Moodyjim
Well-Known Member
How well do they really work? There seems to be quite a lot of mixed feeling about how efficient they are for getting weather etc.
Pactor modems
- Thread starter Moodyjim
- Start date
SimonJ
Well-Known Member
Short answer is that they work very well!
I have been using one for last 4 years in the Caribbean, East coast of USA, the Canadian Lakes & while crossing the Atalantic to UK.
The only version to have is a Pactor II with III software.
You are provided with a propagation table to show the theoretical best freq for your position, time of day etc. Often I have obtained good connections with not recommended - you soon learn what works best where you are & when you get best results. Occasionally you may have to wait until someone else has finished their connection.
If your radio works ok on voice then the modem should work well.
Switch off/disconnect modem when using voice - it sems to affect output.
I have found a Ham radio opened up for marine bands (cheaper but lower output) excellent for the task.
Once you have a modem then you can obtain the Grib weather forecasts (remembering that south of latitude of Canaries they are not much use. High seas text forecats also become available.
So, if you have an SSB facility it makes sense to have a Pactor modem as well. Sailmail costs $250 a year for apprx 10 minutes use a day. See their website for everything you might need to know. Very helpful not for profit organisation.
Hope that helps a little.
Simon
I have been using one for last 4 years in the Caribbean, East coast of USA, the Canadian Lakes & while crossing the Atalantic to UK.
The only version to have is a Pactor II with III software.
You are provided with a propagation table to show the theoretical best freq for your position, time of day etc. Often I have obtained good connections with not recommended - you soon learn what works best where you are & when you get best results. Occasionally you may have to wait until someone else has finished their connection.
If your radio works ok on voice then the modem should work well.
Switch off/disconnect modem when using voice - it sems to affect output.
I have found a Ham radio opened up for marine bands (cheaper but lower output) excellent for the task.
Once you have a modem then you can obtain the Grib weather forecasts (remembering that south of latitude of Canaries they are not much use. High seas text forecats also become available.
So, if you have an SSB facility it makes sense to have a Pactor modem as well. Sailmail costs $250 a year for apprx 10 minutes use a day. See their website for everything you might need to know. Very helpful not for profit organisation.
Hope that helps a little.
Simon
Auspicious
Active Member
They work great. My experience, including side-by-side comparisons with Iridium and Globalstar, is that Pactor is the best thing going unless you can swing VSAT or one of the other high-bandwidth (relatively) commercial systems.
whipper_snapper
Well-Known Member
They work very well. At least, they do exactly what they claim to do. You can't connect 24/7 as you can with a satphone, but they work very reliably if properly installed.
The other downside is that they are stupidly expensive for what they are. That's because there is only 1 supplier. There are plenty of alternative digital modes that could in theory be used to achieve the same thing using just a sound card, but they are not used because we are locked-in to pactor by an existing network and a small user base.
Other threads that may be of interest
