Isatphone Pro Internet Connectivity

[Motley]

Can anybody advise me on the usefulness of the new Isatphone as a means of downloading graphical forecasts? I really like the NOAA pics on TAFB, particularly the wind/wave pages. (I need the pictures) Can I set up the phone to download that?

Motley.

[goboatingnow]

The isatphone doesn't have data capabilities at this stage to my knowlege. I think that Inmarsat see fleet broadband as the way for that.

Dave

[Motley]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

The isatphone doesn't have data capabilities at this stage to my knowlege. I think that Inmarsat see fleet broadband as the way for that.

Dave

Oh! Bugger. Thanks for the info, even if it is disappointing.

Motley

[goboatingnow]

Use of the isatphone as a data modem is supposed to be enabled in 2011

Dave

[barnakiel]

No data capability yet. Then (so I believe) at 2.4.

This phone does not receive well inside. An external antenna will be necessary for data.

b.

[Svalander]

IsatPhone PRO will be OK for data transfer early next year - slow but OK to download GRIBS. If you want internet at higher speed the the FBB150 is a better option.
All Satellite phones need to be used outside or be connected to an antenna.

[barnakiel]

Can Mini-M e-mail capabilities be used to receive attachments?

Is Mini-M still a usable option?

b.

[MoonlightSailor]

Just spoke to satphonecity.com and the data service is up and running but is very very slow...akin to dial-up. Don't sent attachements, etc. I'll be subscribing to xgate this year for email and weather data.

[gunnado]

i have just bought this phone and will start playing with it, does anyone have the latest information on this?

is there any cool tricks to using it for weather and email?

[Paul Elliott]

Sorry, no specific IsatPhone Pro experience here, but I would really appreciate hearing how this works for you. I've got some friends who are trying to choose between the Isatphone Pro and the Iridium phone.

If you have your email working well, saildocs.com has a good assortment of GRIB sources, and also graphics downloads of what you might get via wfax. These are the ones I usually get via my Iridium satphone:

PYBA90.TIF (the eastern portion of the n pac surface analysis)
PWBI10.TIF (the 48-hour ne pac surface forecast)
PWBM99.TIF (the 96-hour ne pac forecast)
PWBE10.TIF (the 24-hour wind / wave forecast)

I request these by sending email to query@saildocs.com with the body text "send PYBA90.TIF" (one file request per line.) You can also subscribe, which is what I usually do.

Dig onto the saildocs subscription details, you can schedule the delivery for any given time (to suit your habits and the update schedule of the images / data you are requesting.) I can walk you through this is you like, but once you find the info it's not complicated. You can find on Saildocs the schedule details for the GFS forecast computer run, which provides the GRIB data.

Saildocs shrinks and further compresses the images, so the files are smaller than you would get if you were to take them directly from the NOAA sources.