Heckler
Well-Known Member
Discuss!
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SSB or Sat Phone or Sat Communicator
- Thread starter Heckler
- Start date
Wandering Star
Well-Known Member
What thoughts do you have of your own and then we can discuss why you're wrong!
snowleopard
Well-Known Member
How do you make an All Ships call on a satphone?
Heckler
Well-Known Member
Oh, ok then!
SSB, was that cutting edge in the mid 70s we used it to communicate from Angola to Florida with our daily drilling reports. Yotties used it but the silly rules and regs make peeps use it "illegaly" Then Immarsat appeared, the SSBs started to gather dust. Now I have A Delorme Communicator, costs me £30 a month to keep in contact when I am passage making?
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Heckler
Well-Known Member
Why would I want to? Get in trouble, push the button, operator contacts Falmouth and they do the biz, or I contact one of my mates on passage or ashore anywhere in the world!
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prv
Well-Known Member
If I was fitting out a boat for liveaboard cruising, I would want to install HF radio (both Ham and Marine). However, that's because it seems like an intriguing hobby in its own right, and because the idea of HF cruiser nets appeals to me (possibly the reality might not!).
If I just wanted to phone home or be able to call for help, the cost of a good HF installation buys an awful lot of satphone minutes!
Pete
If I just wanted to phone home or be able to call for help, the cost of a good HF installation buys an awful lot of satphone minutes!
Pete
Heckler
Well-Known Member
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My thoughts as well, I like "playing" but the thought of going thru all the bollox to get a full sized licence? Forget it!
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Monique
Well-Known Member
K
+1 with Pactor 4 modem for data.
I also have a Delorme in Reach satellite tracker and messaging unit.
+1 with Pactor 4 modem for data.
I also have a Delorme in Reach satellite tracker and messaging unit.
Heckler
Well-Known Member
Mine worked good, I only paid for 40 messages and thought I would pay the 50 cents for each extra message. Anyway got home after the trip and find out that tbey only charged us the monthly rate. Excellent! I have suspended/cancelled until the next big trip. All in all I found it superb, chatting to Geem and my mates back home, v re assuring!
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GHA
Well-Known Member
Not actually that bad and you learn masses.
One problem with sat phones long distance sailing is the line rental cost, currently $49 a month from mailasail. Either that or let the sim expire and many months or years later get a new one for the next big passage, an overnight delivery which can actually mean being stuck for weeks in a grubby port with daily trips to every office on the island you can think of where it might turn up. And hope the customs guy is in a good mood that day.
Self sufficiency has a lot going for it
Jamesuk
Well-Known Member
SAT phone for sure, set off your EPIRB job done.
SSB who the hell listens!! Get through to 999 in Falmouth speak directly with a professional to get them to use everything at their disposal to help you out.
If you have the money get everything.
SSB who the hell listens!! Get through to 999 in Falmouth speak directly with a professional to get them to use everything at their disposal to help you out.
If you have the money get everything.
Birdseye
Well-Known Member
Ham radio operator. Been licenced for many many years. I would not rely on SSB for emergencies except outside the category C areas where satellites dont work. Its simply not that reliable and the ground stations that are listening get fewer every year. In addition you cant call someone who is not expecting a call - everything has to be pre-arranged. So really it comes down to whether you want a serious piece of comms kit that is useable including in emergency or whether you want something thats free.
And yes I do have SSB on board and no I dont have a sat phone. The reason is simple - I dont go outside cate A areas covered by VHF and I use the SSB for a regular schedule with other ( non sailing) hams
jerrytug
N/A
Not arguing, but I would add that Iridium satellite phones have pole-to-pole coverage, unlike some other satellite constellations.
KellysEye
Well-Known Member
It depends what type of sailing you do. SSB is the lifeblood of long distance cruising, there are ocean nets, marina nets, weather nets, lots of boat to boat contact after all the nets and in the Caribbean the Safety and Security net. Ours was an Icom that had both ham and marine frequencies, the weather nets there are on ham. We did have a Satphone and kept it charged but never had a time contract because emergency calls are free, it was kept in the grab bag.
Birdseye
Well-Known Member
Interesting. I was going from the GMDSS "rules" which assume no sat coms in the far north and south. How do you get geo stationary satellites over the poles?
Neil_Y
Well-Known Member
For me Just an EPIRB in case it goes badly wrong.
SSB nice to keep in touch with other sailors scheduling your own nets for ocean passages, an SSB receiver quite handy for weather fax charts.
SSB nice to keep in touch with other sailors scheduling your own nets for ocean passages, an SSB receiver quite handy for weather fax charts.
Martin_J
Well-Known Member
The 66 live Iridium satellites travel in orbits taking them over the poles - You therefore get better coverage towards the poles with Iridium since the closer you get to the poles, the more satellites you will have in view at any one time ...
https://www.iridium.com/About/IridiumGlobalNetwork/SatelliteConstellation.aspx
Inmarsat have ten geosynchonous sateillites (above the equator) that give better coverage in the equatorial region but no coverage at the poles..
I have both Satellite phone and SSB on board.. They complement each other.
Martin_J
Well-Known Member
Don't all the GMDSS equipped ships and shore stations listen..? You just need a transceiver with HF DSC to set their on board alert off..
Something like this for example.. . http://www.icomuk.co.uk/IC-M802%20/HF-SSB_Marine_Radio
ip485
Well-Known Member
Me to.
I am looking forward to seeing how they do compliment each other.
From my limited expereince so far the Sat. phone is superb in providing totally reliable and universal communications. I am lucky in having the Fleet Broadband system so whereas in the past I had found hand held 'phones drop out and the data rates are painfully slow wiith the Fleet system I am totally impressed that it has yet to ever drop out and the data rates are far quicker than I ever expected. In fact I am still surrpised because having simulated the data rates on a PC in reality the page load rate seems much quicker (maybe down to all the data compression software I am running as well). So this means that if you need anything over the internet (weather in particular) it provides a "totally" reliable and fast service.
On the other hand it is all at a price and for me this is partly where the Icom steps in. Then there is the simple pleasure of being able to have a "chat" with others - and there are some very good nets arounds, although I have found very little worthwhile in our part of the world.
If it were one or the other for me I would opt for the sat phone simply because as much as I believe in being self reliant, there are times on long passage when it is useful to be forewarned about the weather and be able to say in touch with family. While this is "sort of" possible with the Icom, and being very happily techy as well, there are times it is just far simpler to select data connection, hit the load Grib file, and 3 seconds later there it is!!!
Jamesuk
Well-Known Member
Like I said, have everything. In an emergency, I would like to have a direct line to the UK (today this is much cheaper) and speak to someone who is English and a trained professional. Falmouth CG on Speed dial.
SSB is excellent if you have a network. One or the other, it would always be a Sat phone. Not to mention the power requried to run an SSB compared to a sat phone.
Buy an SSB on eBay for £300 and install it. join Yachtfunk.com they have a radio net every morning for the ARC at 0800 or 0815 UTC I think.
Cheers
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