Single-sideband radio guide

A single-sideband radio (SSB) is not essential, but it sure is nice. We use ours for getting weatherfaxes and voice weather broadcasts, for sending and receiving email, for listening to news when we're out of normal FM radio range, and for chatting with our cruising friends who may be many hundreds of miles away.

An SSB receiver is cheaper than a transceiver. If you are going to cruise outside the US away from major population centers, it's essential to at least have a receiver to get weather information. Weatherfaxes require either a dedicated weatherfax machine or a computer with appropriate software to decode the fax via either microphone input to the sound card or an HF (high-frequency) modem.

Both receivers and transceivers allow reception of ham radio frequencies and shortwave radio stations. Receiving these frequencies require slightly different settings on the radio in addition, to being in different frequency bands: marine bands and weather transmissions are USB (upper sideband), some ham bands are LSB (lower sideband), and broadcast radio stations are usually AM. Most channels are simplex (transmit and receive on the same frequency). Some marine SSB transceivers will transmit on ham frequencies, but unless it's an emergency you need a General-class or better ham license to do so legally. (You need a marine SSB license to legally transmit on marine bands, but this is a matter of filling out a form and writing a check as opposed to taking an exam, so it's no big deal. The ham exam is not too big a deal either, two multiple-choice tests and a 5 wpm Morse code transcription test. See www.fcc.gov for SSB licensing information and www.arrl.org for ham information.)

Our radio is an ICOM-M710 which is a popular and common marine SSB. In addition to a huge number of standard simplex and duplex channels, it has 160 user-programmable stations which come preset with all sorts of useless stuff. We've programmed in a whole bunch of much more useful frequencies.  Some of these are specific to the Bahamas and Caribbean.  Frequencies are in kHz. We have multiple frequencies programmed for many stations because the best frequency (clearest signal) depends on the state of the atmosphere and our location. Sources of information: cruising guidebooks, Reed's almanac, RadioShack's "Worldwide Shortwave Listening Guide", the ICOM SSB book, word of mouth, and a few web pages.

Reference/Emergency

The first set of channels are reference/emergency. WWV is the standard time signal (at the tone...) and is on 2500, 5000, 10000, 15000, and 20000 kHz USB.  "Safety" channels are for initial contact with the Coast Guard in an emergency: 2182, 4125, 6215, 8291, 12290, and 16420 kHz USB .  Some of these are also in the radio's regular presets, but having them in our user stations makes them easier to locate quickly - at least for us.

"Extra" marine SSB working frequencies

Frequencies in the 4 MHz and 8 MHz bands are usually the best for medium-to-long range contact, but there are only a few standard, preprogrammed frequencies available in these bands and they are usually busy.  For this reason, most marine SSB nets take place on the 40xx and 81xx frequencies which are legal for marine use but shared with other radio services.  The legal frequencies are every 3 kHz from 4000 through 4060 (i.e., 4000, 4003, 4006, etc.) and every 3 kHz from 8101 through 8191, all in upper sideband mode (USB).  Some marine nets are specifically for weather info, but most of the social nets give weather info at the beginning of the net.

Some marine nets we listen to or have listened to (AT= Atlantic time, ET=Eastern time, CT=Central time, Z= Zulu[UTC]):

Shortwave broadcast radio

AFN is the Armed Forces Network, our favorite source of news when we're out of US FM range. They even broadcast NPR's Morning Edition (6-8 am ET, 8-10 on weekends) and All Things Considered! AFN broadcasts in USB mode but all other broadcast radio stations listed are AM mode. These frequencies change often so these may already be out of date.

We also have a number of religious and far-right wacko stations programmed for the purposes of something entertaining to listen to on night watches.  Night broadcasts on shortwave can be found by tuning around 5700-5800 kHZ and 7300-7400 kHz.

NOAA weather

The next set of channels is for NOAA and other official weather information. For cruising the US east coast and the Bahamas, the most useful weather frequencies are NMN (voice weather read by "Perfect Paul", the computerized voice of NOAA weather radio): 4426, 6501, 8764, 13089, and 17314 kHz USB; NMG (New Orleans weatherfax): 4316, 8502, and 12788 kHz USB; and NMF (Boston weatherfax): 4233.1, 6338.6, 9108.1, and 12748 kHz USB.  Official schedule and frequency information is available here from NOAA. 

Ham Frequencies

In addition to the marine SSB nets, there are also a number of ham nets for marine users.  You have to be a licensed ham to transmit, but anyone can listen.  Some are specifically for weather info, but most of the social nets give weather info at the beginning of the net.  Most of the times are Zulu (UTC) but a few are local.  Most are lower sideband (LSB).

I won't swear that I have all these frequencies and times correct, and in any event many of these change from time to time.  But this should provide a good start to anyone looking for useful HF frequencies.

[updated 5/10/2005] back to articles