Iridium 9505A queries.

[Ohlin Karcher]

I have an Iridium 9505A satphone, I was wondering if it will be useful for weather on an Atlantic circuit? The SIMs seem pricey, bearing in mind I don't want the ability to actually chat with anybody.
I would just like to connect it to a tablet and get basic weather charts displayed on the screen, one per day.
Any pragmatic suggestions if it's worth taking across the sea?
(I am aware of other ways of getting weather at sea).

 

[Koeketiene]

Used to own a 9505A.
Sold it last year and used the proceeds to buy an Iridium Go.
I found the Go to be a lot easier way to obtain weather.

I found this to be very helpful: The Ultimate Guide to Using Iridium Handsets and GO!

 

[Ohlin Karcher]

Thanks for the link!

 

[philmarks]

We use a 9505 and access weather via mailasail.com. We looked at Iridium Go but got put off by the reported setup complexity. We bought the 9505 cheap on ebay and what we avoided on the post of the 'Go' we used to buy a Mailasail Redbox.

The Redbox compresses the data and also offers nmea data broadcast over a wifi hotspot. Setup is dead simple. Mailasail has a standard set of weather reports available (including small graphical images), plus gribs, but our preference is to access gribs by sending email through mailasail to saildocs (but no graphics). Mailsail also offer you an individual blog which is easy to update from mid ocean if you like to keep your family informed.

We've used it for several years now from the Canaries to New Zealand.