Thanks David that 's really helpful.
Simon

Here is a comment I received today from my contact in Hong Kong who is involved with RHKYC 's decision to require DSC capable HF/SSB radios on all of their events (racing and cruising) beyond coastal VHF range:

"The Delorme InReach and the Iridium Go and similar devices I have heard are of passable interest only in practice

The devices, being all in one with no external antennas, are really designed for land use. The Go for example we sold one of and the guy returned it after a month as it NEVER got a connection between HK and the Philippines

The only data and voice satellite systems we recommend are

Sat C- slow, external, unidirectional antenna
Inmarsat Fleet One, 100kbit, around USD6 per 1MB download
Inmarsat Fleetbroadband 150, around USD10 per 1MB download

Then, to call Mum, an Inmarsat Isatphone 2. But this we always say should never ever be regarded as an emergency communications device as you have to first create a link and then communicate over it which is difficult with a handheld device at the best of times!"

And this from my friend Terry Sparks ( www.Made-Simplefor-Cruisers.com )in the USA:

"Another example is the Baja Ha Ha boat that the whale hit and sunk. They had a poor EPIRB without GPS and the Coast Guard had trouble locating them in the raft. They had a VHF marine hand held and called the plane as it flew past. That was the only reason they found them according to the boat skipper. While it would be nice to have a Sat phone in the raft (you could get your email and leave some voice mails to family) it is important to have a hand held VHF to help coordinate your rescue. If the Coast Guard has a Sat Phone, you will not know the number."

Hope that helps.

Just one comment. The Iridium Go does have an external aerial connection.
Simon

Hi Simon, I got back to my Hong Kong friend and he said the people who returned their Iridium GO did not try use an external antenna. But apparently they believed that was not the only issue with the unit.

Looking at costs, US$125 a month for Iridium GO, adds to US$250 for 2 months, which is the same cost as a 12 month subscription to the not-for-profit SailMail Association email service. Members get 12 minutes connection time a day (averaged over a week) for 365 days, which is less than US$0.70 per day.

Using the same on-board HF/SSB radio used for voice communications, and a Pactor controller, there are no additional connection time/data charges to send and receive emails via the 20 plus SailMail stations around the world. SailMail membership also includes access request/download (free) GRIB charts, request/download (free) METAREA forecasts, request/download (free) coastal forecasts, and send (free) YOTREPS position reports.

SailMail 's (free) ShadowMail option can monitor one or more shore email accounts and send a summary of waiting email headers. Select Download to bring to the boat, Delete to remove or Ignore to leave in the shore email box. So only relevant emails are transferred to the boat. The others can be checked when shore internet access is available. This also protects the yacht 's SailMail email address from SPAM.

The yacht 's SailMail account can also be operated via any shore internet service, to send and receive emails, weather info etc.

The Pactor controller can also be used as a NAVTEX and WEATHERFAX receiver.

Allan,

Thanks for that. It 's really useful to know about SailMail 's email flexibility which I wasn 't aware of.

There are other price plans for the Iridium data time though. The $125/month is for unlimited data including web browsing. I have a rather more affordable pre-paid 6 month package which gives, I think, either 400 minutes of data or 200 minutes of voice or any mix of the two.

I guess the other consideration for someone starting from scratch is the installation cost of SSB is substantial if you include the cost of the set, the insulated back stay and ground plates. Installation cost of the GO are limited to the cost of the device which will work both on board and on shore. Indeed our use of it to date has been limited to use in the mountains.

The GO gives you a couple of options for email too. You can either use the Iridium compression email software or you can browse any webmail (such as Gmail) and just download the emails you want.

In summary the Iridium GO and SSB / Pactor are very different animals. Probably Iridium has the edge for data versatility but the huge advantage of the SSB is the ability to take part in radio nets and general ship to ship use.

Simon

I 've just sent this blast off directly to Iridium:

"I bought an Iridium GO through PredictWind and Satphonestore at the end of last year. I 'm getting adequate support from Jon Bilger at PredictWind, but he, poor man, is having to try to support a sub-standard product. I wanted to let you know directly how disappointed I am with the performance of this unit. My complaints are all software-related, as the hardware seems to be OK. I 've upgrade to firmware 1.4.1 but the problems are still there.

1. The tracking performance is not good, and is below the standard of the competition such as Yellowbrick. Frequently, the position reports are sent in the wrong order, resulting in crazy zig-zags on the tracker map. Jon Bilger tells me that this is because the SMS position report does not contain a date/time stamp.
2. The Iridium GO app for the iPad works reasonably well, but the mail portion of the Iridium Mail and Web app is truly bad, and requires a lot more work. It is below the standard of all other iPad apps in its planning and execution.
2a. It is unable to operate in landscape mode, and I have to be careful not to lock the iPad in landscape and then go to the Iridium Go apps, because they will not display correctly. All other apps, even those written by amateurs, will automatically rotate as the iPad is rotated.
2b. The inbox adds the latest mail at the bottom, and with a lengthening list of incoming emails, I have to scroll right down to the bottom, every time I go to the inbox. Clearly, the latest mails should be at the top. That applies to the other folders as well.
2c. The 'sent ' folder does not have the facility to make folders, so adding the latest mail at the bottom makes things difficult to keep track of.
2d. When writing a reply to a long incoming email, the editor works very badly, truncating the display of the incoming email, so that one cannot see what one is replying to. One has to go back to the original email in the inbox, to check what was written,and then come back to the outgoing draft to continue writing. This does not happen with other iPad apps, such as the native mail app. The editor does not have the usual select/select all/copy/paste etc options that other iPad apps have. Once one has filled a page with writing, it is impossible to continue because the cursor disappears below the keyboard, and the scrolling is no longer stable ' ie, one cannot scroll down to reveal the later text.
2e. One cannot receive jpg attachments, though one can send them. It would be nice to be able to receive and send other small attachments, such as text files and dxf drawing files, which are only a few kb, and it shouldn 't take much effort to add this feature into the app.
2f. I don 't bother with the web portion of the app, because it 's too slow to be of any practical use. I 'll wait patiently for the new, faster Iridium satellites - whenever they will get launched."

Looking at the reviews in the Apple app store, others thinks the same - nice hardware, shame about the apps.

At least I can send and receive emails while offshore, and receive gribs, but oh!, it 's hard work, and a lot more frustrating than it ought to be.

Hi David and Simon,

Looks like quite a few problems with the regular Iridium GO software.

If you go to the SailMail website - www.sailmail.com - you will see that the same software used for SailMail is now also approved for use with Iridium GO. That might work better. It has been optimized for Iridium, INMARSAT, Thuraya etc for many years, and I know from people that it works. In all cases the smart message handling and compression strategy developed to make emails via SailMail 's network of HF/SSB radio stations very efficient, also makes a difference to the speed - and cost - of using these cheaper-to-buy satellite systems.

SailMail does this so sailors can have an on-board backup - albeit more expensive for connection time - to their regular, economical, HF/SSB radio based email capability. It assumes crews might decide to have a satphone on-board to make occasional (expensive) phone calls for communication tasks which email can 't do, for trips ashore in isolated locations, and for the liferaft grab bag. Or perhaps they have it because MRCC Falmouth does not have a HF/SSB radio and can only suggest a satphone for contact with them when beyond VHF range but still within RNLI lifeboat range.

The people who established and continue to operate SailMail are sailors. Therefore they look at what can help sailors. They do not sell satphones or radios, but provide systems and software to make these work well for the data, weather info, email and yacht management needs of sailors. Their approach is useful for long distance, active sailors, and especially those who like to explore isolated areas, less developed areas/countries and those who cross oceans.

SailMail has software designed to optimize data throughput via its network of 20 HF/SSB stations around the world, because fast and efficient data transfer equals more members able to happily use the same equipment, which keeps equipment requirements and related work to a minimum; and therefore membership fees can stay lower. SailMail does not have monthly bills or other data throughput related fees. Just a simple annual membership fee (US$250) which gives up to 12 minutes connection time per day - averaged over a week - every day of the year, via the 20 HF/SSB radio bases. Members get more data throughput each day by choosing the right frequency at the right time. Everything in the way SailMail works via HF/SSB radio favours and rewards efficiency.

Satellite services have a financial interest in inefficient systems. The more time you spend transferring the same data and the more dropouts/resends experienced, the more money they make. The unit is sold cheap but the money is made from the connection time. You can see by the amount of paid advertising from the satellite service providers compared to paid advertising by SailMail, HF/SSB radio and Pactor manufacturers, who makes the most money from you.

The SailMail software helps to address some of the data handling and compression inefficiencies in these satellite based systems, so they are not so painful on your pocket at the end of the month.

Yachting Australia 's latest Special Regulations (for racing and cruising in regions without effective coastal VHF networks and professional, immediate response S&R services) REQUIRES a HF/SSB radio (with DSC) and RECOMMENDS a satphone for Category 1 and 2 events. The important distinction is the satphone is not required and it cannot substitute for the HF/SSB radio.

This is probably the right approach to use for most cruising and racing where, as the MAID report on Chiki Rafiki describes, yachts need to be more self sufficient and not expect prompt outside help from shore based rescue services. The HF/SSB radio with DSC - switched on 24/7 - creates a quiet and convenient communications net via which mutual support, advice and assistance from nearby yachts - known and unknown - and any SOLAS vessel - known and unknown - can be obtained. You do not need to know who is nearby or their satphone number to contact any other vessel with a similar HF/SSB radio on 24/7 watch; just press the DSC call button. Calls to get advice, waypoints, some diesel, a pump, tow or rescue are free via the HF/SSB (and VHF) marine radios.

With a HF/SSB radio installed as an essential part of on-board equipment for cruising and racing where coastal VHF marine radio systems and RNLI lifeboats do not exist (ie: probably 99% of the world), the extra cost of a Pactor controller to have email - along with NAVTEX, WEATHERFAX, GRIB charts, METAREA and coastal forecasts at no extra service or data transfer cost - via the same HF/SSB radio, is minor and easily recouped compared to satellite data costs.

With a SailMail membership, email backup via regular satphone or Iridium GO using SailMail 's more efficient on-board software will also make these services considerably less expensive to operate; if needed.

I hope this is useful and also elicits more thinking and comments on this topic.

Thanks David & Allan for two authoritative and comprehensive contributions to this thread.
Simon

We crossed the Atlantic with modest expectations regarding Iridium and our hardware/software package was as follows:

1. Iridium GO!
2. SSB Icom 710
3. Pactor 4 modem
4. Sailmail account accessible via Parallels on OS X
5. Unlimited GO! package provided by Global Telesat Communications for a monthly fee of $132.50, including "free" activation of SIM and several unactivated SIM cards. This way we can activate service for as little as 30 days or keep it for as long as needed.
6. PredictWind Professional service, signed up for 3 months
7. PredictWind Offshore on OS X
9. Weather4D on iOS, used mostly as a GRIB animator/viewer
10. The "free" iOS Iridium apps

The GO! enabled us to:

a. Download unlimited routings from PredictWind quickly via Sailmail or not as quickly directly from PredictWInd Offshore.

b. Download unlimited GRIB files from PredictWind and from Saildocs (limited to compressed 40K file size by Sailmail)

c. Extremely quick, reliable, unlimited Sailmail e-mail that we used for priority/vital communications

d. Throwaway free Iridium e-mail addresses, about 3 times slower than Sailmail, that we forwarded our shore e-mail accounts to. This worked very well. You can easily have as many of these throwaway my iridium.net e-mails as iOS devices you have (up to 5).

The "free" Iridium iOS apps are more or less a toy or entertainment, in our opinion, and, seen as such, it was a great way to keep checking our shore-based e-mail. Anyone considering Iridium GO! for vital e-mail should consider signing up for e-mail service from Sailmail, X-Gate from GMN, or OCENS.

We are very satisfied with Iridium GO! and plan on signing up for service for every passage longer than about a week.

For short passages, we might either have one of those Iridium GO! prepaid cards that last one year, or just rely on the SSB.

Hi Hasbun,

This is really great information for other people to see. Especially the comparative speed information.

Something that might interest you is the free ShadowMail service that comes with a SailMail subscription. Setup shore accounts for SailMail to monitor using the options in AirMail - the on-board software for SailMail. ShadowMail will check these accounts at the desired frequency and send a summary list of headers to choose to be Downloaded to the boat, Ignored to check when ashore, or Deleted. When you send emails from on-board, you can give the message the from identity of a shore email account, so replies go to that shore email account monitored by ShadowMail, not your important SailMail email address. Great for protecting your SailMail address from SPAM and enthusiastic marketing people at your sailmaker etc.