OK, I am HF certified... now what?

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by GILow

Well, I'd better be careful about the whole nerd thing... But maybe the answer is to carry a manual tuner as a backup?


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Do this only if you have maschoistic tendencies or like being frustrated. The autotuner works just fine. As wotname said - it like the difference between automatic transmission and a standard without synchromesh.

Automatic transmissions work just fine - drop it into drive and forget about it. Same is true for autotuners

[Snowpetrel]

I had a nice little chart, it had all the numbers on it for each band. I dialed in the numbers on my MTU then tweaked the big dial while transmitting, till the gauge thingy peaked, to fine tune it for the exact frequency.

All of this is Fun! After all isn't HF supposed to be about pushing buttons and tweaking dials, none of this wussy friendly user interface crap. He (or she) with the most buttons wins!

Remember the air of mysticism around using it will make you look like a genius to any casual crew.

Probably worth having a MTU in the radio cave doing nothing just for the sheer nerdy bling factor!

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[GILow]

I am so going to find you a photo of the original radio setup on our boat.


Two MTUs!

[Snowpetrel]

Wow! That's awesome.

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[Wotname]

Originally Posted by GILow

Well, I'd better be careful about the whole nerd thing... But maybe the answer is to carry a manual tuner as a backup?


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Carrying a spare MTU as backup for the ATU is a reasonable idea. I used to carry a spare MTU for the MTU but never ever needed it. In hindsight it was a bit overboard . Possibly proof I was nerdish .

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Carry a dipole... hang from rigging....

Past my bedtime.....

Probably a better idea and also makes you look like a RF guru in the eyes of the crew. Instant respect

Originally Posted by Snowpetrel

I had a nice little chart, it had all the numbers on it for each band. I dialed in the numbers on my MTU then tweaked the big dial while transmitting, till the gauge thingy peaked, to fine tune it for the exact frequency.

All of this is Fun! After all isn't HF supposed to be about pushing buttons and tweaking dials, none of this wussy friendly user interface crap. He (or she) with the most buttons wins!

Remember the air of mysticism around using it will make you look like a genius to any casual crew.

Probably worth having a MTU in the radio cave doing nothing just for the sheer nerdy bling factor!

Sent from my HTC_0PCV2 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

Hard to disagree with any of this post.
Yes, there is a romance about using HF in my eyes. Knob twiddling, watching analogue meter needles dancing around, extracting a faint familiar sound out of the ether full of static, pops and whistles.

Nursing it into a recognizably human voice, adjusting it for clarity and before you know it, you are working with a professional radio operator from half way around the world passing on your postion and local conditions while he/she passes on the weather, messages and telegrams etc. For those few monents, you are in touch with another human voce admist the vast grey seas of your local world on board a small sailboat. You could feel that the other human voice was actually interested in your world for that short contact and then they were off working with others while you shut down to conserve yiur precious batteries. You would try again in 24 hours time.

Yes, the romance and mystique of HF, atlas those days are gone execpt maybe in some remote corner...

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by Wotname

Carrying a spare MTU as backup for the ATU is a reasonable idea. I used to carry a spare MTU for the MTU but never ever needed it. In hindsight it was a bit overboard . Possibly proof I was nerdish .


Probably a better idea and also makes you look like a RF guru in the eyes of the crew. Instant respect


Hard to disagree with any of this post.
Yes, there is a romance about using HF in my eyes. Knob twiddling, watching analogue meter needles dancing around, extracting a faint familiar sound out of the ether full of static, pops and whistles.

Nursing it into a recognizably human voice, adjusting it for clarity and before you know it, you are working with a professional radio operator from half way around the world passing on your postion and local conditions while he/she passes on the weather, messages and telegrams etc. For those few monents, you are in touch with another human voce admist the vast grey seas of your local world on board a small sailboat. You could feel that the other human voice was actually interested in your world for that short contact and then they were off working with others while you shut down to conserve yiur precious batteries. You would try again in 24 hours time.

Yes, the romance and mystique of HF, atlas those days are gone execpt maybe in some remote corner...

Shared a few anchorages with a bloke who had an MFJ tuner on which the cross needle meter had ceased to function..... fixed him up with one of my Diamond SWR meters and a spare co-ax jumper.

The romance and mystique of HF....

I often lie awake at night pondering how it is that I can suck some photons out of the sky... convert them into electrons and stick them in a tub of acid and lead and then - on demand- summons them to my radio, transmogrify them , shoot them down another length of wire from whence they leap of into the ether and come down on the far side of the world as the spoken word...

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Shared a few anchorages with a bloke who had an MFJ tuner on which the cross needle meter had ceased to function..... fixed him up with one of my Diamond SWR meters and a spare co-ax jumper.

The romance and mystique of HF....

I often lie awake at night pondering how it is that I can suck some photons out of the sky... convert them into electrons and stick them in a tub of acid and lead and then - on demand- summons them to my radio, transmogrify them , shoot them down another length of wire from whence they leap of into the ether and come down on the far side of the world as the spoken word...

OK, I surrender, you can take the romance to a whole new level; clearly a better HF lover than my poor self

[GILow]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

I often lie awake at night pondering how it is that I can suck some photons out of the sky... convert them into electrons and stick them in a tub of acid and lead and then - on demand- summons them to my radio, transmogrify them , shoot them down another length of wire from whence they leap of into the ether and come down on the far side of the world as the spoken word...

Lucky you. Ever since reading the anchor threads I just lie awake wondering if I am still anchored.

But will look at the solar panels in a new way now, thank you.

[GILow]

Darn it, the only photo I have does not show the two MTUs and associated SWR meters which were up and to the right hand side of the breaker panel just visible in this photo.

Still, bit of a man-cave I thought... though not a scratch on some of the boats I have seen since.

[Wotname]

But it does show the Wagner, my first maritime HF. You never forget your first love!

What a nice place to wedge into and extract voice from the static...

[GILow]

Sadly I was not skilled enough to extract STATIC from the static.

[El Pinguino]

What you really need is one of these... nope.. I don't know what is either but I want one....

[GILow]

That's to stop the seagulls from pooping on the deck. You didn't think it was for a radio did you. :^)


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[Wotname]

That's for TV...

[carstenb]

Gawd you fellas are ignorant. My wife shimmies up the mast and hangs our washing from that!

What else could it be for?

A lightning attractor?