Satphones

[mushypea]

Does anyone have any experience of affordable satphones? We are after one to work in the remoter bits of the West Coast of Scotland, say not more than once a week for an SMS or a few minutes of voice call, for about 5 months a year.

There was a stand at LBS offering one for £165 and we are kicking ourselves for not getting it then. There seem to be a few around the £500 mark at the moment, but which network to choose? It would be really useful to hear from anyone who has one on board, or any of the other networks, as it's not a sum of money we'd want to spend again should it not be the right thing for us.

Thanks for any pointers.

 

[ccscott49]

They are still too expensive, it's not just buying them, it's the set up cost and call charges. I would not think of one until the prices have fallen dramatically. For you if you go that way, Thurya is probably the cheapest.

 

[Magnum]

Just bought a Thuraya Hughes 7101 from these people - http://www.satcomgroup.com/

They have an offer on at the moment at £370 +VAT inc Super Sim. Call charges are as low as you'll find anywhere at about $1 a minute.

 

[alanhanson]

think hard about coverage. if it is just scotland then the thuraya will be fine however if you want true world wide you only have one option iridium.
the cost od the iridium second hand is about the same as the thuraya new.but the call charges seeam to be more expensive
also some of the older phones will not do text.Remeber to check the minimum top up if you go for pay as you go as these have increased. also ask how long the top up will last as they are time sensitive.
ebay always has a regular supply

 

[mushypea]

That was the deal that seemed best of the ones I'd seen, so it's good to hear someone else thought so too. It would only be for Scotland. If there's only satellite in range I wonder if anchoring close to a hill will stop us getting a signal one day. Have you used it yet?

It is expensive for the amount of use it will get but there's no price on peace of mind really. Ironically it's partly the much improved mobile coverage that makes being out of contact for more than 24 hours seem very frustrating!

 

[Magnum]

Not used it yet, except for standing in the middle of the garden. Reception does not seem fantastic although there are lots of trees around me.

I'm using mine in the med where I believe reception is better although looking at this map you should be fine.

 

[oldvarnish]

I only have experience of Iridium via a Motorola handset, and while voice calls are expensive 160 characters of text can be sent free from their website to any Iridium phone. Text from Iridium phone to iridium phone is also free. I've just done a long voyage and used email - not free but cheaper than voice

 

[snowleopard]

I think I'm right in saying that Thuraya, like Inmarsat, uses geostationary satellites. These have to be placed in a band 23500 miles directly above the equator so anywhere on the north slope of a hill has a potential problem. That means that in Scotland if there is a hill more than 30° above the southern horizon, coverage will be affected.

Iridium is like GPS, it uses a constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites so there should always be one or more above your horizon.

The moral of the tale is - be sure to check that you'll get coverage where you need it. Mistakes are expensive!

 

[mushypea]

It is true that Thuraya has a geostationary satellite, in this case above Ethiopia. It is thus rather low on the horizon from Scotland but being so much cheaper than Iridium and having a PAYG tariff (unlike Globalstar), we have taken the plunge anyway.

We accept that we may have to climb hills, row out towards the mouth of the anchorage or phone before we get there but those are all things we have to do from time to time to get mobile reception. It's more of a fallback for reporting in each night (skippered charter) than something for chatting with.

If it turns out to be impractical then SatCom say they do a buy-back scheme, not that we'd expect to get it all back, and I know a few folk who do fieldwork in remote bits of Europe and North Africa...

Anyway, we'll try it out and report back. Thanks for comments, which were all useful.

By the way, have people tried Google Earth? Lots of fun if you have a fast internet connection.