Satellite emails

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marcot

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I need to have email capability for this year Arc.
Iridium go seems to be an option.
Anyone has it on board?


Linking my iridium 9505a to a laptop is rather stressful unless I find a simple way to do it.
 
marcot said:
I need to have email capability for this year Arc.
Iridium go seems to be an option.
Anyone has it on board?


Linking my iridium 9505a to a laptop is rather stressful unless I find a simple way to do it.
Click to expand...

Phone Mailasail for free technical advice about Iridium and data.
 
As far as I know Mailasail can also be used on SSB radio which doesn't have the time cost that Iridium does. Another option is Inmarsat C which can be used for email, incoming free, and weather. We had SSB, SatC and an Iridium phone that we kept charged and in the grab bag, emergency calls are free.
 
KellysEye said:
As far as I know Mailasail can also be used on SSB radio which doesn't have the time cost that Iridium does. Another option is Inmarsat C which can be used for email, incoming free, and weather. We had SSB, SatC and an Iridium phone that we kept charged and in the grab bag, emergency calls are free.
Click to expand...

No, you are confusing Mailasail with Sailmail.

For simplest email via Iridium, have a look at Iridium Go, then you can do it from a phone or tablet.
 
marcot said:
...
Linking my iridium 9505a to a laptop is rather stressful unless I find a simple way to do it.
Click to expand...

Um, I found it pretty trivial - what exactly is the difficulty?

You need an adapter
9505a_data_t__09358.1405330056.1280.1280.jpg
of course, but that came in the box with the phone when I bought mine. It plugs into the serial port on the laptop or, if there isn't one, to a USB to serial adapter (loads available in PC World or Maplins or on Amazon or e-bay). But after that all the s/w needed comes as part of Windows: it's just the same as an old dial-up connection.

I use mine with mailasail, but that's not the only mail server you could use.
 
Last edited:
I was under the impression that, apart from being wise, SSB was required for the ARC. Email would be free, as are gribs.

Look at sail com and yacht com for more details.

Tony.
 
I was quite surprised to hear the iridium Go being absolutely slated in a recent conversation by an oft mentioned Sat-Coms dealer. It may be he is right or it may be he is just trying to up-sell me to something five times the price. Does anyone on here actually own and use the Go! ? would be grateful for a heads up on this bit of kit. Is it really that bad?
 
Has anyone looked at SATcase?

It uses the Iridium system but you drop your ordinary mobile phone into a special case which turns it in to a sat phone. At £699 it looks a lot cheaper than buying a dedicated Sat Phone.

It also appears to double up as a Copas/Sarsat emergency beacon.

Doesn't have a case for every mobile phone yet but according to the company web site http://www.satcase.com/ more are on the way/
 
lydiamight said:
Has anyone looked at SATcase?

It uses the Iridium system but you drop your ordinary mobile phone into a special case which turns it in to a sat phone. At £699 it looks a lot cheaper than buying a dedicated Sat Phone.

It also appears to double up as a Copas/Sarsat emergency beacon.

Doesn't have a case for every mobile phone yet but according to the company web site http://www.satcase.com/ more are on the way/
Click to expand...


The airtime costs look absolutely outrageous.

Tony.
 
Its a non starter for us as it wont be available until Mid - July and would you really want to be one of the first to use it? perhaps silence speaks louder than words despite all the hype and positive comments on the Go! no one who owns and uses it has commented...
 
We spent the whole of our 9 month trip to Antarctica and back using an Irridium sat phone linked to computer, easy connection via usb, very good connectivity, did buy an external aerial and fit it but had problems and found the little extender aerial that comes with phone more than adequate. We sent/received twice daily emails with home/blog/weather routing company/friends and family of 14 people onboard and the price was really very good - around £1000 in calling credit for 9 months. Yours would be significantly less for a much shorter time and many many less people wanting to call home over Christmas and New year!

Couldn't recommend it highly enough

J
 
brokethebox said:
We spent the whole of our 9 month trip to Antarctica and back using an Irridium sat phone linked to computer, easy connection via usb, very good connectivity, did buy an external aerial and fit it but had problems and found the little extender aerial that comes with phone more than adequate. We sent/received twice daily emails with home/blog/weather routing company/friends and family of 14 people onboard and the price was really very good - around £1000 in calling credit for 9 months. Yours would be significantly less for a much shorter time and many many less people wanting to call home over Christmas and New year!

Couldn't recommend it highly enough

J
Click to expand...

Interesting J... what model of Iridium sat phone? was the comp windows or Mac?
 
CatCouple said:
Interesting J... what model of Iridium sat phone? was the comp windows or Mac?
Click to expand...


I've done Iridium phone with a Mac - no problems. (9505 to a macbook/air etc)

The mistake most people make is to set off to sea and then try to get it working. It needs a bit of patience, and you should get it all up and runnning on dry land first.
 
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