SSB question

[Hwyl]

I'm sailing a boaat South, I get paid for it whether the SSB works or not, but it is a commercial venture.

I am happy to live without an SSB, but the crew would probably like to listen to Southbound Herb and it would be nice if I could hook up with Paladin.

I asked the owner what was wrong and got this reply

The SSB HF unit is connected to a DSC and a power driven HF antenna tuner in the lazarette. I have not yet been able to get the whole thing working and took part of the antenna unit with me to Holland for checking.

Question now is if you decouple the DSC HF from the SSB/HF unit and just use it as SSB only whether that will work. Maybe ask advice from a specialist at (deleted).



My question is, is the second paragraph out of the question or can that be done, I'll probably have to pursue a radio guy and I want to know if it's worth my doing.

The radio is a Sailor.

I'm off to ride out Wilma/ Alpha on the boat(she's in Newport), I'll check in tomorrow night. Gareth

[paladin]

Ya dunno need the tuner to listen....the tuner is a device to fool the radio into thinking that it's looking like a perfect antenna.....I dunno what the DSC is but I think it probably is not necessary....send me the model number on the Sailor.....They used those in the gulf war (the other guys) and I did some work for NRL on them..If you get a list and model numbers of all the attached stuff I may be able to walk you through getting it running, or maybe make some external extra cables to work around the various parts. If you wanna use the SSB I may have a spare coupler (antenna tuner) but ya gotta bring it back...

[kc8pql]

DSC is Digital Selective Calling. You don't need it for normal HF radio use. Just disconnect it as the owner suggests. I agree with Paladin on the rest. If you just want to listen, don't power the tuner, or disconnect the tuner and just connect the radio to the antenna. A tuner matched to a frequency other than the one your listening to will degrade the recieved signal.

Ken

[paladin]

DSC...I had forgotten that...never use it....I have a pair of slightly modified Icom 735 Sidebands and use a couple of KWM-2A's and 30L1 units at home.....

[Hwyl]

Thanks gentlemen. I was on the boat yesterday. I did not write dwn what kind of Sailor it is. It seems to have a 406 MHZ distress capapbility, I've always thought of the EPIRB frequency as being a liferaft only thing.

I'll try to hook up the anntenna over the weekend, receiving capability would be great.

She's a complex boat (Swan 60), but well sorted it seems.