satellite phone/email

[Sea Devil]

Does anybody know which is the best Satellite phone (cheapest to buy and run) for the Atlantic/Caribbean/east coast USA?

want one that keeps me in email contact via the laptop, download weather files and the very very occasional telephone call.

I am not going to install a SSB

Many thanks

 

[KellysEye]

We had a SSB radio it is the lifeblood of cruising, weather forecasts, weather fax, email, ocean nets, anchorage nets, and chatting to other boats you now - all at low cost once you have an SSB fitted. We had a satphone that we kept charged and mainly in the grab bag, emergency calls are free standard calls are expensive as is outgoing email, short incoming emails were free.

 

[Bilgediver]

Look into the Sail mail system as their software can work via both SSB radios and Iridium satellite phones and offers compression so data goes faster. This system can be used for email me grib files but not web surfing or big picture files.

https://sailmail.com/sailmail-via-web/

 

[Monique]

I have a Icom 801E with Pactor 4 Modem. Works great. But we added a Iridium 9555 portable yesterday with prepaid 75 mins/2 months contract. In our case we took the unit sans external antenna.

The issue being placement, as our Solar/davits obscure the stern and the long fixed antenna lead to the mizzen mast would have had too much signal loss. I got a good deal from the man who outfits Vendée Globe etc... he knows his stuff.

PM if you want name/email/phone number. Delivery sans VAT in Gib...

 

[Wandering Star]

We used a Motrola 9505A with data connector to the laptop. They often come up on eBay for around £200 - £250. Make sure for that price you get a complete kit with mains and 12 volt chargers plus data cable. The data cable costs around £100 on its own so make sure one is included. You'll need a SIM card and we obtained ours free of charge from Mailasail who provide a service which included holding your cc details and topping up the SIM as required changing the cost back to the cc. We topped up in 70 minute increments (I recall) at about a dollar a minute. I've made several Atlantic crossings and typically by rationing and controlling usage, use around one top up per crossing to obtain Grib files and emails each day. All the software necessary for downloading Gribs and emails is available from Mailasails website.

Edited to add a worthwhile additional expense is the marine external antenna and cable which will cost another £200 or so. It avoids losing the Iridium radio signal once the things connected.m

 

[GHA]

, download weather files

Slight drift and apologies if this is known..
But in addition to downloaded grib files, a with cheap ssb reciever like a Degen 1103 you can recieve weatherfax images as well. Offshore having both is great, gribs for nearby and wfax for the big picture.