I read recently of your joining Sail Mail. I, like you, have a dedicated wfax. Have you switched to ssb–computer weather , or do you still use the wfax primarily? I have a SEA235, didn’t know about its duty cycle when I bought it, have a fast laptop with 400mb of ram, but am also told it will cost additional 1500-1700 dollars for the modem, cables etc. and additional software. So I desire your opinion as to its worth, primarily for weather. Thanks, Dave.
Hi Dave: I don’t think you can beat a dedicated fax, especially if you already own one! Our Furuno has been a workhorse for years, and it is nice to be able to program it get what we want, and then forget about it (and not have a conflict with radio schedules).
However, if we were starting from scratch, I think we would seriously consider an SSB-based system, as long as we were going to have our Sailmail e-mail system anyway. You have all the bits, except for the software, and Jim Corenmen has a very good fax program bundled for free with the Sailmail software. Incidentally, I think the modem, cables, etc. run more like $900 or $1000–at least that is what it was a year-and-a-half ago for our Icom ham rig (Pactor 2E modem).
Depending on where you are cruising, another option is the Globalstar phone. We had really good luck with one we tested this spring–downloading five or six weather faxes from the internet in four or five minutes (we’ll be writing more about this on SetSail shortly). Good Luck–Steve Dashew
Posted by Steve Dashew (November 30, 1999)
