I'm looking for a reasonably priced satellite/internet option. I'm
seeing a lot of Iridium equipment on EBAY for $1500 or less. Has
anyone had experience enough with Iridium to know what the best
equipment choices are? Is there a better way for less than $3000
USD?

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
I'm looking for a reasonably priced satellite/internet option. I'm
seeing a lot of Iridium equipment on EBAY for $1500 or less. Has
anyone had experience enough with Iridium to know what the best
equipment choices are? Is there a better way for less than $3000
USD?

A friend of mine who recently installed such equipment for use on a trip
from Scotland to the Med. came to the conclusion that it was a complete
waste of money.

The periods when communication was available were so far-spaced and short in
duration that he only used the equipment once, and was unable to hear the
receiver's voice. I tried to contact him twice, without success.

I am not aware who the supplier was, so maybe Iridium are OK, but is it
really worth it?

Im sitting on a 180 foot boat. The company fleet uses Caprock for
internet/phone/fax as do many othters in the bayou. We also have an
irrridium phone as a back up and is checked weekly. It seem to pass
the test.
bob

On Thu, 1 Oct 2009 05:54:39 -0700 (PDT), Bob
wrote:

Im sitting on a 180 foot boat. The company fleet uses Caprock for
internet/phone/fax as do many othters in the bayou. We also have an
irrridium phone as a back up and is checked weekly. It seem to pass
the test.

Thanks. Do you know which model of Iridium phone that they use?

On Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:58:17 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Thu, 1 Oct 2009 05:54:39 -0700 (PDT), Bob
wrote:

Im sitting on a 180 foot boat. The company fleet uses Caprock for
internet/phone/fax as do many othters in the bayou. We also have an
irrridium phone as a back up and is checked weekly. It seem to pass
the test.

Thanks. Do you know which model of Iridium phone that they use?

A friend who lives in the Philippines looked into various options of
communication from his boat to shore while off shore and concluded
that starting from a bare boat that Iridum was the cheapest -
considered H.F SSB, modems and all the rest.

He installed an Iridum phone and some sort of connection to his
computer and sent daily position reports via e-mail during a recent
trip from Singapore to the Philippines. His only complaint was people
who sent back jokes and photos :-)

I do not know the make and model of his gear but will e-mail him and
ask if you wish.

Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)

On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:53:29 +0700, Bruce In Bangkok
wrote:

I do not know the make and model of his gear but will e-mail him and
ask if you wish.

Thanks, I'd appreciate that.

On Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:10:15 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:53:29 +0700, Bruce In Bangkok
wrote:

I do not know the make and model of his gear but will e-mail him and
ask if you wish.

Thanks, I'd appreciate that.

Will let you know details when I get an answer from the Phillippines -
they just got through one typhoon and I think another is on the way.
Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)

On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:17:00 +0700, Bruce In Bangkok
wrote:

On Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:10:15 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:53:29 +0700, Bruce In Bangkok
wrote:

I do not know the make and model of his gear but will e-mail him and
ask if you wish.

Thanks, I'd appreciate that.

Will let you know details when I get an answer from the Phillippines -
they just got through one typhoon and I think another is on the way.
Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)


Just received the following from my mate in the Philippines:

Just finished a 4 day trip across the Sulu Sea to Puerto Princessa. A
fairly decent trip. Now on a mooring and will stay here for a week or
three. Lot's of rain these days.

I have a Motorola 9505A hand phone with a prepaid sim card (at about
USD$600+ for 500 minutes that will expire after one year) and a small
modem with a 9 pin RS232 connection. I bought all that from SingTel in
Singapore but one can buy the same setup from a host of outfits on the
net. There is a newer replacement phone for the 9505A but they never
changed the modem to USB. I use a simple USB/Serial cross-over. You
can use the accompanying software that Iridium gives out with the
phone but I prefer using SailMail (at USD$250 per year) because it is
so reliable and cuts down on failed connections, etc. that make cost
add up. That probably pays for itself. I once tried out MailaSail but
found it really user-unfriendly. By the way, if you don't plan to use
an HF radio with SailMail and tell them that you will be using a
satellite phone, then they don't require you to have a legal call
sign. This piece of equipment is good for email communication and one
can then set up a 3rd party email weather forecast or just get weather
forecasts from SailMail.

Other than all that, life aint too bad.

Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)

On Sat, 03 Oct 2009 18:53:54 +0700, Bruce In Bangkok
wrote:

Just received the following from my mate in the Philippines:

Just finished a 4 day trip across the Sulu Sea to Puerto Princessa. A
fairly decent trip. Now on a mooring and will stay here for a week or
three. Lot's of rain these days.

I have a Motorola 9505A hand phone with a prepaid sim card (at about
USD$600+ for 500 minutes that will expire after one year) and a small
modem with a 9 pin RS232 connection. I bought all that from SingTel in
Singapore but one can buy the same setup from a host of outfits on the
net. There is a newer replacement phone for the 9505A but they never
changed the modem to USB. I use a simple USB/Serial cross-over. You
can use the accompanying software that Iridium gives out with the
phone but I prefer using SailMail (at USD$250 per year) because it is
so reliable and cuts down on failed connections, etc. that make cost
add up. That probably pays for itself. I once tried out MailaSail but
found it really user-unfriendly. By the way, if you don't plan to use
an HF radio with SailMail and tell them that you will be using a
satellite phone, then they don't require you to have a legal call
sign. This piece of equipment is good for email communication and one
can then set up a 3rd party email weather forecast or just get weather
forecasts from SailMail.

Good information, thanks again.

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
I'm looking for a reasonably priced satellite/internet option. I'm
seeing a lot of Iridium equipment on EBAY for $1500 or less. Has
anyone had experience enough with Iridium to know what the best
equipment choices are? Is there a better way for less than $3000
USD?

As some have mentioned, depending on your cruising grounds regular cellphone
and WiFi coverage may be good enough.

If you will be crossing oceans, or otherwise going where these options
aren't available, then Iridium seems to be the best alternative. You will
need a satphone, airtime (usually pre-purchased in blocks of 500 minutes or
less -- be careful, these expire), and you will want an ISP that provides a
data connection optimized for the relatively slow speed, long latency, and
occasional disconnects of a satphone link. I've been using the "XGate"
product from Global Marine Networks
(http://www.globalmarinenet.net/xgate.php) for a number of years now, and am
quite happy with it. There are other data service providers which may be
very good, but I don't think you will go wrong with GMN.

Of course, there's still SSB and SailMail (or amateur radio Winlink) for
at-sea email. Depending on your budget and use, SSB may be preferable to
Satphone, or the other way around. There are significant benefrts to each
system.

I have an older Iridium satphone, but the newest one looks really nice, and
I understand that the initial interface bugs have been taken care of. I
strongly recommend installing an external antenna for the satphone. Ours is
clamped to the stern rail and the coaxial cable is run to the navstation.