Satphone - reporting back

M

mushypea

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www.longbow-cruising.co.uk
Thanks to those who gave some thoughts a few weeks ago re satphones. In case anyone is interested, here is how it turned out.

We got a Thuraya phone on pay as you go from Satcom (special offer: here) and they were very helpful and quick. The phone, nearly an hour's talk time, a car charger and next morning delivery was less than £500 inc VAT.

We took it off to the west coast of Scotland and so far it has worked everywhere that Longbow has been where there is no mobile coverage (at least not O2/Vodafone/Orange). This includes
<ul type="square">[*]Loch Torridon (the bay near Alligin Shuas, most NW'ly of the anchorages in Upper Loch Torridon)
[*]Drombuie (SW side of loch)
[*]Loch Scavaig
[*]West Loch Tarbert (Jura)
[/list]
In all of these it worked fine on the boat, even with some reception below deck, which really surprised me given that it's looking for a single geostationary satellite fairly low on the horizon.

I can only report what we found - so this isn't a blanket recommendation - but we were pretty impressed with how easy it was to use and how well it performed even amid mountains. We could send and receive text messages too. Being in touch with home everywhere (so far..) is making a big difference as Longbow has been away a lot this season.

Sorry if that's more detail than anyone wanted but thought it might possibly be of interest to someone, especially as YM/Satcom are offering one as a prize this month!
 
I thought the whole point of a satellite phone was that it worked everywhere you could see the sky. I cannot comprehend why you seem to be surprised / delighted that it worked. If it didn't work in (eg) Loch Torridon then we would have to assume some X-Files factor was at work.

What are the call charges once the free 60 mins are used up?

- Nick
 
That's certainly the principle. If it was Iridium, with lots of satellites, I would have expected nothing less than complete coverage, but an online calculator told me that from W.Scotland the Thuraya satellite is only 10 degrees above the SE horizon. If you're anchored on the NW side of a mountain there's a fair chance you can't see the right bit of sky. I also didn't know how directionally-sensitive a small handheld phone was going to be, i.e. would sustaining a call be a bit of an art form as the boat swung about?

The SIM came with 10 free minutes and 100 free texts. Top-up cards come in 39, 80 and 160 units (=US $), with satphone-to-UK calls at 0.87 units per minute. We bought a 39 unit card; subsequent ones would cost about £28. I thus make the call charges about 60p / minute. Not cheap but comparable to mobile phone roaming I guess.

Asking both the suppliers and forumites (thread) got a degree of reservation about whether it would always work from every anchorage, hence our surprise/relief.
 
Serious question: why do you need the satphone? Have you a big family you really need to keep in contact with? I ask because I am the opposite - no big family to k.i.c.w, and prefer mobile to stay in a cupboard and never be heard.

Is it an alternative to an EPIRB, I believe these are no good at the higher latitudes?
 
Perfectly sensible question! This is a skippered charter boat and is away week after week. This season has been particularly busy - which is good, of course - so for weeks at a time Skipper might only see Mrs Skipper at the weekends.

Since it's in the nature of sailing that from time to time things will break or go wrong, and partly because it's a commercial operation, the family (me included) are much happier with regular updates. He in turn is much happier with some nice words from home to keep him going.

The other week there were about 48 hours out of mobile range and this was felt to be too long for peace of mind. I then took some friends along for a cruise so got the opportunity to set it up and test it out.

I don't know much about EPIRB effectiveness but personally I would think it would be a nice thing to have at hand in an emergency. It has a built-in GPS so a position can be sent by text message pretty easily.

Hope that explains a bit. It's certainly not a case of wanting a technogadget for the sake of it or making gratuitous "I'M ON THE BOAT" calls.
 
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