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Categories: all aviation bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater Wed, 25 Aug 2010My parents have taken off on their latest adventure -- a sailing trip aboard the SV Sequoia to Mexico and points south. I had my first radio contact with them last night, from 8:00 to 8:08 pm PDT, using 80m (3.870 MHz). It's a very noisy band, and we were only just able to hear each other. I really wish my dad's radio included a DSP to clean up the audio. It makes a substantial difference. As of 8 pm last night, they were southbound about 15 miles off the coast of Oregon, 20 miles from the mouth of the Umpqua river (Reedsport, OR). I didn't catch whether they were north or south of the river. They had the third reef in the mainsail, and the staysail out, so they must be working with quite decent wind, although if they said windspeed, I didn't hear it. The radio contact thing is interesting, because it's so variable in its reliability. At least this close, 80m is a very reliable choice in the sense that the signal is practically guaranteed to get there. The question is whether the atmospheric noise will overwhelm the signal or not. So, wish them luck! Next stop is San Francisco, probably in about 3 days. Posted at 09:09 permanent link category: /misc Categories: all aviation gadgets misc motorcycle theater Written by Ian Johnston. Software is Blosxom. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net. |