Daria,

We purchased an IridumGo Marine package from PredictWind with the $125 unlimited data package.

It does all that is says in the blurb. Yes it is easy to install, well not so easy on a steel boat as we had numorous holes to drill, but it all went smoothly. The unit itself has to be able to "see" the sky as it has the GPS built in it. So we mounted this under our steel dodger right near a glass window. It works fine there, though it does require a bit of shade as it overheats in the intense sunshine here in the Indian Ocean. The external antenna is mounted on the Davits.

We use it for weather, with PredictWind and also for Sailmail weather, though it is much slower pulling down grib files than via Sailmail . Email and short message via the Go is free, it works fine, but the replies are short as the allowed 160 characters include the reply email or phone number for the short messages.

The hourly tracking reporting is great, it is displayed at the top of our blog www.svcrystalblues.blogspot.com

The unlimited data is necessary as it is a very slow link. You must have a lot of patience and learn how to use Opera Mini, the web browser for the Go. It helps to have a lot of time to play with the go and passage making allows that. So far I have been able to
Send a FB message and image
Upload text and image to our blog
Browse FaceBook and make comments
Open gmail and read emails and reply
Read BBC, the Age and other news sites

It comes with 5 minutes of airtime, which we forgot to use in our first month.

For us it is the perfect com tool for crossing oceans with.

[quote="DariaBlackwell" post=1712]Thanks for sharing that. It 's interesting that it doesn 't show the exact route, only way points along the way. So it can 't be used for sharing tracks.[/quote]

I 'd set the reporting interval to one hour, which is PredictWind 's recommendation, so as not to overload the map (and so as not to cost me too much money, since I 'm not yet on one of the "unlimited" plans). In fact, the interval can be set to anything from five minutes to a week. If I were on a short offshore passage, I might well choose four hours, and for an ocean passage, I might well choose twenty four hours, at the noon position; but I agree, if I were wanting to pass on info on a tricky passage cluttered with obstacles, I could use five or ten minutes. But this isn 't a track that can be exported, so is of limited use to others.

Thanks for sharing that. It 's interesting that it doesn 't show the exact route, only way points along the way. So it can 't be used for sharing tracks.

Vice Commodore, OCC 

My first little passage is now showing on the tracker map.

David,
We have taken the plunge and ordered one for our Nepal trip this Spring. On your advice we have ordered the marine aerial too for later use on board.
Simon

To pass from the davits, around the cockpit, through the engine box, down to the bilge and up to the chart table, the 30ft cable was just long enough, with an inch to spare. Larger boats will need the optional longer cables. The installation is now complete and fit for sea.

Unlike the Yellowbrick tracker map, the PredictWind tracker map does not allow me to attach a comment to each position marker. There are two ways around this. I could make a group of contacts, to send an SMS/email to; but this would require me to add manually any new contacts who request to be updated on my whereabouts and doings. Or, the Iridium iOS app facilitates direct postings to Facebook and Twitter. I can 't abide Facebook, so I 've set up a Twitter account for the time being, and anyone with the link https://twitter.com/tystie34 can now find and follow my postings, should they wish.

Update:
With the GO on the chart table, I 'm getting a good enough GPS and Iridium signal for SMS and tracking (which transmits as a SMS), with a short boot-up time. Not good enough for surfing mobile websites or voice calls though, which is where the external antenna is needed. I 've been trying the antenna temporarily fixed to the top of the davits, and I 'm getting a good, constant signal ,so I 'll just have to wrestle the thick cable into place for this position. I had a message back from Support saying that the thick cable is necessary, to reduce losses.

I 've sent and received test SMS - they come and go very quickly, just like an email over the internet. I 've also got an initial position onto my tracker map:
http://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Tystie
but don 't expect that to move, until after Christmas!

Simon,
There aren 't any deals to be had on the airtime; the rates seem to be fixed, across the various suppliers of the Iridium Go. However, it 's a monthly contract, so I 'll start at a low rate, while I 'm getting used to the thing, and perhaps upgrade later when it should, I hope, be my only means of (very basic) communication offshore and away from Wifi and 3G/4G.

Daria,
I received delivery yesterday. First impressions are:
[ol]
[li]It 's a well-made piece of kit.[/li]
[li]It needs to be mounted on a horizontal surface, under a window, to get a good GPS signal, so the instructions say. The external antenna only supplies the Iridium component of the signal, not the GPS. I can manage this, having windows at a shallow slope at the forward end of my pilot house, over the chart table. When I first switched on with the Go on the chart table, it acquired a GPS position almost instantaneously.[/li]
[li]The cable to the external antenna is extremely thick and stiff. I can 't immediately see why it needs to be so, as it 's only coax. It 's going to be difficult for me to route it, either from the horizontal bar across the davits, where my other antennae are, or from the deck just forward of the hatch, another option. The Go is not acquiring an Iridium signal from inside the boat, so the external antenna is essential.[/li]


[/ol]

David expensive airtime if you have to sign up to a 12 month contract! Do let us know when you have found the best airtime deal. It 's a shame the Yellowbrick died. I think I remember you having troubles with it early on?
Simon

Please let us know how it goes for you. Installation, etc.

Vice Commodore, OCC