Can I ditch my SSB radio for an Sat Phone type Iridium Go?

[Streetcar]

I wouldn't ditch SSB if you still want to get forecaster interpreted synoptics and sat images.

I've found Iridium is good enough for grib files for most cruising situations (if you can afford it). BUT iridium is no good for getting the data intensive downloads for synoptics - and especially satellite imagery. These are best received through weatherfax via SSB.

Having said that I would consider ditching the SSB (and the transmit facility) if I got a good quality weatherfax receiver instead. I am not really interested in chatting (that's why I go to sea) so I wouldn't miss the transmit function.

I also think that a good sat phone (like the iridium extreme) is as good as, or maybe better than, any epirb or ssb in most types of emergency.

[Leyna]

We have done our fair share of long distance sailing. An iridium go is the way to go. We used it to call our families mid Atlantic, sms, email. With a package through PredictWind we could download weather, do weather routing and our families and friends could follow our track in real time. It serves as an extra gps, it has emergency functions almost like a Epirb and I had a close friend who got an sms daily with our position.

What else do you need? We have an unlimited data package with , I think, 150 min call time for something like $140 per month which you can cancel at any point. We pay in a different currency so do not crucify me for a few dollars .

I would never invest in an SSB radio if I can buy an iridium go at a way lower price.

[pbmaise]

One misconception about an SSB is it won't work if you are demasted. I purchased my vessel when it was already demasted and the previous owners simply laid a makeshift antenna horizontal on the deck. Granted the deck was not steel.

Reception was surprisingly very good.

However, this said you would need the wherewithal to jury rig an antenna like this right when you may be least able to do so.

Therefore, I am not a fan of an SSB that is part of a back stay or between main and mizzen masts. Standalone antenna are likely to survive a demasting event.

[TedElixirNZ]

I have recently sailed from Greece to New Zealand by way of the Panama Canal. I only have iridium go as to put SSB in was going to be too expensive and too limiting. I found that the ability to have unlimited text messaging was invaluable as I kept contact with never less than 50 texts a day. I found however that text messages are stored on the SIM so after a while the text messages filled the SIM up and it stopped working. I could not work out what it was and it was only through Predictwind NZ that we finally tracked down the problem and resolved it by putting in a new sim. You can apparently clear old texts from the sim by finding a handheld iridium phone, installing the full SIM therein and then deleting old text messages. Trouble being that we had no access to a handheld in the middle of the Pacific. We ended up replacing the sim and all was operational then. So always keep a spare SIM with your iridium go. I think that to have SSB would have been nice from a social point of view keeping in touch with other cruisers, however, we did find that most these days have iridium so we crossed oceans keeping in touch daily with others that we had met at various anchorages enroute. SSB, by the way, has a direct drain on your battery bank that could see you stuff up a battery supply far from anywhere that you can get a replacement. Such would not be good if it was your only means of communication. Ted

[Marathon1150]

We have and use both, IridiumGo and SSB/HF. If I was doing it again, I would install both again. BTW, the external IridiumGo antenna is essential.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by Paul L

I don't get the focus on emergencies in regard to this question. Both the Iridium and the SSB get used hundreds of times a year for mundane uses. The EPRIB is for emergencies.
If you are planning long distance cruising then access to the SSB nets is really nice. We just finished a 5day passage from Australia to Indonesia. We participated in an informal net of boats doing the same passage. This allowed us to change course to the west and avoid dozens of fishing boats and 3 mile long floating nets that boats ahead of us reported.

Sat connections can end up with fairly steep annual bills and certainly add up over the years.

Surely many of those vessels would have been in vhf range of each other?

As an aside, I'm guessing at 5 days it was a pretty light wind trip?

[Fidsplice]

SSB needs only you, and me, to have a radio. No intermediate sophisticated infrastructure. Also, It is a broadcast. Sat phone is a single cast. SSB call, someone may hear you. Satphone - desperately going through your phone list. Trying to get the boat you passed yesterday.

Heaven forbid, if there is an international war the first target will be communication infrastructure. Radio will be unaffected (given your set hasn’t been cooked).

A PFD is a useless, clumsy piece of kit. Until you fall into the water, which you plan never to do.

Don’t confuse convenient daily use with emergency. Both radio and phone are hugely useful and both contribute to all communication needs. But their venn diagrams do not fully overlap.

Have both.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Cchele

Iridium HO is a piece of crap! Slow speed and dropped/garbled calls! Don’t waste your money.

That is not true, the voice call quality is excellent. You must have a problem with your installation (external antenna?) or the device itself.

[Discovery 15797]

Originally Posted by argonauta1

Oh, HAM is nice but most nets as well as Sailmail are on Maritime Mobile frequencies. HAM stuff is more for the hobbyist

I beg to disagree. The majority of cruising nets are on ham frequencies.

Here is one site that lists some nets to give you an example of ham vs. maritime SSB frequencies.

https://www.boatwatchnet.org/news/ta...arinenets.html

Satellite and ham radio (marine SSB) are 2 very different tools. There is some overlap between the two systems, but each has advantages and disadvantages compared to the other.

As I said previously...if I had to choose one I would go with Iridium Go.
But, since I have a ssb/ham radio aboard...I would not remove it.
I would not install a radio that is marine SSB only.

Is ham dying? Absolutely not. There are very good reasons why it is used by militaries and also in natural disaster emergency responses. The community is certainly smaller than it was...but major companies like Icom and others continue to improve on the technologies. (if you're not a ham operator you might not be aware of recent improvements and changes.)

[Norbert1]

Lots of right things are being said here.

I am cruising around the world since 2004.

Now again thinking about the Panama Canel.

It is first importand to make a decicion, first to think about your cruising plans.

And second the question of your budget.

In 2004 on islands there was max Internet cafes.

Today, you get on many small islands Internet.

If you stay in the caribean you are ok with preapayd iridium go.

What about real cruising? Worldwide.

If your budget is no problem, I would use iridium go.

And the SSB still for communication from boat to boat.

If the Budget is an issue than no cheaper solution then ssb with pactor.

No problem using second hand gear.

As some wise man have allready mentioned propagation is bad now because of sunspot cycle but getting better now.

I have used sailmail and winlink. Sailmail have not many but big stations. Reliable. Winlink has many small not reliable stations. Good to have both.

Sombody mention 2 hours to get weather gribs.

Well, I dont think, thats realistic. First, you have to be care about yor ssb system. Keep your antenna in etc in good condition. Clean your electrical contacts.

Second, if you have only winlink that can be a problem depens where you are.

Third again bad sunspot cycle.

One word to emergency etc.

In my expirience ssb is useless compared to iridium.

Why? Because with telefon you call the direct number of any emergency center.

My conclusion

Having iridium is good

But for the dayly use of weather, e mails and communication in remote areas with a small budget, there is only ssb ( with pactor)the solution.

[CassidyNZ]

Originally Posted by Fidsplice

SSB needs only you, and me, to have a radio.

Iridium Go needs only you and me to have a Go unit. Oh, you mean a satellite constellation? No, there’s no need to own one of those.

SSB call, someone may hear you.

Iridium call, someone will definitely hear you

Satphone - desperately going through your phone list. Trying to get the boat you passed yesterday.

Iridium Go - use the contacts list in your smart phone - nothing less desperate

Heaven forbid, if there is an international war the first target will be communication infrastructure. Radio will be unaffected (given your set hasn’t been cooked).

Wow, that’s some serious paranoia right there. War zones are generally good places to avoid, wars don’t happen overnight. Besides, Iridium is a private (not government) satellite constellation so a war would not knock it out.

A PFD is a useless, clumsy piece of kit. Until you fall into the water, which you plan never to do..

Do you have an Iridium Go? Or just a satellite telephone? Because Iridium Go means you use your smart phone and have access to the same contacts list you would use within a cell network. And Go provides other elements that a satellite phone doesn’t.

[s/v Jedi]

Actually, Iridium is used by US military (Navy but I think also Army) and the constellation must be a primary target during a wide scale conflict. Without the US military, Iridium would not have been here for us today.

[a64pilot]

I’ve been retired for years, but US Military has its own satellites for communication, requiring secure fills and different equipment than Iridium.
Now sometimes of course they will use commercially available communication systems for non secure, non Military operational needs.
We had telephones for example, but telephones weren’t in any battle plan that I’ve ever seen.
Then unless things have changed, many soldiers bought Sat phones for personal use during deployments.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I’ve been retired for years, but US Military has its own satellites for communication, requiring secure fills and different equipment than Iridium.
Now sometimes of course they will use commercially available communication systems for non secure, non Military operational needs.
We had telephones for example, but telephones weren’t in any battle plan that I’ve ever seen.
Then unless things have changed, many soldiers bought Sat phones for personal use during deployments.

The whole Iridium Hawaii land station is dedicated to US defense and 25% of Iridium income is from US Defense. This all happened when Iridium went bankrupt and US military saved them. Hundreds of Google hits, this is just one: https://spacenews.com/iridium-upgrad...eway-pentagon/

[CassidyNZ]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Actually, Iridium is used by US military (Navy but I think also Army) and the constellation must be a primary target during a wide scale conflict. Without the US military, Iridium would not have been here for us today.

The use of Iridium by the US military is simply as a “customer”. AFAIK they have no investment and thus no control over its effectiveness or lack thereof. They also use Thrane (Inmarsat), Hughes and other satcom suppliers. That these systems are vulnerable to hacking is not in dispute but with size of the Iridium constellation it would be a stretch for me to believe it could be universally compromised.

To suggest that US military was in any way instrumental in establishing the Iridium constellation is inaccurate. It was originally funded by Motorola, went bankrupt and was reinvented by another consortium but has always been a civilian initiative.