ALWAYS someone on the Ham Bands. I'm not a ham operator and only use marine SSB with e-mail on my boat but on my last trip up the Baja coast on my friends boat our SSB almost packed it in and could only transmit on low power. None of the Marine nets could hear us but the Ham guys were able to hear us via skips, patches and turning antennas and what ever else they do. The were able to pass us weather and even did a phone patch for us. My friend, the owner of the boat I was on was a ham and for the first time I really was able to see the benefit of having that license. In any event, having a SSB radio and e-mail all the time and anywhere should be a consideration for any long distance cruiser. IMHO. It's a rather large financial hit to set it all up but I think it worth it in the long run. It used to be a safety issue but with "SPOT" and EPIRBS it's not so important these days but passage weather reports are still important off shore. You have to consider weather reports as part of your safety considerations anyway.