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Old 24-03-2013, 08:12   #1
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Iridium pilot - anyone used it?

I have an old irodium handset . . . Still works well but my comms guy is suggesting I should look very closely at the iridium pilot (which I think is a revision of the prior open port system).

Anyone used this system?

Here's what I have been told:

"I would look at the Iridium Pilot. its 1/10 the cost for data, 15-50 times faster, and 60% cheaper voice than your standard iridium phone. And you can be on the internet at the same time as you do voice. and you can do multiple concurrent voice calls."

The antennae is bigger than my current one, but not "too big"

Full ready to go system, including 500 minutes) is $4500. A bit Expensive, but if the operating costs are way lower than my current system it might make sense, and it appears I could get ice charts with this system which I can not with the old handset (too slow).
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Old 24-03-2013, 18:01   #2
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Re: Iridium pilot - anyone used it?

No advice but I would love to hear your decision.
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Old 25-03-2013, 03:52   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by estarzinger View Post
I have an old irodium handset . . . Still works well but my comms guy is suggesting I should look very closely at the iridium pilot (which I think is a revision of the prior open port system).

Anyone used this system?

Here's what I have been told:

"I would look at the Iridium Pilot. its 1/10 the cost for data, 15-50 times faster, and 60% cheaper voice than your standard iridium phone. And you can be on the internet at the same time as you do voice. and you can do multiple concurrent voice calls."

The antennae is bigger than my current one, but not "too big"

Full ready to go system, including 500 minutes) is $4500. A bit Expensive, but if the operating costs are way lower than my current system it might make sense, and it appears I could get ice charts with this system which I can not with the old handset (too slow).
I would compare it with Fleetbroadband 150 , that the competitor, better overall speeds seems to the general view.

Dave
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Old 25-03-2013, 05:02   #4
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Re: Iridium pilot - anyone used it?

^^ thanks for the thought . . . Fleet is not for us because we go too far north and south. The connection gets real sketchy (know that from first hand experience).

I have decided to pass on the pilot for right now, primarily because of the antenna size/weight . . . Just could not see a good place to mount it.
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Old 09-09-2016, 06:15   #5
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Re: Iridium pilot - anyone used it?

I am thinking of this as well, with email and access to news over the Internet became more and more necessary, 4-5000 is a little steep for us used to normal data plan.
How does fleet cost wise on data plans?
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Old 04-10-2016, 03:53   #6
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Re: Iridium pilot - anyone used it?

Everyone I've seen in the South Pacific with higher end yachts seem to be using the pilot with good success. I have been very happy with mine.


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Old 04-10-2016, 08:05   #7
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Re: Iridium pilot - anyone used it?

Which package do you sign for to be adequate?
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Old 06-10-2016, 12:25   #8
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Re: Iridium pilot - anyone used it?

I'm on a circumnavigation, still working a little and want everything including some web browsing so I pay for 110 Megs and the special promotion i have is double that.

I could easily live with about 50 megs but there wasn't a good package for that. I use about 100 megs a month and don't hesitate to use it all the time except for Facebook and cruisers net which I only use on wifi.


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Old 07-10-2016, 06:54   #9
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Re: Iridium pilot - anyone used it?

I see, facebook would certainly be too much for 100 MB.
Its crazy how heavy websites would run these days, but email and news services could do at that size.
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Old 11-10-2016, 16:35   #10
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Re: Iridium pilot - anyone used it?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Agility View Post
I'm on a circumnavigation, still working a little and want everything including some web browsing so I pay for 110 Megs and the special promotion i have is double that.

I could easily live with about 50 megs but there wasn't a good package for that. I use about 100 megs a month and don't hesitate to use it all the time except for Facebook and cruisers net which I only use on wifi.
Agility, what software do you use for web and email compression?

I was thinking I'd need more like the ~250 Meg/month plan, but don't have a good idea of our compressed usage.
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