SSB Cruiser Nets for those heading to Hawaii?

[ronniesimpson]

Hi,

I have done google searches, cruiser forum searches, and bought a couple of books, but I can't really find a comprehensive list of what I am looking for. The info I have found has been sparce and inconsistent. Can anyone who has sailed from California to Hawaii, pretty recently, give me some more information on what the cruiser nets were on SSB. Times, freqs, etc etc. Also, if anyone has some info on weather services out of either Hawaii, or California (preferably So Cal), I would seriously appreciate it.

I am planning on leaving from San Diego, CA to Oahu on Oct. 1

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks,

Ronnie

[Paul Elliott]

The ham radio Pacific Seafarer's Net (The Pacific Seafarer's Net) is the main one that I am familiar with. They operate on 14.300 MHz at 03:00 UTC (9:00PM PDT). I checked in a couple of times during my August return to California from Hawaii, but there weren't many boats participating.

I recall there being some marine-band nets, but I have only participated in the special-purpose ones associated with the Hawaii races.

What type of weather service are you looking for? The USCG stations at Pt. Reyes (Northern California) and Honolulu are the principal sources of marine-band broadcast weather -- voice and wfax transmissions. Most people are using GRIB data in addition to (or instead of) the wfax. Look at Sailmail or the ham equivalent Winlink, or a satphone, for the connection, and Saildocs for the data. There are other data services.

Here is a link to a write-up I did on my website that covers how I get weather (and other data) on VALIS: VALIS

Beth and Evans also have some very good information on their website: Weather.

[Sunspot Baby]

14300 is suppossed to be almost 24 hours a day.

Pacific Maritime net goes at 2200 UTC on 21402 mHz USB.

George

[John Drake]

The best single listing of cruising, weather and shortwave broadcast stations that I know of is:

www.docksideradio.com

The above site marks both Marine SSB and Ham nets.

If you are a Ham, you can transmit and contact the Maritime Mobile Service Net on 14.300MHz. It is the single best net out there, for a cruising sailor.

If you are not a Ham, you should get in contact with a club, get the books from ARRL, study and become one as soon as you can. It is very very worthwhile and will open up a world of resources to you when you are out there. You can become a General ham in a month, or two. I can honestly say that becoming a ham was one of the best things I ever did for myself.

Best of luck

John