSB Nets.

Another list of some good SSB broadcasts, including weather nets.

A list of SSB emergency and service channels

BTW, a simple google search for "Marine SSB Channels" brought up most of these links... you might want to learn how to use Google sometime. Also recommend you read the POST in my signature, so you can get the most out of sailnet.

[akin_alan]

Maybe I could work on my Google skills. Thing is, I better work on getting this radio to work for now though cause I don't expect my WiFi to work without a Starbucks around between the Keys. None of the listed channels tune to anything yet but I did find that at the Marina none pick up well at all- even the Havannah Cuba station (So far its the most reliable). Maybe it has something to do with all of the boat masts. Also it does look like there are not any local channels near South Carolina on Shortwave. That may be why I am not finding much here.

[Hartley18]

Originally Posted by akin_alan

Maybe I could work on my Google skills. Thing is, I better work on getting this radio to work for now though cause I don't expect my WiFi to work without a Starbucks around between the Keys. None of the listed channels tune to anything yet but I did find that at the Marina none pick up well at all- even the Havannah Cuba station (So far its the most reliable). Maybe it has something to do with all of the boat masts. Also it does look like there are not any local channels near South Carolina on Shortwave. That may be why I am not finding much here.

AA, the beauty of HF SSB is that you can communicate over vast distances, so you should be able to pick up something intelligible. ..but of course you would have learnt that when you got your license, yes?

If you can't receive anything during regular skeds, it sounds, to me, like your installation might be a little faulty. I assume you have good antenna connections and that the SWR is okay?

[St Anna]

In a marina - too much interference by the other masts. Also, some locations are better than others & upper level troughs will cause havoc as well.

Early in the day 2megs work ok, but as the day progresses increase up to 4,6 then 8megs for a better signal.

I originally thought you meant the island group in the pacific and I was going to send you some net frequencies which were in operation a few years ago, (when it was relevant to me)
Keep us posted

[btrayfors]

akin alan,

I think from your original question and your response that you're missing the fact that unlike VHF, HF SSB is intended to provide communications over medium to long distances. Therefore, what you'd be looking for are stations which can be heard easily from your location, not those located near you.

I'd suggest you begin by listening to the Waterway Net every morning beginning at 0745 Eastern time on 7268 kHz LSB. The first 15 minutes are WX reports, then boats begin checking in at 0800, and position reports from boats begin at 0815. You'll hear boats from Canada to the Caribbean. This is a ham net (using an amateur radio frequency).

Then, beginning at 0830 on 8152 kHz USB, the Cruzheimers Net is held for about 1/2 hour, with many boats checking in from Canada to the Caribbean. This is a marine net (using a designated marine SSB frequency).

Bill

[SVAuspicious]

Bill's counsel is good. I'd also recommend the other nets on the Dockside Radio list linked above ( East Coast Cruising Nets ). Tune around 14300 - 14320 kHz on 20m Ham most any time of day.

For weather fax, look here NWS Radiofax and check the Boston and New Orleans stations, higher frequencies during the day and lower at night. The weather.gov page also has links to the voice broadcasts of weather information.

If this isn't working well for you with your Kaito (I have a KA1103) try getting more wire up in the air connected to the antenna jack. Don't worry about length, just get more up. Cheap bell wire is fine - you can optimize later.

Marinas are a bad place to test HF radio. Too much interference and too much multipath. Heave a wire up in a tree in a park or your home.

Google is wonderful, but your search terms have to be good. Try "weather fax" and "shortwave listening".

[akin_alan]

Thanks Ya'll. Glad to get conformation about the Marina being much of the problem. I look forward to getting out on the water a little ways. Bet that it will get better. This radio is just a small reciever. It has recording options too. If I keep using it and become interested in talking with other sailers off shore I may decide to get a transmitter as well. Next time I am playing with it away from all of the boats I will go back through some of the channels that you listed. Also I will try to get the timing right soon as well to catch the broadcasts

[steel]

Are you just looking for regular short wave (HF) radio stations for entertainment? Can you pick up Radio Havana Cuba which is in English? You can entertain yourself listening to the various ham bands. Get a downloadable chart of the ham bands so you know which frequency ranges to find ham convesations. On the ham chart look for "phone", those are voice. The sections marked "CW only" are for morse code.

I assume your radio is a short wave radio capable of receiving 2 - 15 ish MHz with USB/LSB (single sideband, supressed carrier) and AM (double sideband). Most short wave radio stations are AM, but you can still hear them with the radio set in LSB/USB but with lower qualty, you just can't pick up LSB/USB stations with the radio set to AM. It will sound all garbeled.

There are loads of short wave radio stations. The various bands open up and close each day and different areas of the world can be heard on some days only. The best time for shortwave is at night, and mornings and evenings.