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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Globalstar Telecommunications Limited GSAT -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: hiker90 who wrote (16068)	8/22/2000 7:30:49 PM
From: Bux	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

I agree, SSB would be a "must have" for serious cruisers. Actually, it's not uncommon for large yachts and commercial ships to have two SSB's, one for back-up. Hopefully they have each connected to a separate antenna since that is the weakest link in the system. Cruisers on a budget or with limited space could have one SSB and one sat phone. I think in this case it might be the SSB that ends up being the "back-up" for many cruisers because they could call friends, family and marine mechanics, distributors, etc. directly. About the only things SSB's are used for by most cruisers are emergencies and weather reports. Really small boats might opt for just the sat phone in addition to the VHF marine radio and weather fax. The SSB's I'm familiar with are really large so cruisers with small boats would be glad to free up the space of at least the back-up SSB if not deciding they don't need the extra safety of SSB anyway (plenty of cruisers don't use them). Of course old traditions die hard and slow but when people learn about the extra convenience of satellite phones, they will want one or two, that is unless they can't afford one, then they will scoff at the technology and complain it removes some of the "romance" from the sea. Bux

To: hiker90 who wrote (16068)	8/22/2000 8:43:28 PM
From: unclewest	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

hi hiker 90, you will like this...my wife's car tag is HIHIKER. regarding SSB...i have experience with SSB going back to the early 60s...i have used SSB to transmit CW (aka morse code)...it worked from eastern europe to the UK, and laos to saigon. as far as voice, we would bootleg frequencies and call CONUS thru ham operators from the laotian border in the 60s. i also used SSB in europe in the 60s and 70s. SSB is a viable means of communications today...the only problem is the antenna, antenna size, antenna alignment, cost of calls, etc. SSB has its own special limitations as far as voice quality....cost....size....transmission protocols, etc. SSB is presently on board many fine boats..but it is not a replacement for a sat phone. not even close. unclewest

To: hiker90 who wrote (16068)	8/25/2000 3:23:04 AM
From: Mr. Sunshine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29987

<<I had an interesting conversation with a G* dealer servicing the yachting community in the Galveston Bay area south of Houston. For serious cruisers he recommended a single side band radio (SSB, about $3k) for the following reasons: 1)Worldwide coverage with no holes in ocean coverage. 2)SSB radio has distress button for emergency mayday calls. 3)SSB can receive "Weather fax", a free service maintained by NOAA I believe. 4)For $200/year, the SSB operator can have an email account accessible through the SSB.>> If this is the system I am thinking about, it has little privacy. When I was in the Navy on deck we were required to monitor certain maritime radios, and would occasionally pick up and listen in on these phone calls. We could only hear 1/2 of the conversation, but it was enough to make a boring watch very entertaining. We would laugh our bu*s off with the "I love you's", "What I want to do with you when I get home", "I miss you so much", "How is Rover doing, I miss him too", etcetera. The sound quality was not good, either, so the caller was constantly having to repeat himself, ask the other party to repeat themselves, and talk very loud and slow, which made what he was saying that much more entertaining. The calls were placed and ended with an operator, who listened to both sides of the whole thing. Getting to hear a voice of a loved one is an undescribable pleasure when you have been at sea for a long time. SSB radio is better than nothing, but will not be serious competition to G due to the latter's better voice quality, privacy, and lower cost. I strongly feel that the maritime market will be huge for G. There are thousands of large merchants on the high seas at any time, thousands more in port, each with a well paid crew who can afford and needs the Globalstar service. For the first year or two of service, it may be a luxury, but will sooner or later (and I predict sooner) become a necessity. Last year I did two weeks of Naval Reserve training in Hawaii during a Naval wargame. My main job was to interface with the merchant fleet ("this is an exercise, however, in the event of a real war, this is what we would be requesting you to do, here are areas we suggest you avoid, this is where we suspect the bad guys laid mines, etc.") Some of the merchant crews that I talked with were very aware and exited about GlobalStar, and at least one gave me a long lecture on Iridium vs. G. He had not heard of SI, but knew as much as most of the posters here. Great Investing to all, Steve