Challenges for the Mobile Ham

Convergence of Technologies

The case for “Winlink in Australia” need no longer be made. Its value has been more than amply demonstrated. Even at Australian Government advisory level, the Productivity Commission, following a searching government inquiry, held that the onus is on those with negative views to make their case. This finding seems obvious because among the hundreds of submissions to the Productivity Commission all were highly supportive.

Setting up as a Winlink User or Station Operator [i] poses considerable intellectual challenges for the radio amateur. Not only need they be familiar with radio electronics but also with the setting up antenna systems under often-difficult circumstances. They also need to know about computers and computer software, and  interfacing this with navigational software that is now used even on relatively small boats. To challenges for Australian hams are even greater. There is not a large body of knowledge about Winlink available. Also, there is only limited access to nearby Winlink radio stations. Therefore, before making the first radio contact via Winlink, the Australian ham has to overcome a number of daunting technical, electronic and financial challenges.

For starters, setting up an efficient amateur radio station on a small recreational vessel or caravan or 4WD requires a lot of ingenuity and application of many skills learned when studying for ones’ amateur radio “ticket.” As will be shown, it involves also the interfacing the transceiver with onboard navigational equipment, computer facilities and, operationally, for careful power management. The example given below is but one of many alternatives that are possible. It describes the system onboard the author’s Sailing Vessel “Bojangles”. Bojangles is a South African sloop-rigged Miura with twin backstays and an encapsulated solid lead keel. She is 31 feet (9.5 meters) in length and the top of her mast is 45 feet (13.7 meters) above the waterline. These dimensions are given to give some scale to the installation platform. The relatively small size of Bojangles makes it essential to economize on space requirements for the installation, particularly cabling.

Antenna System: The most difficult job that needs to be tackled with a great deal of care, is the installation of the antenna system. The fast majority of recreational sailing vessels are sailboats made from fiberglass. The overall length for the average sailboat is on average in the range of 30 to 50 feet (9 to 15 meters). This distance is far to short for rigging up the typically efficient dipole antennas, and we can forget about a directional yagi antenna altogether. A 15 feet (4.5 meter) vertical whip, as would be used on a similarly sized powerboat or motor vehicle is not desirable on a rocking sailboat. By default, virtually all sailboats finish up with insulating a backstay (the steel wire that runs from the top of the mast to the back of the boat to hold the mast in place). Insulation of the backstay is done by a professional rigger who cuts the steel cable in two places and joins them together again by swaging non-conductive connectors at the joints. The top of the backstay stay should preferably be 3 feet (1 meter) from the top of the mast and the bottom end can be as far down as possible, provided of course that the lower end is shielded so that crew could not inadvertently touch the backstay when the system is transmitting. [ii] This was the easy part.

The more challenging part is to provide the counterpoise. I visualize this requirement as if holding a mirror at the bottom end of the insulated backstay. When looking down the backstay from the top the antenna has to electronically see an identical lenght of wire reaching down into the water beyond where the backstay is attached to the stern. As the latter is a physical impossibility we have to construct a mirror or “counterpoise”” so that the radio believes that it is there. Many lengthy articles have been written about the counterpoise. An Internet link to one is: http://www.farallon.us/ssb.pdf. Suffice to say, at this stage, that the general recommendation is to either glue many square meters of a metallic reflective material in the bilges of the boat, a very tedious and near impossible job, or use a 3 inch (75 mm) flat copper strip to lead from the insulated earthed lower part of the backstay to one of the keel bolts – the bolts that keeps the keel attached to the vessel’s hull. It should be remembered here that we are working on a counterpoise and not the electrical ground as is needed for the vessel’s electrical system. It’s not surprising that even some professional installers have given up on this task or have become somewhat cynical about the vagaries of having HF communication facilities onboard sailing vessels. Unless cruisers have the money to hire a professional, more often than not they are left to their own ingenuity and resources.

Transceiver: As Winlink operates on the ham radio bands many cruisers are tempted to install their ham radios onboard. The regulatory authorities frown upon this practice. Older ham radios generally do not have the frequency stability that is required for digital communications. This deficiency could result in the signal spattering all over the place thus adversely affecting users on adjoining frequencies. This is illegal and against good amateur radio practice. While Bojangles had a ham radio onboard in its pre-Winlink days, on refitting the boat it was decided to install a special purpose Single Side Band Marine radio. Probably the ICOM M710 is the best available radio for that purpose. Its features are very simple when compared with a ham radio and, most importantly, it is capable of periods of sustained transmission without overheating or experiencing frequency-shift. There is also a remote control model, at an extra cost, that can be mounted near the antenna tuner in a lazarette and the relatively small Control Unit can be permanently mounted at a vessel’s navigation station.

Antenna Tuner: The next task is to provide the means for matching the transceiver’s output with the peculiarities of the antenna system installed. The ICOM AT130 is recommended as a companion for the M710. It has a sufficiently wide adjustment range to match the transceiver with the essentially home-rigged antenna system. Other good tuners are on the market but for Bojangles it was decided to stick with the brand (apart from the fact that the combined M710/AT130 package was offered at an attractively discounted price at the Annapolis Boat Show.) [iii] [iv]

Chokes: Chokes are used, as needed, to minimize RF feeding back from an incorrectly tuned antenna system or, more likely, from and to other circuits or metal surfaces than pick up part of the signal being emitted from the antenna. Bojangles has twin backstays and almost certainly the remaining uninsulated backstay, that is the one not being used as the antenna, might pick up some radiation. Similarly, the mast with its many internal wires for the radar, navigational lights, VHF/AM and mobile phone antennas is likely also to pick up radiation. The same, unfortunately, applies also to the circuits that carry the GPS signal and are used to control the autopilot. Because of space constraints the feed line that runs from the transceiver to the AT130 closely parallels these other circuits. One way to attempt to control RF entering back into the radio and other sensitive circuits is to clamp chokes on the cables between the transceiver and the tuner. There are other components as well, covered below, that could benefit from having chokes. However, some technicians are critical about the overuse of chokes. They hold that the use of chokes might appear to fix the symptom but does not actually cure the cause of RF. Bojangles has a number of chokes here and there primarily in the vicinity of the onboard computer. [v]

Modem: Winlink supports the Pactor protocol for the transmission and receipt of digital signals. Pactor, developed by a group of German radio amateurs who have since formed Special Communication Systems (SCS), is undoubtedly the world’s most advanced system. This State-of-the-Art hardware comes at a hefty price. SCS has a virtual monopoly. The modems come in a few varieties. Bojangles has the PTC IIe, where the “e” stands for “economy.” It’s about $250 cheaper than the next model up - the PTC IIpro. Perhaps it was false economy to buy the PTC IIe because it does not have a remote frequency control feature that automatically sets the transceiver at chosen frequency and mode. Without this, the PTC IIe requires an additional and more elaborate cabling system to achieve the same result. Other Pactor-capable modems are on the market but I have not heard from any users about the efficiency and reliability of these alternatives. For Bojangles it was difficult to get the remote frequency control working. It was successful only after getting the appropriate cable and tech support from the helpful people at Farallon.

Computer: In selecting a computer there are options. One is to buy a “marinized” unit at a cost of about US$3,000 or more. For Bojangles a lower cost solution was to use a Sony laptop computer that was normally used during business travel. With today’s low prices of Notebook computers, it might be more economical to just replace a unit when it fails. What should be kept in mind is that an onboard computer is used for several tasks; however, they need not be super fast or have huge hard drives and a lot of RAM.  Bojangles’ onboard computer has a 20 Mb harddisk and 256 Kb of RAM. The computer’s power supply is via a Voltage Booster that increases the 12 volts provided by the ship’s house batteries to 19.3 volt needed by the Sony computer. [vi] It is said that this booster eliminates much, if not all, of the RF that would come from the type of inverter often used to transform 12 Volt DC to 110 V AC to which the computer's normal transformer would be attached for stepping the voltage down to 19.3 Volts. The computer is used for both navigational purposes, log keeping, digital photo management and for digital communications via Winlink. [vii]

Communications Software: This is where it starts to become interesting. For Winlink it is necessary to first download the AirMail End User software [viii]. After quite some evolution AirMail has become very sophisticated and relatively user-friendly. From the same source it is useful to also download the GetFax and ViewFax programs. [ix]  These fax programs enables the user to capture directly weather charts and text from weather reporting stations thus bypassing the Winlink or AirMail systems. It is somewhat slower getting the same information that way but is useful in the event that the User has run out of the allocated “connect” time with either system. [x]  It is essential to also download the ICEPAK Propagation software. [xi] This program takes a lot of the hassle out of attempting to make radio contacts. It computes the probabilities to make contacts with Winlink and stations at the frequencies being scanned by these stations. In addition it shows also the compass direction and distance to the available stations. Another packet of software that is very useful to the owners of ICOM M710s, is the M710 Control Program. This program allows the ham operator to control and use the M710 as a virtual ham radio.

Another important use of the computer is for navigation. Bojangles is guided by RayMarine’s RayTech Navigator navigational software. It facilitates setting up of routes prior to departure or “on-the-fly” and use these, and their individual waypoints, for rudder control via the autopilot for the vessel to travel to the intended destination. The Route plan will show all the compass headings and distances between waypoints and calculates the estimated time of arrival at the next waypoint as well as at the last waypoint of a route.

Navigational Hardware: With electronic navigation in mind, cruisers would normally install the following equipment: (1) a depth sounder; (2) a log to measure speed through the water; (3) wind instruments to measure wind force and direction; (4) Global Position System to indicate a vessel or vehicle’s location and a host of other information, including speed and compass direction over ground; (5) a fluxgate compass to obtain a digital reading of compass direction; and (6) a radar to monitor other boat traffic for safety, identify landfall locations; and watch for approaching storms. RayMarine bought the recreational marine services operations of Raytheon. Its supplies all of the above hardware components. They match in appearance and can all be readily interconnected. Not all RayMarine hardware is user-friendly. Many of the displays have only a few buttons that have to be used in different unmarked combinations. The GPS is a nightmare if, in the absence of navigational software, it had to be used for the setting of waypoints and plotting a course. The radar display unit is great. It has more buttons, the displays are user-friendly and it has extremely good documentation. The latter cannot be said for the other pieces of RayMarine hardware. The big plus with RayMarine navigational hardware is that it performs flawlessly and, generally, does so with relatively low power consumption. The hardware is also reasonably well matched in appearance and the display are easy to read. Other navigational hardware packages are on the market. For Bojangles we already liked the early versions of GPS units manufactured by others, like the old Magellan 5000D. The brand that stands out in terms of its user-friendliness surely must be Garmin. It’s almost possible to use their GPS units without using a manual. Total cost, inclusive of a black & white radar, could run as high as US$4000 to $5000 before paying the installer.

Navigational Software: RayTechNavigator originates from New Zealand. It was a fine program until the programmers probably got lost in their own algorithms. In concept it is a powerful program, that is, after spending many hundreds of additional dollars buying all the add-ons. The basic program, at a cost of about US$400 is probably adequate for most cruisers. The Winlink Development Team had been working with this program with the intention that, via the Winlink system, it would be able to supply Winlink Users with GRIB files. These files hold computer-generated weather prediction charts that can be overlaid on the standard navigational charts that are used with RayTech Navigator (See Winlink Note below). It is understood that this work was slowed down, particularly because irate Users were complaining that this navigation program would repeatedly and inexplicable crash often at the most inconvenient times. Alternatively, the software would refuse to boot up. Articles were published in “Practical Sailor” where frustrated sailors/navigators voiced their dissatisfaction. RayMarines’ advice was to reinstall the program but after having done that many times without overcoming the problem, a new version (4.1) was issued that appeared to be more stable. While RayMarine states that the program can be used with all of the latest Microsoft Windows platforms, it does appear that some platforms are better than others. In desperation, the computer onboard Bojangles was upgraded to MS Windows2000 – Professional. This gave a much-improved performance. However, occasional failures still pop up. This time RayMarine’s advice was to use, only as directed by its Support Staff, a subroutine for cleaning and removing glitches in the system. Having done also many times, the patience of even the most dedicated navigator is stretched. On Bojangles we are persevering with RayTech Navigator because it is great when it works. The beauty of RayTech Navigator is that it nearly fully integrates with the whole complement of RayMarine navigation hardware, including the late-model hsb2- capable radars.

Using the MNEA 0183 protocol, the information collected by the navigational instruments is fed to the computer and displayed on charts and information screens displayed on the computer screen. When activated, the computer will sent the information onwards to the autopilot. Also some of the navigational and weather information is automatically included in the Position/Weather Reports that can be sent via Winlink to weather forecasters, including Pangolin that gathers weather information from cruisers on the high seas – worldwide. A minor but costly annoyance is that RayMarine uses a proprietary data transfer protocol called Seatalk. It’s analogous with the now defunct “beta” format that was attempted in the video recording field. To be able to use SeaTalk with a computer, the data must first be converted to the MNEA 0183 format. The RayMarine data converter box cost about US$200 and if a professional installer is needed, the cost might go up to US$400 or more. The data converter box also has an outlet for attaching an external alarm that could be mounted on deck but that too was quoted at about US$200. When deciding on navigational software Users must: (1) gamble on taking the more expensive RayTech Navigator software in the hope that RayMarine will eventually clear out the bugs and provide a free upgrade; or (2) settle for a perhaps simpler but more trouble-free package.

Sea and other trials: It goes almost without saying that all of this equipment must be installed and tested before leaving harbor. Part of this can be done at home using the Internet, for example, by downloading the AirMail, ICEPAC Propagation, and GetFax and ViewFax software. By temporarily setting the radio rig up at home, it is possible to test the transceiver and familiarize yourself with the many Winlink features. Write yourself a simple manual because it is unlikely that when at sea, you’ll be able to recall all of the operating procedures. There is a lot of information in the Winlink Bulletins and the AirMail Help Menus but in the writer’s opinion it is not easy to digest that much. Apart from that, the Help Menus are not necessarily up to date (remember Winlink and Airmail are voluntary services provided for free). Next install the rig onboard, make all the interconnections, route the cables and check power supplies and fuses. Next check for RF. Bojangles’ 12 Volt panel would light up like a Christmas tree whenever the SSB went in transmit mode, indicating that there was RF and that a few chokes were needed, especially; to keep RF out of the computer. Get away with the boat from the forest of masts in marinas and take a test sail and anchor in a quiet cove and make “connects” with as many Winlink PMBOs that you can reach. Use the ICEPAC propagation prediction model to your advantage. Send short messages home and file a position report. Call family or friends and ask them to check whether the email has arrived and look on the Internet for your reported position. In accordance with amateur radio regulations, use the lowest level of power that is necessary to make the connection. Generally, 50 Watts or less should do under reasonable propagation conditions. Low power will also reduce the demand on your ship or vehicle’s batteries. In some cases it might be necessary to keep the engine running. Finally, do not transmit on any Winlink frequency if any form at all of manmade signals are heard, that is, voice, Morse code or Pactor and like digital signals. [xii] When all is clear, you are ready to transmit. There is no formal application for joining Winlink. Just make the “connect”. The system will check the validity of your license. Those that do not qualify, will suddenly find that they have been locked out.

Establish contact by email with the Administrators of Winlink and Airmail to make yourself known. Do your best to find other Winlink Users in your immediate vicinity. Assisting one another is not only the hallmark of sailors and other travelers but also of the amateur radio community in general. Then cast off your lines and enjoy the added security and comfort that Winlink will offer you when you’re underway on the high seas or other remote locations.

Fair Winds and Following Seas.

Aussie Winlink

31 August, 2003

Since publication of this Press Release, Winlink provided the following Note: "This (the method for getting GRIB files) is not any longer used. We now get them directly from NOAA via a very simple process using the built-in Airmail GRIB file graphical program which allows the user to define the area for which a GRIB is needed. Users then send this information to SAILDOCS and get the NOAA predictions back within minutes. The files are very small since the graphics are already on the Airmail client. Steve (K4CJX)"

Copyright © 2002-2008 AussieWinlink. Material may be quoted with acknowledgement of its source. Last modified: September 28, 2008