Shopping list wanted for communications 200m out at sea.

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cliffdale

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I have very little knowledge in this area. I could do with a list of things to buy to do this.

When 200+ miles away from land I would like to:-
Send text from laptop
Down load grib weather files.

Write to this site!!!

Desirable, video link to home in UK.

The trip will be crossing Biscay and into Med.

Out to the Azores then to Canaries.

A no nonsense, you need this ....this and this to do it the most economical way.

Usage perhaps 2 weather forecasts per day and up to 10 text messages.

Probably 12 weeks to canaries but if everything goes well, may be the Atlantic circuit.

Cliff

Really appreciate your help with this.

Thanks
 
You may want to add a budget guideline. For unlimited money you can have your boat just as connected as your house!
 
I don't think you'll be able to do any of those things on a normal boat owner's budget.

Shortwave radio or SSB and satellite phone is about it once you get out of cellphone range as far as I know-

Of course I might be wrong - big ships do it, I suppose they must have some kind of satellite uplink - it'll be interesting to see how this develops.
 
Short wave radio definitely out! I have little time to fit the boat out and also take a course for a licence.

I was thinking along the lines of Iridium sat phone linked to computer.

There may be a dongle i can buy to to enable lappy to connect to internet via satellite??

This is where I need help
 
for video calling over satellite, add a couple of zeros to your budget..... and make it monthly...

You could have 4kbs internet for text email for around £3500 and an annual couple of hundred quid with SSB... or really basic internet over sat for a few hundred a month if you keep your usage low... email and gribs for a fair bit less per month...
 
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I think what OP is looking for is a satellite phone that will plug into his pc and act as a modem.

His basic requirements are sending and receiving small amounts of text.

Someone will be along shortly to tell you how silly it is to head off into the unknown without a 2 way radio with sufficient range (and I'd agree with them but it's your boat!).

I don't have any personal experience so I'll shut up; but I am interested so I'll keep watching.

Good luck and fair winds!
 
How much video?

Iridium OpenPort is about £10 per MB.

If your sending lots of HD, it's cheaper to put your own satellites in orbit.
 
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Video is desirable but not essential. If it adds a lot to budget the it will not be used. I'm just thinking of using the web cam on lappy.

Sat phone linked to lappy for down loads of weather and to send / receive text messages looks like the way forward.

But I'm not sure how to do it.
 
cliffdale said:
Video is desirable but not essential. If it adds a lot to budget the it will not be used. I'm just thinking of using the web cam on lappy.

Sat phone linked to lappy for down loads of weather and to send / receive text messages looks like the way forward.

But I'm not sure how to do it.
Click to expand...

It might be worth speaking to Mail-A-Sail http://www.mailasail.com/ for some information. No links just very happy with previous help & support.

Chris
 
Rent a satellite phone and blow the budget on your data fees. ( wont take long )

Posting to this site implies a web link and that will incur downloads of the existing pages. Even that will involve several meg of data each time you interact with the site.

Video, start shelling out wads.

Weatherfax - a shortwave receiver
'I'm here and i'm ok' type one way messages/updates to home - get a spot tracker/spot messenger.

The technology is simply not mainstream yet, it can be done but your budget is an order of magnitude short
 
Another way to do it is this:

Buy a cell phone that will act as a wifi hotspot and a GSM ariel to vastly increase its range and 3g capability, then also buy cheap SIM cards for France, Spain, Canaries, Greece, Italy etc. Use the cell phone with the appropriate SIM card in for the country you are anchored off/in a marina. This will be waaaaaaaaaay cheaper than sat phone and SSB and give you proper internet connectivity. Obviously it won't work more than 10 miles from land but I guess you'll be sailing then and can take all the video you like and upload it later. £200 will get you good second hand cell phone and an ariel, spend the rest on data for you local country SIMs.
 
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Iridium satphone is fine for text messages, plain text e-mails and downloading GRIB files. No use at all for video I'm afraid.

A new Iridium phone will cost around £800, then you will need to purchase airtime. £200 will probably get you a SIM with two hours or so airtime on it.

- W
 
When I did my Atlantic trip about 12 years ago, I was aware that it was probably the last time I'd ever be out of range of phones etc for more than a few hours.
I think that was partly the point of it.
Ironically, the trip was a holiday after working on the design of satellite news-gathering terminals.
 
Lazy Kipper said:
Another way to do it is this:

Buy a cell phone that will act as a wifi hotspot and a GSM ariel to vastly increase its range and 3g capability, then also buy cheap SIM cards for France, Spain, Canaries, Greece, Italy etc. Use the cell phone with the appropriate SIM card in for the country you are anchored off/in a marina. This will be waaaaaaaaaay cheaper than sat phone and SSB and give you proper internet connectivity. Obviously it won't work more than 10 miles from land but I guess you'll be sailing then and can take all the video you like and upload it later. £200 will get you good second hand cell phone and an ariel, spend the rest on data for you local country SIMs.
Click to expand...

The fine would be way over his budget though, when he got caught with it.
 
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