Sailmail vs. Winlink

[Pizzazz]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Chuck, you may have noticed that HF communications have been declared DOA quite a few times here on CF. The attending doctors are noted for their lack of knowledge and experience in using HF radios, and for them, perhaps HF is indeed dead. Those with some experience know that HF, both marine and especially amateur practices have some otherwise unavailable features... such as you have mentioned and others as well.

Sat comms are fantastic,but limited in their applications in cruising situations. Ideally, one should have both... so far I've been happy with HF.

Jim

Jim,

There is more to Iridium Next than it seems at first look. Iridium today was designed around a circuit switched network. This is why we are typically billed by the minute. It is just not optimized for data. Think about cellular communications before the GPRS area. Yes, there was SMS but it was hard.

Iridium Next is designed around packets. It will support GMDSS easily. It will allow people to communicate via short messaging in the same way we use snapchat, messenger and other smartphone apps today. Pricing will follow - let's wait and see. Once all of this is in place, HF will only be useful for voice nets and imho these get boring very quickly. I would rather exchange group messages at sea.

This is coming from an avid HF user. I have used HF messaging (PSK31), pictures and video (SSTV) to broadcast images while sailing offshore. What a pain. I would never give up my HF radio but it is a hobby today except for the GMDSS component.

Regards,
Pizzazz
AI6PE