Choices, choices - blue water comms

[stranded]

Just want to run by anyone who cares to comment my plans for comms when we start wandering further afield (maybe rtw) next year.

We inherited some old stuff when we bought Nooka, so weighing up the options is not quite as straightforward as it might be if we simply had to splash the cash and The relative costs of upgrading this, selling that, buying the other is rather frazzling my notably un-accountant like mind. So... we currently have:

An Iridium 9505 sat phone with various cables and an Iridium antennae on the pushpit
An Icom 802 ssb with all the bits, incl. insulated backstay, but only the head unit is fitted at the moment
A Pactor II modem that I don't believe will have been upgraded
EPIRB & PLBs

Other possible factors:
We will have iPhones, ipads, a PC and a Mac aboard.
Also a decent quality portable SW receiver - Tecsun PL880
I am hoping that power will not be an issue
I really, really, don't want to do a long range radio course
I am non-techie
We will obviously be on a budget re. Ongoing outlay but I am prepared to pay reasonably for simplicity.

Our main priority is to be able reliably to get weather offshore. Good if we could exchange the odd short message with family and friends. No real need for voice calls. It might be nice to have access to ssb nets but neither of is really a 'chatter'.

So, my plan is to sell the satphone and the Pactor modem (or dump if they no longer have any value) install the ssb but without the Pactor, mainly for listening/emergency broadcasting, and buy an Iridium Go with an unlimited data plan for gribs, sums etc.

I am comfortable with the costs of this route. But are there flaws I am missing?

Mark

 

[sailaboutvic]

How far afield are you talking about Mark ? Crossing ocean , SSB /sat phone would be handy but if your talk about MED I personally can't see SSB of sat phone being of much use .
With Internet widely used weather forecaster isn't a problem , most people I know use skpe for a face to face call , made from PC /IPads , Nav Text also is an handy tool althought I very rarely look at it any more with so much info on the Internet .

 

[Oscarpop]

Don't do it.

Talk to ed wild goose at mailasail.

He hates those iridium go units. I know they run in direct competition with the redbox, but when I went to a talk for the arc he explained it in very simple terms st the iridium go was simply a pared down iridium 9555 phone.

I then googled it, and he was right.

We have an iridium phone and an ssb.
The ssb is invaluable for radio nets here in the Caribbean and also across the pond.

The iridium phone plugs into our laptop and does all he westher and e mail without having to use iridiums mail service.

We still have our gmail account running, albeit with compression software.

I was a sceptic like you , but experience has changed my mind.

No affiliation to mailasail btw.

 

[stranded]

Hi Vic - don't know how far we'll get but the plan is 'all the way round' so offshore weather needs to be part of the facility.

 

[GrahamM376]

I have no personal experience but received this from a mate who arrived Bermuda last week via Cape Verde

Inmarsat isatphone pro. Absolute waste of time for data. It worked once after leaving gib for canaries but not since. The vendors say that you need the external antenna kit with docking station. Very expensive. I thought it was faulty but met someone in lp who said same.
Met them again in cape Verde and they left for bb same time as us. They had the external kit and said it was almost impossible to get it to work. Others had similar problems with iridium they reckoned. Two way texting was OK and even made a phone call once but data? No.

OTOH "Spot" tracked them well and they were able to txt.

 

[multihullsailor6]

Also have a look at the InReach tracking and messaging unit. Quite cheap at approx. €300 it offers you a sms service via satellite and also individual weather forecasts via a service contract with Ocens. Furthermore a tracking service for those at home and can also be used as an EPIRB. We recently used this on a winter sailing trip from Bayona to Malta and the weather forecasts we received three times a day were spot on. In my view: highly recommended - I have no commercial connections, am just a happy user!

 

[stranded]

Thanks all - I really appreciate the advice.

Yes, we have considered those other options. The way i have been thinking is...

We are not interested in a tracker - no one will look��
The red box seems just to be a wifi hotspot, which in a way is the least interesting feature of the Go.
The inreach is attractive, but no data.
The spot is really just a tracker with a limited outgoing message capability.
I accept that a fully featured satphone would probably be best. But bloomin' expensive to run.
The killer feature of the Go is the affordable unlimited data packages.
I have read enough about mailasail to be very wary of their hard sell and I instinctively distrust pitches that revolve around slagging off their competitors.

So the go is still looking the best of the new buy options if in fact the data works well enough. Big if though.
But of course the whole equation is changed if the Go won't deliver the data, at any price. I need to do some more research into that I think.

Mark

 

[KellysEye]

We had SSB, Inmarsat C and an Iridium phone which we kept in the grab bag, charged, emergency calls are free. Don't forget an EPIRB. The reason we had SatC was it gives weather forecasts around the world and has an emergency button which gives an instant signal to their land station and small incoming emails are free, an EPIRB can take an hour to contact a satellite. SSB is the lifeblood of cruising with all the nets - ocean, weather, safety and security in the Caribbean, anchorage nets and keeping in contact with boats you know. The anchorage nets most important role is if you want something fixed that you can't do there is normally someone who can.

 

[AJW709]

Both IsatPhone (Pro & 2) and Iridium 9555/9575 have data capability but their inherent design limits this greatly. They primarily are voice units.
Iridium Go might provide unlimited data but a 2.4kbs how much data can you use in a day? Also - forgive me if I'm stating the obvious - Go needs to be manually pointed at a satellite. OK when at anchor, not so easy when on passage. The equivalent Inmarsat device is the ISavi which offers higher data rate & has user friendly Apple/Android apps to allow your smartphone to connect. Again, manual pointing required & airtime is more expensive than Go.

The real solution is Fleet BroadBand or Inmarsat Fleet One - stablised dish, voice & data - Or Iridium's Pilot . These are considerably more expensive than a SatPhone to purchase & run.

 

[Koeketiene]

Well worth a read: https://www.morganscloud.com/2016/03/24/the-ultimate-guide-to-using-iridium-handsets-and-go/

 

[KellysEye]

We had VHF, SSB, an Inmarsat C terminal, Iridium satphone and EPIRB. The SatC receives regular free ocean area forecasts worldwide and free short incoming emails, it also has a push button SOS feature with position which is one of the fastest ways to get help the the other is a Satphone with a free emergency number, an EPIRB can take an hour to get a position fix. We kept the satphone charged in the grab bag with the emergency number because calls are so expensive.

 

[Olianta]

Despite the many critical reviews of the Iridium Go, during the last ARC we did fine with that device mounted inside with an external antenna and the OCENS Grib Exploer Plus for IPad. I think now Predictwind have already developed IOS application for Iridium Go as well.