by Suzy O'Keefe
It's the time of year for Pacific crossings... do you know where your friends are? If they're licensed Hams, you can actually hear them now & then when they check into one of the nets. Sometimes you're even lucky enough to receive a call via a "phone patch". But, what about the rest of the time?
There you are, stuck at home or chained to your desk at work, when you'd really rather be out there - sailing! Or maybe you have family. A son or daughter you haven't seen since they castoff their dock lines to sail their dreams. You miss them. You worry about them. They don't call or write nearly as often as you'd like.
Now there is something you can do about it! You can go on-line and visit a website that will show you a daily update of where they are, their boat speed, and their heading... YOTREPS.
Some of you may recognize the name of YOTREPS creator, Mike Harris. He's a Ham himself (G0-HOC) and the author of <The Compass Book>.
YOTREPS has been utilizing local weather information gleaned from vessels all over the Pacific to supplement weather forecasts provided by New Zealand's MetService Weather <www.met.co.nz>. In turn, Met's Bob McDavitt or one of the other forecasters provides reviews, additional information, and detailed forecasts for passage makers.
Combining Ham Radio with email, radio net controllers and other monitors use a standard format to report this information to email lists so that weather forecasters such as Bob can have access to it quickly.
It was during a recent Pacific crossing that I first learned how
great a roll email is now playing in all this. I learned my Ham radio
skills while cruising Mexico several years ago (KE6-ZNX) so naturally
I checked into the Pacific Seafarer's Net (14.313Mhz that's on
20 meters) nightly as I made my way back to San Francisco. My partner
was listening on the rig aboard our sailboat in the San Francisco
Bay. The location of the marina and low tide frequently played havoc
with his reception. I got a phone patch through to him when I could,
but it was often costly because none of the Ham operators I contacted
were local to the Bay. They were all long hauls. Can you say "collect
call"???
One evening I heard something about email. I thought someone was offering to send email of vessel positions so I asked. Reception was pretty poor that evening and I think that by the time I was done I had spelled out k-m-a-y-e-r-at-b-i-t-w-r-a-n-g-l-e-r-dot-c-o-m phonetically at least half a dozen times. Kilo Mike Alpha Yankee Echo Romeo @ Bravo India Tango... you get the idea! I could never have guessed the far-reaching impact of that single request to send mail to my sweetie, Ken Mayer.
Ken received email right away with not just mine, but the positions of all the vessels who had checked in that evening and his wheels started turning. He's a software engineer - computer nerd extraordinare. He immediately contacted Mike Harris and offered to script some computer code that would parse the info he'd received into names & numbers displayed on a chart. Through their collaboration, "YOTREPS Voluntary Vessel Reporting" <www.bitwrangler.com/yotreps> was born and now displays a chart that's automatically updated nightly as soon as the correctly formatted email arrives from the net controller. Here's an example of what you'll find on the website:
For anyone unaccustomed to isolation, a small yacht on a long ocean passage can be a very lonely place. As the days and even weeks pass it can be quite easy to imagine that you're the only human life on the planet as the need to follow winds and currents often takes you well away from the commercial shipping routes and chance sightings of other vessels. Helping to restore the illusion that civilisation is still close at hand, many yacht crews keep regular radio skeds with amateur and other radio stations, passing on regular reports of their position, course, speed and weather conditions. For friends and relatives back home it's a useful way of keeping track of progress and, on the more serious side, should some kind of emergency occur, the radio net controllers have up-to-date details of vessels in their area.
YOTREPS is a scheme for collecting this information (from the Pacific Seafarer's Net) via the Internet. Once collected, it is disseminated via an e-mail list. When the message arrives here, at Bit Wranglers, it is processed into the chart displayed below. A copy of the report is printed below the chart for reference. The vector "arrows" show the predicted 24 hour position based on course and speed reported at roll-call.
Date: Fri, 05 Mar 1999 17:11:12 +1300
Subject: YOTREPS
YOTREPS
05/03/1999
| BOAT | WIND | SWELL | | | |
No| CALL |TIME| POSITION |Cse|Spd| | |Cld|Bar |tend|
| | UTC| Lat. Lng. | °T|Kts|Dir|Kts|Dir| Ht| % | hPa| |
---|--------|----|----------------|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|----|----|
1|KD7DVY |0328|20 07 N 106 02 W|1.7| 3| W| 7| W| | 10|1012| +|
2|KL7EH |0300|20 56 N 111 55 W|108| 7|NNE| 8|NNW|0.3| 5|1014| 0|
3|VK4MCC |0330|15 47 N 112 07 W|230| 5| N| 10| NW|0.9| 0|1009| -|
4|ZL1AHN |0330|12 47 S 088 06 W|267| 6| SE| 15| S|0.2| 0|1012| 0|
Comments:
Pacific Seafarer's net Roll Call
KD7DVY | Joliga III | John
KL7EH | Resolute | Mike
KH7QP | Genesis | Carole - Arrived Palmyra
VK4MCC | Les Rodasan | Robert
ZL1AHN | Royal Salute | Roy & Gloria. Peru to Marqesas
de mike@pangolin.co.nz (GOHOC/ZL)
In this example above, the 5th. day of March 1999 (GMT), you can see that evening's charted vessels as well as the text version of their positions. Remember that since it's "GMT" time, the date may be tomorrow depending on your location. The line extending from the charted position indicates the direction of travel. The length of the line is based upon speed and indicates tomorrow evenings anticipated position if conditions remain constant. Only four vessels on this particular evening, well five really, but one made port so there is only text info on that one. Just wait until the season is in full swing! The numbers grow significantly by later in the season. Most of the Pacific will be dotted with boats going all different directions so the chart will cover a much larger area. Mexico to The Marquesas. Solomons to Hawaii. Fiji to Vanauatu. Socities, Cooks, Niue, and the biggest island of then all - Australia!
Recently, a Ham Operator aboard the cruise ship QE-II (Queen Elizabeth-II) was checking in nightly while the ship was en route to New Zealand. At 30 kts that vessel has a really loooooong course line!
I encourage everyone with friends or family who cruise to use this site as one means of staying in touch. Of course, you'll need to get the word out to the cruisers, too. If they don't happen to be Hams, don't despair. There is another way to get their location information onto the chart.
If they or you are on a cruising boat with e-mail access, reports can be sent by satellite link or HF and if you are an Amateur you can use one of the Amateur HF to e-mail gateways at no cost. Contact mike@pangolin.co.nz for more details. Several people are subscribed to the list that are using SailMail <www.sailmail.com>. Mike & Ken are both hoping that they'll manage to report themselves directly onto the list or if they're in a group, they might take it in turns to pass reports for the group. There's also SeaMail and of course Globe Wireless and Pin Oak. They're all HF systems and costs vary considerably.
For the full story of YOTREPS, follow the links from <www.pangolin.co.nz>. View Bit Wranglers YOTREPS Voluntary Vessel Reporting at <www.bitwrangler.com/yotreps>. Visit the Internet today!
Suzy O'Keefe
S/V Wishful Thinking
Mariner Centaur Cutter-rig