Iridium Go - is it really a good deal?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

I already have a sat phone antenna installed, how do I find out if it’s compatible? I went to the Satphone store site, but couldn’t find the monthly unlimited plan for $139 which is what I want. Can I use it for four months then go inactive for five, then reactivate for six?

Is it an Iridium antenna? If not, it's not likely to be compatible. But you can use the brackets and coax and possibly even the connector (if it's a type N). And probably you can adapt the power supply. Did you rip out the old one?

As to the subscription -- you are looking on the wrong page. The plans for a normal handset are different from the plans for the Go!. With a subscription from the Satphone Store, you cannot reactivate a de-activated SIM card. You throw it away and start all over again. But the SIM card is only $50 (I seem to recall) so that's fine.

[Kenomac]

Will it work without the external antenna?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Will it work without the external antenna?

Sure. It just needs a decent view of the sky. Ours doesn't do voice very well without the external antenna, although it might if we took it out on the afterdeck.

Rate of data call failure increases without the external antenna but it's still very good.

We don't really use it for voice, almost not at all (this last month we used maybe 10 minutes out of our 150 minute bundle).

If it's any trouble to install, you could probably skip it.

It is waterproof and comes with a cover, and it has a tripod mount on the bottom, in case you want to mount it on the pushpit. Only issue then would be power supply, but the battery lasts a long time. You could just take it off and charge once a day or so.

It's a terrific unit; it really exceeded my expectations in every possible way.

[bgallinger]

I used Iridium GO for one year in the Bahamas. Then Batelco completed their improvements so I didn't need the satellite service anymore. My cost was $126/month which was just too much money. Not sure what I will do with the hardware now. Also in the Bahamas, there is a really great new service called ALIV. They sell you 300Gb/mo for $75. You just can't beat that!

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by bgallinger

I used Iridium GO for one year in the Bahamas. Then Batelco completed their improvements so I didn't need the satellite service anymore. My cost was $126/month which was just too much money. Not sure what I will do with the hardware now. Also in the Bahamas, there is a really great new service called ALIV. They sell you 300Gb/mo for $75. You just can't beat that!

I think the Go! in any case is no substitute for terrestrial Internet connections, if you have any way of getting one. It is very limited, what you can do with 2400 baud or whatever it is.

I will keep mine switched on only when I am spending significant amounts of time offshore and in wilderness areas, so it will go off again at the end of August.

HF radio (which we also have) can do almost everything the Go! can do, only less reliably and with orders of magnitude more fussing. The one crucial thing which I can't do with HF radio is do is business correspondence in the volumes I need to do it in, which is not really practical with SailMail because of connection time limits and the length of time it can take to get a connection. And Sailmail is pretty expensive, too, costing $275 a year, which is just about two months of Iridium Go! service.

So I will be using WinLink for personal correspondence offshore when the Go! is switched off, but I'm not offshore that much outside of my annual summer cruise.

[Jordan]

Sounds like the answer is that I'm already using it as cheap as possible for daily weather downloads.

Some cruiser friends I met use a 9555 and told me that they pay roughly $1 to download 1 grib file, which suggested to me that i was paying too much.

My guess is that either they are actually paying more than that, or they are paying extra for some compressed weather format subscription on top of their iridium monthly cost.

Can anyone comment on whether sailmail/predict wind + iridium go saves on data usage with their compression? I.e. if it's ~$300 per year but brings down the usage time so that a $50/month plan is enough then it's a good deal.

Lastly - is there a free email based grib server that compresses the grib data? Weather@mailasail is free but it's not compressed.

[mjgill1]

Good info!

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Jordan

Sounds like the answer is that I'm already using it as cheap as possible for daily weather downloads.

Some cruiser friends I met use a 9555 and told me that they pay roughly $1 to download 1 grib file, which suggested to me that i was paying too much.

My guess is that either they are actually paying more than that, or they are paying extra for some compressed weather format subscription on top of their iridium monthly cost.

Can anyone comment on whether sailmail/predict wind + iridium go saves on data usage with their compression? I.e. if it's ~$300 per year but brings down the usage time so that a $50/month plan is enough then it's a good deal.

Lastly - is there a free email based grib server that compresses the grib data? Weather@mailasail is free but it's not compressed.

If I were trying to squeeze down to $50/mo I don't think I would use Iridium at all. I would never have bought my Go! if there had been no unlimited data plan.

If you are willing to squeeze your data down to the extent you are talking about, why not just use HF radio? Get a ham license and use SailDocs via WinLink. You can also do email via WinLink, and there have been some breakthroughs in software modems which mean that a Pactor modem is probably not strictly necessary any more. You can get just about all the weather information you need via SailDocs, and you can directly receive broadcast Wefax and maritime weather forecasts.

I don't personally see the point in using Iridium without the unlimited data, unless it's to avoid installing a HF radio.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

Yes, SSB + PACTOR modem. Not cheap to set up initially, and slow, but no recurring costs.

Pactor 4 (P4) is faster than Iridium.

Originally Posted by ocean_groover

With an hf radio or receiver and a smartphone or tablet, you download a 5 or 8 dollar weatherfax app. The app has wfax times and frequencies listed. Tune in at appropriate time and frequency, hold the phones mic up to the hf speaker, watch the synoptic chart appear on your phone screen. Once you're set up, it's free. Mate of mine showed me this just before he set off for Fiji couple of weeks ago.
He had the Irridium go for last years trip but didn't want to wear the monthly subscription any more.

It's brilliant and synoptics are SO much better than gribs.

[exMaggieDrum]

I still have to install my SSB HF radio. I have been waiting to buy a Pactor modem because I get sticker shock every time I price them. Is there, in fact, software modems that will get you everything that you can get with the Pactor modem?



I have always "heard" that the land stations you get mostly talk "Pactor" and so you are limited in how many options you have to connect. I have not found any definitive discussions on this but lots of short references.



We had an older Pactor before messing around the Pacific, and there were times when it was not easy to get the GRIBS as often as we would if it were easier. But we did do fine with the email side of things since we didn't do a lot of business emails.



On the otherhand I have been told that others are no longer using GRIBs and are using PredictWind for accurate forecasts with one of the satellite providers. Any feedback on that?

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by exMaggieDrum

I still have to install my SSB HF radio. I have been waiting to buy a Pactor modem because I get sticker shock every time I price them. Is there, in fact, software modems that will get you everything that you can get with the Pactor modem?



I have always "heard" that the land stations you get mostly talk "Pactor" and so you are limited in how many options you have to connect. I have not found any definitive discussions on this but lots of short references.



We had an older Pactor before messing around the Pacific, and there were times when it was not easy to get the GRIBS as often as we would if it were easier. But we did do fine with the email side of things since we didn't do a lot of business emails.



On the otherhand I have been told that others are no longer using GRIBs and are using PredictWind for accurate forecasts with one of the satellite providers. Any feedback on that?

PredictWind presents a GRIB model.

[CarlF]

A cheaper option may be the InReach. Weather forecasts are $1 on demand. They include wave height and direction. If the forecast is at all worrisome, I text a friend ashore who looks at the online sites and sends me a more detailed forecast. By abbreviating he can squeeze a forecast that is better than a GRIB into 1 or 2 InReach 160 character $0.10 messages. Anyone under age 30 will tell you there’s nothing worth saying that can’t be said in 160 characters

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by exMaggieDrum

Is there, in fact, software modems that will get you everything that you can get with the Pactor modem?

Everything? No.

Today you can use WINMOR, a software modem, with Winlink Express. It is slower than Pactor III (P3) and a lot slower than Pactor IV (P4). It can only be used with Winlink so you must have an appropriate ham radio license (General or above in the US) and you may not communicate anything that is in your financial interests. They check. You also give up the truly outstanding weather fax hardware demodulator in SCS ("Pactor") modems. You also give up a number of functions in Airmail that are focused on the cruiser that do not exist in Winlink Express which is focused on terrestrial emergency communications.

There are two other software modems in development. Prospects are promising as far as it goes but no one, not even the developers, expects to beat Pactor and you'll still have the shortfalls of Winlink Express.

Originally Posted by exMaggieDrum

I have always "heard" that the land stations you get mostly talk "Pactor" and so you are limited in how many options you have to connect.

True has far as it goes. Pactor is more robust, more reliable, and faster than WINMOR. You also have more options: Sailmail, Cruiseemail, Brunei Radio, and more.

Originally Posted by exMaggieDrum

We had an older Pactor before messing around the Pacific, and there were times when it was not easy to get the GRIBS as often as we would if it were easier.

Why not synoptics over weather fax? So much better than gribs.

Originally Posted by exMaggieDrum

On the otherhand I have been told that others are no longer using GRIBs and are using PredictWind for accurate forecasts with one of the satellite providers. Any feedback on that?

PredictWind is still gribs. They just mix GFS with a couple of other models and do some tweaking. Still just a grib. No fronts.

Originally Posted by CarlF

A cheaper option may be the InReach. Weather forecasts are $1 on demand. They include wave height and direction. If the forecast is at all worrisome, I text a friend ashore who looks at the online sites and sends me a more detailed forecast. By abbreviating he can squeeze a forecast that is better than a GRIB into 1 or 2 InReach 160 character $0.10 messages. Anyone under age 30 will tell you there’s nothing worth saying that can’t be said in 160 characters

Still gribs. *sigh*

[TheOffice]

Iridium is about to bring a new generation of satellites on line. They will be a game changer next year

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by TheOffice

Iridium is about to bring a new generation of satellites on line. They will be a game changer next year

Almost certainly requiring all new client hardware.