KKL Radio                

Vashon, Washington

47-22-15N
122-29-16W

Listed in the Admiralty List of Radio Signals

 

 

   

   KKL Radio

   PO BOX 13223
   Burton, WA 98013

Sean Malone
   Tel: 206-200-5551
kklradio@gmail.com

   Walter E. Kaelin
    Tel: 408-348-9735
    Fax: 240-235-3655 
  wek1235@gmail.com 


   Account Application 


    Price List

KKL Radio, located on the island of Vashon in Washington State, is dedicated to providing personalized HF radio service worldwide.  KKL is a public coast station serving the communication needs of ships, companies and individuals worldwide.  

KKL Radio provides messaging, email, radio-telephone calls, and weather reports.  We are here to serve. Our rates are competitive.   The service is personal and confidential.

KKL is a member of the Swisscom HF Maritime Radio Network. KKL Radio now offers HF data services on 4015.0, 8182.0 and 13173.0 kHz.. Please call for more information.

HF Services Diagram Data

 

 

Further Information:

National Weather Service Marine Product Dissemination Information

Articles:

Saving Money with HF Communications!

By

Walter E. Kaelin

Introduction:

All Ships larger than 100 BRT have to carry two kinds of communications systems by international agreement. This is often accomplished with a Satellite and High Frequency Radio system. Today, it is possible to have a safe and reliable data communications system over the existing HF radio on a worldwide basis using the Swisscom HF Maritime Radio Network.

1. How is it done?
The existing HF radio is interfaced with a special modem that can handle the very difficult and often changing conditions of HF. Ships can roam to any of the stations on a worldwide basis for their email transactions. An ALE (automatic Link establishment) box searches for the best available station and channel and delivers and retrieves the subscriber mail automatically on a preset time. If the mail manager provided is used, files of up to 500 kB can be transmitted at the present time. All this is done quite efficiently and typically at a saving of about 50 % compared to satellite connectivity.

2. What is required shipboard?
The ALE box has to be installed by a qualified person and interfaced with the ship HF radio set. Presently available onboard computers can be used with a mail program (E. G. outlook express), for instance laptops or an interface to an onboard Ethernet network can be provided. Multiple Email addresses can be used with the mail manager software. Installation costs are quoted separately for each vessel.

The ALE box includes a Linux server with built in Pactor III Modem, Pentium 4, 600 MHz min. and 512 M Byte RAM. 40 Gigabyte Hard drive, Ethernet port 10/100, Serial Ports to access the frequency control of the HF transceiver, an interface to Inmarsat Fleet satellite as well as GSM, GPS and optionally Iridium. Also provided is a Web interface for ship control and management, to access crew mail, Weather data, ALE and receive the traffic list, SSAS capable. The power supply is 24 V DC.

3. The embedded Pactor modem.
The Pactor II modem with the Pactor III firmware upgrade is simply the best HF modem available today. It uses a high powered DSP for two dimensional, orthogonal pulse shaping with a transmission capability of up to 3600 bps. The maximum Bandwidth of 2200 Hz is used and so ordinary, modern HF radio sets can be utilized with conventional IF filters. Six different transmission speeds are selected in a highly adaptive manner depending on the particular HF condition.

4. What is the cost of the hardware and connectivity?
The ALE box is presently sold at $3705.00 and the cost for 100 kB is $6.50. Note that there is no charge for time used, only for bytes transmitted.

5. How many stations are there worldwide?
At present we have 7 stations worldwide with 2 more in the last few stages of build out. See Swisscom HF Maritime Radio Network.

6. Is there roaming between the stations?
Yes, a vessel signed up with one station can roam automatically roam to any station and send and receive their mail.