I am sailing transatlantic from the Canary Islands this December and wonder what would be the best way to get email during the crossing. We have made the passage 4 times before but this time want to have access to email especially for grib files/weather info.
We have an Icom 802 but not a packet modem and not sure I want to deal with the finicky nature of that.
Any other suggestions?
Paul Shard
SV Distant Shores II - Almeria Spain
www.distantshores.ca
In my experience a packet modem is the same level of finicky as an Iridium modem, especially for weather/GRIB data.
If you've already gone to the expense of installing an SSB I think the packet modem is the way for your proposed usage.
There was an article in Yachting Monthly 2009-02 titled "A link to land on the lonely ocean" comparing the options satellite phone, SSB with Pactor and both by interviewing the ARC 2008 participants. As always, there were proponents of all three options.
When traveling in an large group such as the ARC fleet, there will likely be problems with too few shore stations for the tightly packed fleet, all using the same propagation prediction software to select the same best stations to use coupled with novice users who fail to check availability of a frequency, start transmitting and interrupt someone else's transmission. I imagine this to be something like an ethernet network approaching full load and then breaking down from all the retransmits.
An important question is whether you are willing to go without a satellite phone. I hope to do a similar same trip next year and believe that I need a satellite phone anyway for medical and other emergencies. So I will invest additional money for a docking station and external antenna for the sat phone and use that for email. If I can swing it, I will get a SSB radio but without a Pactor modem for reasons of cost.
But this is just my opinion and the cost of docking station and external antenna is close to the cost of a Pactor modem.
If going the Pactor route you will need an excellent SSB installation with a perfectly good ground. Look at the Yachtfunk.com ground paint instead of a multitude of ground plates external to the hull. A single external ground plate won't do it for email.
Hi
We have no experience with Sat phone or Iridium type equipment.
We have used Pactor for years, Pacific, Indian Oceans and Med. It does have a high initial learning curve and requires a robust grounding system but for our budget it works very well for email communication and Grib WX.
I have a very old Kenwood HAM radio, works just fine and a SCS PTC-IIe upgraded to Pactor 3. Airmail and Sailmail are a great package. If you are so licensed the HAM network bypasses the occasion overloading of Sailmail but then again that is why we don't do rallies..
We are currently onboard, Lefkas GR. If you need any suggestion drop us a line.
Tom S/Y HALFMOON