By alshaheen - 29 Apr 2013
Does anyone have any views on the relative merits of satellite trackers/communicators Spot, Yellowbrick, Delorme In Reach etc.
Has there been previous Forum discussion on these devices. Do any of them allow access to weather forecasting?
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By simoncurrin - 30 Apr 2013
John,
There is a lengthy Forum thread on these devices. Paul Hiney uses Delorme and David Tyler the Yellowbrick. In fact David and I used the cheap messaging service to provide him with weather routing information on his passage to Hawaii. We thought this would be a good way for retired OCC armchair members to share their time, experience and internet resources with those out there living their adventures with a minimum of comms equipment. Unfortunately our experiment was thwarted by a faulty brick and my lousy forecasts (Predict Wind).
http://forum.oceancruisingclub.org/it-apps-smartphones-tablet-computers-ereaders/543-yellowbrick-tracker?start=30#721
Simon
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By David.Tyler - 30 Apr 2013
Yellowbrick have agreed that the unit I have is indeed faulty, and have agreed to replace it FOC. Nick Farrell at Yellowbrick has been easy to communicate with, and I should be making contact with the replacement unit, a mark two, very soon.
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By Neil Langford - 1 May 2013
Spot messenger uses the Globalstar satellite system, which does not have world wide coverage. Both Delorme and Yellow Brick use the Iridium LEO (low earth orbit) system, which delivers uniform global coverage. With Spot / Globalstar your messages can be delayed until a satellite is close enough, whereas with Delorme and Yellow Brick on Iridium the system availability and response times should be much better.
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By David.Tyler - 1 May 2013
[quote="neill" post=930]Spot messenger uses the Globalstar satellite system, which does not have world wide coverage. Both Delorme and Yellow Brick use the Iridium LEO (low earth orbit) system, which delivers uniform global coverage. With Spot / Globalstar your messages can be delayed until a satellite is close enough, whereas with Delorme and Yellow Brick on Iridium the system availability and response times should be much better.[/quote]
Yes, I had to reject Spot because, with the satellites being geostationary over the continents, there was a great swathe up the middle of the Pacific with no coverage, though the Atlantic is reasonably well served.
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By alshaheen - 1 May 2013
Simon
What were the problems with Predict Wind? Matt Rutherford seemed to think very highly of it.
John
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By David.Tyler - 3 May 2013
[quote="alshaheen" post=932]Simon
What were the problems with Predict Wind? Matt Rutherford seemed to think very highly of it.
John[/quote]
This was during the first week out, when the wind was swinging between NNE and ENE. There didn 't seem to be enough data being input, this being a rather unfrequented bit of ocean, to get the timing of these swings accurate. Not that it mattered. It was a trade wind passage, and the wind was always going to be from somewhere in the E. Later on, it might have been nice to know when I was about to emerge from the northern side of the ITCZ, but again, not essential.
Where the idea will come in useful is in giving some advance warning of storms approaching, and other dangers. We certainly showed that it is possible for someone shoreside to use the system (when it is working) to give warnings, but I did rather come to the conclusion that I didn 't actually need daily wind forecasts.
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By simoncurrin - 3 May 2013
John,
I thought Predict Wind was brilliant too but the forecasts I was sending David were, apparently, wide of the mark. It maybe that there is such a paucity of observational data in that region of the Pacific that the generated forecasts are based on foundations are too flimsy to extrapolate. I am sure that it 's fine for predicting big weather systems there but David was making a trade wind passage and I think it was the finer tuning of strength and direction that let David down. I am sure he will add further comments.
Simon
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By David.Tyler - 11 May 2013
Yellowbrick exchanged my faulty unit for a mark two unit, and I 'm happy to report that the Bluetooth connectivity with the iPad is now fully functional. I depart from Hawai 'i towards Alaska today, and my track can be seen at http://my.yb.tl/tystie34/
Simon, I should get some fairly consistent Trades for the first week, and then some light variables. After that, I don 't think that daily forecasts will be a great deal of help to me, but perhaps an advance warning of extreme weather would be nice - say, winds over 40 knots. In which case, the position of the centre of the low and its direction of travel would be more useful than a spot wind forecast, which doesn 't give me the whole picture.
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By simoncurrin - 11 May 2013
Ok David.
I will watch out for deep lows and send you something along the lines of:
Low 996 41N 147W
The above is from today 's chart on: http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/marine/weather?LEVEL=4&LANG=en&MODELLTYP=pslv&MENU=0&MN=gfs&SI=mph&CEL=C&TIME=0&MEER=pusa
Would you prefer me to watch some other weather source?
Have a great passage.
Simon
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By David.Tyler - 11 May 2013
Yes, that format is what I was thinking of. I think most of these forecast programs get their data from the same source, so I have no preference.
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