I passed my UK radio amateurs exam in 1964 but never followed it through with morse test - too young to hold licence anyway at that time. Fast forward to 2003 when I fitted out the yacht I was cruising the Med on with maritime ICOM HF radio installation and Pactor Modem to allow email access onboard when crossing the Atlantic at the end of that year. Antenna was end fed mast backstay and auto tuner to match. Ground plane was sintered bronze immersed plate on hull.
It worked perfectly and I recall testing whilst boat on the hard in Tunisia during winter layup and getting a hook up to a Canadian based station over 3000nm away. Whilst crossing the Atlantic in December of that year I had my laptop configured to turn on, tune and contact radio stations during the night using the ICOM via the Sailmail system I was registered to using boats callsign and my maritime radio licence. This to auto download weather reports for the benefit of self and other cruisers crossing the Atlantic as well as staying in touch with family and sending GPS position reports to tracking service. The weather reports were conveyed by voice on an impromptu HF net each morning to other cruisers crossing at the same time.
Spent seven years in the Caribbean during which time I discovered I could apply for a UK ham licence, as morse requirement had been dropped, which I still hold - M0DSU. After offering proof to the US based Winlink authories I was a UK licence holder I was able to switch to their free service to continue radio email use. I continued to use this service and voice comms with other yachties until selling yacht in 2011 and repatriating to UK. Sadly the equipment was sold with boat.
