John and I had a book-sales booth at a West Coast boat show, and we were scheduled to give a seminar called Ham Radio for Cruising Mexico.

"That morning, a young couple visiting our booth slowly browsed my guidebooks to Mexico and Central America, said that circumnavigating was their dream, and they were in the process of outfitting their boat for just that goal. They bought my books, so I signed them ‘Smooth Seas to Jim and Judy.’ So, I invited them to our ham-radio seminar."

Ham nets are formatted like boaters’ portable VHF nets – but on steroids.

Morning Cruisers’ Nets on VHF are a backbone of the cruising community. First-timers in Mexico quickly learn to tune in at 0800 (usually on VHF channel 22) to these English-speaking VHF nets that operate from boats within marinas and anchorages at all Mexico’s cruising ports. VHF is purely “line of sight” communications.

After the emergency traffic, ham-net formats sound like any VHF cruisers’ net, shifting to the all-important “weather.” In ham nets, another volunteer disseminates official NOAA forecasts plus several onsite weather reports that he or she has gathered from other boaters underway. Two ham boaters listening to the same net might be thousands of miles apart, in remote or undeveloped corners of the planet – or crossing oceans. VHF nets’ focus is local weather, which gains importance during hurricane season.