Satelite Telephone Iridium 9555: use as modem; slow download

[Pieter]

Goodmorning all,

I have been able to install all the software on my pc, in order to use my newly aquired Iridium to be able to download/connect to get the latest weather reports etc. Does any "trick" exist so i can get to this info relatively fast? The last time i tried i was connected for almost 20 min, and i didnt achieve a thing (except a high Iridium bill). I understand that these kind of connections are slow, but is there anything i could do (either internet browser or something else) so that i can get the info without dumping $$ into the sea..?Anyone has experience? Thanks again, and fair winds and following seas....

Best rgds
Pieter Kommerij
SV Onda Boa
Blog: Ocean of Dreams

[Cormorant]

Look into using one of the email compression services like XGate or MailaSail. Then have gribs automatically sent to your email as often as you like, using Saildocs.com. You can even have entire webpages (like weather synopsis pages) emailed to you as text.

This is the method we used with our Iridium and we could download all our email, maybe 20 at a time, including gribs, in about 2 or 3 minutes.

[Pieter]

Thank you so muich Cormorant, great info. Xgate or MailaSail... are they kind of equal? Do you have experience with each of those? Thanks again.
Best rgds
Pieter

[Cormorant]

I used MailaSail and was very satisfied with the service. I've heard good things about XGate as well.

I recall I made my decision based only on price -- MailaSail was a bit cheaper for a 3-month subscription.

[mobal]

First question - do you have a marine antenna for your Iridium phone? Data connections require a stronger and more consistent signal, so without a marine antenna, the phone will often drop the data connections – especially if the boat is moving about a lot.


Make sure your computer has everything disabled that could use data in the background – such as Windows updates, antivirus updates, itunes etc. If something is trying to pull in an update without you knowing, it will make grib downloads impossible (don’t forget to re-enable them when you get back on a normal internet connection).


Rather than using email to receive your grib files, I would recommend some free software called Ugrib. This collects the files directly from the Ugrib server, so is quicker and more bandwidth efficient than pulling the grib files from your email software. It also compresses the grib files so that it keeps file transfers as small as possible. This means that you don’t need any additional compression software.


Make sure you get gribs for as small an area as possible and keep the number of days' data that you require to a minimum – this will keep the file size down.


You can install Ugrib and familiarize yourself with it using your normal internet connection.


You can get ugrib here www.grib.us




I hope that helps! I'd be interested to know how you get on.



Al