best email and web access in the pacific?

[gordonhinds]

What is the best way to send and get emails and use the internet on a 40 foot cruising yacht in the West Pacific?

[fxykty]

Local SIM cards, and/or Google Fi if you’re American. Hot spot from your phone. Needs to be unlocked.

[gordonhinds]

I met at sea or in remote locations - you can hotspot your phone when bear land or in a marina

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by gordonhinds

I met at sea or in remote locations - you can hotspot your phone when bear land or in a marina

Web access is very expensive and beyond most cruisers budget unless they are running a business. Even then it is very slow.

Email in remote areas is pretty straight forward via either Sat connection or SSB. For sat connection look at IridiumGo and for SSB look at Sailmail.

[Neptune's Gear]

Sailmail works from EITHER an Irridium Go, Sat phone, OR SSB.
I've used it all around the world, works well. You can get your Grib files from it as well, no extra cost. :-)

[gordonhinds]

Thanks - all roads lead to sailmail... and sat phones. Just don’t expect Spotify or netflicks

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Gordon.

[MAJICDAN]

Iridium Go is supposed to work anywhere in the world.
You get 90 minutes free satellite phone and unlimited text and e-mail for less than $140 month. It has worked very well for us.

[Dsanduril]

We use SSB/Pactor and find it quite satisfactory about 95% of the time. It does take some patience, and some experience finding the best propagation windows. The entry cost is pretty high, even on the used gear market.

If I didn't already own the SSB and Pactor (they're going on 20 years old and still working fine) I'd probably use satellite. If I could wait until Starlink is up I would, that, on paper, appears to be a game changer. If the need is now the Go seems to be the tool for moderate e-mail and weather use.

[surazo]

Hi saiolmail , could you give more info about sail mail sub . The satellite tracks near to the beagle area is irregular but radio sub is fairly well the most part of the time .Thanks

[dougweibel]

I have used Iridium Go with and without a wired exterior antenna. With the unit sitting under the dodger the built in antenna seemed to do just as well as the bigger external antenna. Knowing what I know now I would not install the docking station and external antenna, and that lowers the initial cost by a fair amount.

[Dsanduril]

Originally Posted by surazo

Hi saiolmail , could you give more info about sail mail sub . The satellite tracks near to the beagle area is irregular but radio sub is fairly well the most part of the time .Thanks

The Sailmail website has all the details.

Subscription is US$275/year. There are limits to the SSB connect time, an average of 90 minutes/week if I recall correctly.

There is a station in Los Lagos, Chile that should provide reasonable service on longer wavelengths. In our experience steep fjords can make things difficult regardless of distance to receiving stations. The next closest stations are in South Africa, Panama, and French Polynesia, all of those might provide decent service with the right propagation.

If you use Sailmail by SSB you can use the same setup (with an amateur radio license) to access Winlink. Winlink is amateur radio, so you can't send business messages, but it can greatly extend your radio network and time connections for personal messages and weather downloads.

[surazo]

thanks , a lot of information .I will try to understand which radio ssb is suitable for digital comms .Because I discovered that my radio Kenwood 707 doesn't-t work with sail mail .Anyway is cheaper way to receive the weather forecast and to send short messages .Thanks

[iabmatos]

I have just seen this video presentation about "communications at sea" a couple of days ago. You may find it interesting and relevant to your question.

Have a look: https://vimeo.com/400218112/68b622b05d

Cheers

Ismael

[Marathon1150]

Originally Posted by dougweibel

I have used Iridium Go with and without a wired exterior antenna. With the unit sitting under the dodger the built in antenna seemed to do just as well as the bigger external antenna. Knowing what I know now I would not install the docking station and external antenna, and that lowers the initial cost by a fair amount.

My experience is different and it may be a function of where your boat is situated. Without the external antenna, connectivity via the IridiumGo was hit and miss, lots of dropped connections, even with the device sitting on top of a solar panel (which made me very nervous). With the external antenna installed and connected, which was a pain to install because of the strange cable that is used, we never drop a connection and transmission time is better. This was true from while in the Sea of Cortez and then from Mexico to Papeete.

We also have a M802 with Pactor Modem but have not used it much for email since installing the IridiumGo.

However, I watched a video from the World Cruising Club earlier today and it provided me with a fresh new outlook on email and internet connectivity while at sea.

First, the presenter is not a fan of the IridiumGo. His recommendation if you would like to use old fashioned Iridium technology is buy an Iridium phone rather than an IridiumGo. They are usually cheaper and more versatile, particularly in an emergency because it can make an emergency call without depending on a second device (IGo requires a mobile phone to make a voice call).

Secondly, there is new(ish) technology from Iridium that is a bit more than double the cost of an Igo but with much greater functionality in terms of what can be done.

If money and space are not issues, it is possible to acquire high speed connections using the intermediate cost technology on which you can do pretty much all the things that you do on land or a marina.

I found the video very much worth watching and if I didn't already have an Igo I would consider his suggested alternatives. You can see it here:

https://vimeo.com/400218112/68b622b05d