Satphone choices...

[Roberto]

I think NOAA is going to stop sending the weatherfax over HF pretty soon.

It won't be long before no weather service is supporting this technology

Sounds like the "ssb is dead" mantra being repeated and repeated from the early '00s, when the first data satellite phones became available

As to USCG weatherfax, from the horse's mouth:
https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pdf/Deliverable 7_Final Report.pdf

This report concludes that: The responding public collectively perceives that the USCG HF broadcasts are essential to their safety. There is no viable alternative to the USCG HF broadcasts because present alternatives are perceived by the public to be out of financial reach. Also, marine weather forecasts available through these alternative sources may not guarantee the same level of accuracy, timeliness, and/or sufficiency as provided by the USCG HF broadcasts.

That was in 2007, they might of course interrupt the broadcast on new unexpected budgetary restrictions, operationally I doubt very much there have been significant changes since 2007.

 

[RJJ]

Please can we stick to satphones? There's been some advice so far that was very useful and I'd welcome some more.

I don't have time to learn how to use an SSB receiver or the rest, I don't have the kit, and I definitely want satellite comms for SOS situations, the major advantage being any moderate idiot crewmember can use it.

Thanks.

 

[geem]

Atlantic and Pacific crossings I took a Garmin Inreach ...fantastic value and if you take out a package for unlimited use...that’s about £65 a month ..stop and start whenever you want.What you can do is send unlimited messages to emails or phones ..They are limited in characters ..but you just carry on with a second third message etc for long chat ..you can get weather for where you are or where you will be ..for an additional cost..link up to your IPad or laptop and it’s a doddle highly recommend

I also have a Garmin Inreach. We use it on the unlimited tariff for long crossings. We have never needed anything else. We get a friend to weather route us. He has free access to lots of weather information and simply sends us what we need to know.
Another feature is that if you cruise in company, messages between Inreach users shows the position of the user when they send a message. We had fun last year on a West to East Atlantic crossing when four boats had Garmin Inreaches onboard. We were messaging each other every day and comparing weather, etc
I love the simplicity of the device

 

[Laser310]

it's still nice to see a forecasters name on the fax midocean

I agree 100% with that.

I am a very strong believer in the use of "weatherfax" surface analyses and surface forecasts - I get them every day offshore

the exact same images that people refer to as "weatherfax" are easily obtained with an iridium satphone.

The advantage of getting them with the sat phone, is that you can get them on _your_ schedule - whenever you want them.., and you do not have to worry about the broadcast schedule.

 

[Star-Lord]

Iridium sat phone for me professionaly installed with above deck arial. You get a separate handset (connected to cradle via squiggly wire) to make and receive calls and so you keep the phone in the cradle all the time. Easy to send texts if cradle is wisely situated. Hooked up to batteries for constant power. Was recently impounded in N. Africa and will be returned when I check out... noticed the battery is getting a bit fat so that needs changing after 6 years of never leaving cradle! Obv the downside is paying 1K pa for 500 mins. Or is it 1.2k now? I blank it from my mind LOL. And you connect phone to a laptop (non Mac) and you can download 5 day weather gribs... and able to send and receive emails via OnSatMail to view gribs you need ViewFax. These gribs are what I need most and have always been reliable for main wind direction and pressure chart. If you employed a weather router they could text you weather routing info really easily and I would prefer this to email if I needed weather routing. IMHO iridium sat phone is the best... my emergency number is Falmouth Coastguard! If you are sinking or in trouble just give them a call with your position!!

 

[Roberto]

An acquaintance has developed a clever way of requesting a sort of very wide grid grib file through the InReach texting feature, it works by sending a gps position, a number of text reply messages are automatically created and sent with spot forecasts for t+x periods, in a number of points around the gps position. Just SMSs, no emails.
It requires some handling of programming that's why I did not even began trying, should you need I could find more details.

I also have a Garmin Inreach. We use it on the unlimited tariff for long crossings. We have never needed anything else. We get a friend to weather route us. He has free access to lots of weather information and simply sends us what we need to know.
Another feature is that if you cruise in company, messages between Inreach users shows the position of the user when they send a message. We had fun last year on a West to East Atlantic crossing when four boats had Garmin Inreaches onboard. We were messaging each other every day and comparing weather, etc
I love the simplicity of the device

 

[Laser310]

We get a friend to weather route us. He has free access to lots of weather information and simply sends us what we need to know.

It is inconceivable that I would ever approach a crossing that way.

I want to take responsibility for weather and navigation myself, and do not want to farm it out to anyone else.

Also.., in races it's not allowed...

 

[Laser310]

An acquaintance has developed a clever way of requesting a sort of very wide grid grib file through the InReach texting feature, it works by sending a gps position, a number of text reply messages are automatically created and sent with spot forecasts for t+x periods, in a number of points around the gps position. Just SMSs, no emails.
It requires some handling of programming that's why I did not even began trying, should you need I could find more details.

I kind of doubt he is ending up with an actual grib formatted file - a gridded binary file - that can be loaded into grib viewers and easily used for navigation.

in principle one can create a grib file from text, but it is not a trivial undertaking.

one would almost certainly end up using one of a few programs run from the windows command line - wgrib, or wgrib2. I have used both - I went to school with the developer!

also - even a small grib obtained over Iridium would probably require 100's of texts or more...

 

[GHA]

Please can we stick to satphones? There's been some advice so far that was very useful and I'd welcome some more.

I don't have time to learn how to use an SSB receiver or the rest, I don't have the kit, and I definitely want satellite comms for SOS situations, the major advantage being any moderate idiot crewmember can use it.

Thanks.

One last interruption.... there's next to no learning curve turn it on, radio prob about hundred quid maybe. then you have a backup for weather offshore should the sat pack up or you run out of data. Close to a no brainer for ocean passages.
Back to phones now

 

[Roberto]

I kind of doubt he is ending up with an actual grib formatted file - a gridded binary file - that can be loaded into grib viewers and easily used for navigation.

in principle one can create a grib file from text, but it is not a trivial undertaking.

one would almost certainly end up using one of a few programs run from the windows command line - wgrib, or wgrib2. I have used both - I went to school with the developer!

also - even a small grib obtained over Iridium would probably require 100's of texts or more...

No no they are not grib files in a traditional way, they are a cluster of spot forecasts extracted from the grib db.
The procedure is written here (French language). Too geeky for me, from what I understand he creates a coded SMS with the request, it is sent via IR to a standalone land mobile phone with another application running, the land phone queries the forecast, re-encodes the results and sends them back to the boat via SMS
The visualised final result would appear like this, request for several variables, two forecast horizons, eight points around the boat.
Mikeno - Réception météo par SMS - v2

 

[alexincornwall]

We use an InReach Mini and link it to a mobile phone with the Earthmate app. The whole system works very well, just a shame you’re stuck with the Garmin weather reports rather than being able to download gribs.

 

[Laser310]

No no they are not grib files in a traditional way, they are a cluster of spot forecasts extracted from the grib db.

there is a huge advantage to having the actual grib - you can use any one of several excellent programs for the visual display of grib formatted data

like i said - i have an InReach.., in addition to a 9555, and Go

The InReach is a great device.., but is not a good tool for the task of getting weather forecasts at sea. I would even say that in the present day, the captain's duty of care to the crew extends beyond the abilities of that device.

Consider a medical emergency in the middle of the ocean - would you rather be texting with a physician.., or talking to a physician?

I have been in that situation, and talking is better...

 

[geem]

It is inconceivable that I would ever approach a crossing that way.

I want to take responsibility for weather and navigation myself, and do not want to farm it out to anyone else.

Also.., in races it's not allowed...

It is inconceivable that I would ever approach a crossing that way.

I want to take responsibility for weather and navigation myself, and do not want to farm it out to anyone else.

Also.., in races it's not allowed...

Thats fine but 100s of boats cross each year using weather routers that do exactly the same. When you are sailing short handed and a little sleep deprived you may not be in the best place to make sound judgements. The alternative is you ask for the weather information and decide for yourself. The reality is that decisions are based on something in between. For example, friend says slow down to avoid 40+ knots. You ask how long will the 40+ knot conditions last for? Answer is only about 6 hrs. We suggest we will just press on as its from behind and we are happy to ride it out. Its not as simple as turn left. Ok I will?

 

[Roberto]

medical

I have been in that situation, and talking is better...

We too, I had the Isatphone but preferred to contact CIRM via email: I sent two text pages with detailed medical data, available drugs, etc, but of course I might have done that by phone (better not look at the bill afterwards)

Another factor (ouside the English speaking world) to keep in mind re technical communication means are language difficulties: a few years ago an OVNI with Argentinian crew was stranded during an attempt at the NW passage, they could not understand each other by phone with the Canadian authorities so they sent their position via SMS, digits much less likely to cause confusion compared with "thirteen-thirty, fifty/fifteen", let alone cases when both caller and called are not English mothertongue.

 

[Roberto]

The advantage of getting them with the sat phone, is that you can get them on _your_ schedule - whenever you want them.., and you do not have to worry about the broadcast schedule.

Just out of interest, there is also this little receiver which does the same thing
WIBE
you may configure it to receive and save whatever you want (charts DWD Boston NwOrl Halifax etc), DWD RTTY, navtex etc), it does all the job (at 50-100mA, not bad) you then connect the PC and read all the saved data whenever you want.
It's pricey I just found a second-hand one, it will hopefully allow to get the early morning Boston +24h chart I missed so many times by oversleeping.

 

[RJJ]

yes- redport and similar

I have the first generation and haven't looked into it since then.

to be honest, even when i use the handset, i rarely use the optimizer. the optimizer offers 2 things - a firewall, and wifi access to the phone. a lot of people have trouble setting the phone up for a USB connection to the laptop (do _not_ use the iridium software) and for them the wifi is easy. I know how to install the phone as a modem on the laptop, so i use the USB. I have not had any trouble that required a firewall.., so as i said, i usually don't bother.

anyway, as i mentioned, i am mostly using broadband these days - not iridium.

Sent you a PM. Really appreciate all your help.

 

[Martin_J]

We have an Iridium phone on board (with external antenna).. Remember, a very good quality cable is needed to the antenna because it's a much higher frequency than VHF (and co-ax cable is more lossy the higher the frequency).

For obtaining Gribs while offshore on the Windows NUC PC we did a few things..
1) Connected the Iridium base unit via serial and used the windows built in dialer to initiate the dialup connection.
2) Used a piece of free software to manage firewall rules (I think it was from Binisoft). We didn't want the PC to try to download windows updates or to attempt any type of connection whatsoever in the background whilst dialed up. With the software we could create an 'initial' windows firewall profile, and a second 'restricted/iridium' profile that we configured to only permit the one email app to be able to talk out. One click then to switch between the two when leaving to go offshore or when getting back to land.
3) Created a handful of gmail email addresses just for this purpose.. We thought if the first got spammed whilst offshore we'd move onto the next email address. Didn't want to receive any junk whilst dialled up.
4) Used a lightweight email application that we'd configured to the first email account i.e. not via a web browser.
5) Pre-prepared a single email to gmngrib@globalmarinenet.net with a subject line something like
51N:6W:500 6day
each time we wanted a Grib.
6) Did the dial up, pressed send and dropped the call.
7) Two minutes later, did another dial up and received the Grib file then dropped the call.
Steps 5-7 took all of about five minutes each time.. We did consider compression tools or other email providers etc but didn't want to spend the money on either.. We just buy perhaps 75 mins airtime when needed and it can be used for either data or voice.

The subject line of the email defines what you get in the grib. The example above gives a 6 day grib, for 500 miles around the specified position. Testing it just now, the grib came back immediately and was only about 5KB in size.
Send an email to that address with a blank subject line and you will receive instructions showing all the other options.
There's an option that will request a grib every day for example - but we didn't mind a sending a quick email requesting one whenever needed.

One thing - test it all beforehand..

*** Just edited this to swap steps 3 and 4 around ***

 

[RJJ]

We have an Iridium phone on board (with external antenna).. Remember, a very good quality cable is needed to the antenna because it's a much higher frequency than VHF (and co-ax cable is more lossy the higher the frequency).

For obtaining Gribs while offshore on the Windows NUC PC we did a few things..
1) Connected the Iridium base unit via serial and used the windows built in dialer to initiate the dialup connection.
2) Used a piece of free software to manage firewall rules (I think it was from Binisoft). We didn't want the PC to try to download windows updates or to attempt any type of connection whatsoever in the background whilst dialed up. With the software we could create an 'initial' windows firewall profile, and a second 'restricted/iridium' profile that we configured to only permit the one email app to be able to talk out. One click then to switch between the two when leaving to go offshore or when getting back to land.
3) Created a handful of gmail email addresses just for this purpose.. We thought if the first got spammed whilst offshore we'd move onto the next email address. Didn't want to receive any junk whilst dialled up.
4) Used a lightweight email application that we'd configured to the first email account i.e. not via a web browser.
5) Pre-prepared a single email to gmngrib@globalmarinenet.net with a subject line something like
51N:6W:500 6day
each time we wanted a Grib.
6) Did the dial up, pressed send and dropped the call.
7) Two minutes later, did another dial up and received the Grib file then dropped the call.
Steps 5-7 took all of about five minutes each time.. We did consider compression tools or other email providers etc but didn't want to spend the money on either.. We just buy perhaps 75 mins airtime when needed and it can be used for either data or voice.

The subject line of the email defines what you get in the grib. The example above gives a 6 day grib, for 500 miles around the specified position. Testing it just now, the grib came back immediately and was only about 5KB in size.
Send an email to that address with a blank subject line and you will receive instructions showing all the other options.
There's an option that will request a grib every day for example - but we didn't mind a sending a quick email requesting one whenever needed.

One thing - test it all beforehand..

*** Just edited this to swap steps 3 and 4 around ***

Thanks v much. That's what I'm leaning towards.

So free firewall and grib-only and you get away with around 5 minutes/day? Not too bad.

 

[roaringgirl]

Satphone data communication has to get all the data for a file during one connection, inReach and IridiumGO support resumable downloads. This is an enormous difference - I spent hours trying to download grib files via email using our satphone with this year's ARC. I now have an inReach and will proba ly get an iridiumGO before crossing the Pacific.

 

[Star-Lord]

This is the iridium set up with gribs. Never let me down in over 5 years. Simple to use. Receive and send texts and calls instantly. Request for 5 day gribs arrive in 5 mins. And its waterproof so if you must you take it out of the dock and it can go in liferaft.
Important to use onsatmail and viewfax for idiot proof results. If crossing Atlantic or Pacific I would use this setup and have texts sent by a weather router if sailing near hurricane season or crossing from Antigua to Azores for example as a back up. This computer is only ever used with the iridium. Never used for any other purpose.