Mobile signal vs Iridium Go vs ISathub in the Outer Hebrides

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dovekie

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Does anyone have experience of the usefulness of any of these in the Outer Hebrides?

We are planning a very leisurely cruise - and would value weather forecasts (GRIB is fine) and emergency contact for aging relatives.

As I understand it:
Mobile coverage is patchy and of course network dependant.
Iridium Go reception is good, but data transfer is slow.
ISathub is in theory faster, but the antenna is directional and the satellite is low (20 degrees or less above horizon) so actual performance may not be good.

Thanks
 
I used an Iridium Go on a recent transat. Bit clunky, worked fine but the data rate is slow, very slow. As you pay by the minute it can work out quite costly. We had to have the antenna in the open for reception, which was a bit limiting as well.
We also had a Delorme Inreach which I found to be a better big if kit. Linked to a tablet by Bluetooth, it sends and receives text style messages which can be sent to either a mobile number or an email address. It can also be used to download small area forecasts for three days ahead. But the principle selling point, especially from the reassurance point of view, is that it can be set up to send a position report every so many minutes. These reports are then plotted onto a map which people can follow via a website. The kit is not too expensive and it does require a monthly subscription to keep it all going as well as a per forecast cost for the weather but cheaper than a sat phone link. Final point, it didn't need to see the sky but worked quite well in the saloon. No idea what it'd be like in Scotland though with the weaker signal.
 
Ive been on a couple of trips up and down from Arisaig to Stornoway and places in between over the last couple of years. Mobile coverage is patchy but if you are moving around I am sure you will get regular contact gribs. Not so good for reliable emergency contact though.

I think there is a new iridium network coming in the next couple of years. http://www.outfittersatellite.com/blog/iridium-next/whats-iridium-next-2.html

Seems like an iridium go will be going in the bin when this arrival as apparently it won't be able to access the new higher data rates. So seems like an expensive one year item to me!

How about an inreach for texting and phone/tablet for gribs?
 
Please don't take this as impertinent, but for weather forecasts in the Outer Hebs, you can do much worse than a LW radio.
 
Don't know about satellite phones but if you want the best coverage then get EE, they recently took over emergency services comms supply and have upgraded coverage significantly. For the first time I have a mobile phone signal at home!!!

And even 4G.
 
wully1 said:
Don't know about satellite phones but if you want the best coverage then get EE, they recently took over emergency services comms supply and have upgraded coverage significantly. For the first time I have a mobile phone signal at home!!!

And even 4G.
Click to expand...

Its so variable though that there may well be spots where EE doesn't work and someone else does. Historically I've found Vodafone to be best on the west, but I've not been in the O.H. this year. Given that budget doesn't seem to be a primary factor it might be worth the OP looking at two devices on different networks (his n' hers!) or a dual sim mobile.

Worth noting that Virgin, Phone Coop and Asda all use the EE infrastructure (along with a handful of other small names) and so you can get EE coverage without EE prices.

As someone else said you should be able to get sufficient connection from GRIB download from time to time, but if you need 24/7 then Sat Comm is the only way. Being cynical I'm not sure what advantage 24/7 connection brings than a delay of sereral hours on receiving a text. 9 times out of 10 you are going to have a big delay in getting to somewhere to come home from if there is an emergency - the times you are most able to react quickly you will be near the main population centres and cell coverage is most likely.
 
Mobile coverage in the area is absolutely hopeless. There is no 'best' network, all of them are patchy - I know I have tried them all.

4G - forget it.

I spent the summer in Norway and it was a revelation. EVERYWHERE had decent mobile coverage; up fjords, offshore islands up near the Arctic circle. Everywhere. Mostly 4G

OFCOM needs to pull it's finger out and insist the networks introduce UK roaming, so if a network can't be bothered to put in decent coverage, phones will automatically switch to another available network.

As for weather, the CG inshore forecast is not bad, and an advantage of the area is that if the outlook is indifferent the distances to somewhere safe are not huge.
 
I use EE on my phone, which isn't a smart phone btw, a mifi pay as you go, £10 for 30 days with "3" and also have a 9555 sat phone.
The 9555 first, you can use it to send texts and emails just like a normal phone and plug it into your laptop too. I bought it for a long trip this summer and having now got one I might as well keep it. As someone above says about the Go, it's very slow and clunky but will download grib files and I also used Predict Wind without problems. Using the "hockey puck" external aerial I never had any problems connecting to the Iridium network from the chart table. Maybe I'm missing something but to me the Go is just the 9555 without being mobile and doesn't have a keypad. In 6 weeks I used about 50 mins airtime emailing or texting once a day and downloafing the odd forecast. However you have to buy multiples of 30 days network time then another x number of minutes usage time which disappears if you don't use it.
The "3" mifi I find most useful as that gives me normal internet as much as I want it i.e. weather forecasts and news, then emails. It is patchy and in remote places there's no signal....like Canna Harbour, but there is wifi in the cafe there.
The same applies to EE for my phone, but there again I'm not using it for the internet. The EE/BT system does allow a certain amount of roaming using the BT signals. Looking at coverage maps Vodaphone looks to be the best but I found that trying to get connected to the Vodaphone network was such a hassle I gave up in disgust!
The Isat hub I'm going to suggest will be useless. It needs a stable platform to locate the satellite and flat seas in the Hebrides don't exist. Pontoons to moor against so the boat is stable are very few and far between. You'll be mostly at anchor or on swinging moorings.
As someone else has said the Stornoway CG forecasts aren't bad at all and in 27 years or so of sailing out of Arisaig I have never been caught out by a suprise gale. However there are still some places where you can't even get VHF coverage.
And as a last thought, Navtext signals aren't that reliable either due to the long lochs and high hills.
Mike
 
Gunfleet said:
sorry to display ignorance... what's mifi?
Click to expand...

It's a small plastic wfi receiver about the size of a credit card which gets wifi from a mobile aerial mast and then retransmits wfi ish to your (in my case) Google Nexus 10 or laptop. By using it I can roam using either the "3" network or the BT/EE networks. The rest of the crew can also log into it and get their internet stuff. ( I could also be talking a lot of b*ll*cks but that's my understanding of what it does!)
It seems to work at a longer range, ie on a swinging mooring and to certain extent out at sea when you can't otherwise get a signal. By using the monthly 3 paygo system I'm not in a contract for the 6 or so months that the boat isn't used and I just pick and choose when I need it. If I remember rightly we kept a signal 5 to 10 miles off the Butt of Lewis heading NW.
Mike
 
Thanks very much. COuld be interesting. I have a swinging mooring which - though in the South East - has not much phone signal
 
If full contactability at all times is needed and funds available then a satellite phone would be great for remote spots in Scotland.
But a cheaper option that works for most of us is to make sure that you carry multiple phones, each on a different network. A combination of Vodaphone and one of EE/BT or O2 probably would give a range of coverage.

The best signal is generally when underway, or when walking ashore. So ask relatives to text asking you to contact them if they can’t get through immediately.
We generally managed to get XCweather forecasts most days, either when sailing or on shore. BT wifi is handy also, as often find houses even in remote places with a hotspot outside - though you may get strange looks walking around testing houses for BT Wi-fi ! Near civilisation of course you may be forced to go for a pint to borrow pub Wi-fi :-)

PS. coastguard VHF forecasts generally able to be picked up, but we rarely bothered as normally picked up quicker via internet, and the longer view of XC and similar is near essential (and often at least as accurate if not more so for day 1 & 2)
 
Vegable said:
It's a small plastic wfi receiver about the size of a credit card which gets wifi from a mobile aerial mast and then retransmits wfi ish to your (in my case) Google Nexus 10 or laptop. By using it I can roam using either the "3" network or the BT/EE networks. The rest of the crew can also log into it and get their internet stuff. ( I could also be talking a lot of b*ll*cks but that's my understanding of what it does!)
It seems to work at a longer range, ie on a swinging mooring and to certain extent out at sea when you can't otherwise get a signal. By using the monthly 3 paygo system I'm not in a contract for the 6 or so months that the boat isn't used and I just pick and choose when I need it. If I remember rightly we kept a signal 5 to 10 miles off the Butt of Lewis heading NW.
Mike
Click to expand...

Thats pretty much right - it connects to the cellular network (often 3G and 4G only so if looking around for one to use in the hebrides might be worth trying to find one that can use older tech). Then it acts like a miniature Wifi router enabling you to connect multiple devices. On 4g it will give you broadband type speeds. Obviously on a poor connection you'll be back to the old fashioned dial up speeds.

I wonder if anyone has tried wiring one up a mast - presumably height is useful for cell coverage. The typically charge off a micro/mini USB so a suitable IPx5/x6 box should do the trick. I don't know if anyone does a dual-SIM option that would help ensure coverage, although just picking a different sim from your phone would achieve similar.
 
ylop said:
I wonder if anyone has tried wiring one up a mast - presumably height is useful for cell coverage. The typically charge off a micro/mini USB so a suitable IPx5/x6 box should do the trick. I don't know if anyone does a dual-SIM option that would help ensure coverage, although just picking a different sim from your phone would achieve similar.
Click to expand...

I have a ZTE MF60 which I bought on the forums and an external antenna for it which cost me another £15 or so on eBay. The external antenna seems to work well and the MF60's "status" page suggests that it gives about a 6dB gain, which is generally enough to climb one step up the GPRS -> EDGE -> 3G ladder. I did originally think of mounting the antenna up high somewhere, but haven't tried that yet.

With a good 3G signal it's just as good as my home broadband.
 
wully1 said:
Don't know about satellite phones but if you want the best coverage then get EE, they recently took over emergency services comms supply and have upgraded coverage significantly. For the first time I have a mobile phone signal at home!!!

And even 4G.
Click to expand...

Maybe I should have added that they are still upgrading their infrastructure, for example they are currently installing a new mast on Tiree as I type.
Last time I was here there was no mobile coverage at all, now I get signal and expect 4G next time I'm back here.
 
wully1 said:
Don't know about satellite phones but if you want the best coverage then get EE, they recently took over emergency services comms supply and have upgraded coverage significantly. For the first time I have a mobile phone signal at home!!!

And even 4G.
Click to expand...

Yes, when I was based up there EE was a good signal. Allowed me to tether and work on a PC.
 
I bought an EE Buzzard 2, in car WiFi, Sim Free on the internet, for £49.99.

It's actually a Huawei E8377, but badged EE, probably surplus stock.

It fits into a 12 volt car socket, (cigar lighter socket) and has a connector for an external antenna.

I haven't had chance to try it with an external antenna, but plan to play with that over the winter.

I bought a separated, data only PAYG SIM card from EE, but you could use any provider, and have multiple cards if you want to be able to choose the best signal.

I used it on my last trip from Oban to Largs, the only place I couldn't get an internet connection was Crinan.

It worked very well with 3/4G most of the time, to the extent that my sister used 2GB of data in a week taking photo on her iPhone and then transferring them to her iPad, using iTunes and iCloud. I only realised what was happening when it stopped working (ran out of data), and my sister didn't realise that moving pictures from her iPhone to her iPad via iCloud was using mobile data, once to get it to iCloud and then again to get it back to her iPad. As a comparison I use about 700MB in a month to get weather forecasts (XC, Wind Guru and Metoffice, send daily texts and keep up with the BBC news)

The Huawei E8377 can connect up to 10 devices to the internet via the mobile network, which may or may not be an advantage, as I found out.
 
Thank you all, very much, the consideration given to questions on this forum always impresses me.

Point taken about using LW radio shipping forecasts and the Coastguard. We use the former diligently, usually the 05:25 in the summer. My musing on satellite was in particular in relation to forecasts a week ahead, GRIBs and possible (vaguely possible) fair weather planning for St Kilda or N Rona. We happen to have EE / T-mobile and Vodafone Sims which addresses some of the patchy coverage.

Thank you too for references to Delorme Inreach / 9555 / ZTE MF60 and Huawei E8377 all of which I shall now research.

Jon
 
dunedin said:
If full contactability at all times is needed and funds available then a satellite phone would be great for remote spots in Scotland.
But a cheaper option that works for most of us is to make sure that you carry multiple phones, each on a different network. A combination of Vodaphone and one of EE/BT or O2 probably would give a range of coverage.

The best signal is generally when underway, or when walking ashore. So ask relatives to text asking you to contact them if they can’t get through immediately.
We generally managed to get XCweather forecasts most days, either when sailing or on shore. BT wifi is handy also, as often find houses even in remote places with a hotspot outside - though you may get strange looks walking around testing houses for BT Wi-fi ! Near civilisation of course you may be forced to go for a pint to borrow pub Wi-fi :-)

PS. coastguard VHF forecasts generally able to be picked up, but we rarely bothered as normally picked up quicker via internet, and the longer view of XC and similar is near essential (and often at least as accurate if not more so for day 1 & 2)
Click to expand...
Quite a lot of phones are now available that take two SIM cards, allowing access to your choice of two networks.
 
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