> >Graham, what agencies or rules cover radio transmissions on the high >seas, where no countries have a claim? > well I'll answer this, but also make some more OT, but On topic for this project below..... in my opinion no countries "have a claim" anywhere in fact, it ticks me off that governments are raising stealth taxes by selling off what they do not own in the first place.....but: there is co-ordination via two or three bodies that meet frequently, the world is divided into regions, each of the regions attempts to co-ordinate what member countries do....and the 'head' meeting tries to co-ordinate an overall policy... this is necessary as on many frequencies you have little control over 'how far' ones transmissions go.....co-ordination allows everyone to use at least something, whereas a free for all would result in nobody being able to do anything much.....ie even for a project like this the 'system' adds PROTECTION as well as restriction...if you can find a way in, then your few mW of psk31 has at least a chance of being useful and getting heard, whereas if the situation was 'open', then it would degenerate to a power/antenna war.....so try to look positively on it.... looking again positively at the project in question and the efficiencies of narrow band slow data rate transmission systems, and adding in current state of sunspot cycle (we are close to the top which means good propagation at high HF bands) then perhaps a 'radio control' transmitter at 27mhz using psk31 would be sufficent to get some feedback if a network of keen 'hams' could get their attention focused on it.... people are making pretty much worldwide contacts on this mode with as little as 5 or even 1 watt at the right times....a 'legal' 27 mhz radio control system might just do it..although I do not know if there are restrictions on modulation forms etc on this band..of course as this is a long term survival project one would want to ensure a good deal of over engineering and capability in the rf PA transistor area to ensure that it ran cool and was reliable etc etc.. (along the line that one sees in some 432/3 module data sheets, ie a resitive output T pad which "may or may not be required" during 'testing' or therafter) for that matter why not just put it on 27 mhz CB band where legal power limit would perhaps be more than adequate for psk31 for a few years yet (until we lose 27mhz 'skip' completely).....in such case though one might want to choose a rather poor crystal that unfortunately drifts between channels...and you may want to look at how to utilise a legal modulation mode with some unfortunately poor keying characteristics. Graham -Need *high IP3* AND good N/F ?? try this- http://www.rfham.com -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.