In coastal navigation, sometimes it's easier to connect to the 3G cellular network than to get a WiFi connection with a land-based hotspot. Cellular transmission antennas are becoming more and more numerous on the coast and on the islands. But as you follow my recommendations scrupulously (¹), I have no doubt about it, you have a WiFi+3G iPad without having taken out a subscription, i.e. without a SIM card, and you are quite right. So how do you do it ? Read more …
Category : Communication
Install a WiFi network onboard
Request more frequent from boat owners is for the installation of a WiFi reception onboard. La prolifération des ordinateurs, tablets and smartphones on boats incentive to maintain a connection with the Internet, même en navigation. Echanger des mails, suivre les réseaux sociaux, recevoir des fichiers météo, et combien d’autres motifs conduisent à une irrépressible addiction. C’est la vie !
J’ai déjà évoqué on my website, in chapter about means for receiving GRIB files, some available solutions : Read more …
IsatPhone Pro versus Iridium (continue)
As promised in my post on 15 July, here are the results of the comparative test conducted aboard "Prince d'Oc" for our trip from Port Leucate to Dubrovnik.
Thanks to the loan of a complete IsatPhone Pro, avec station d’accueil et antenne extérieure (un grand merci à PYG @voilier_xhosa, who sent me all this from Belgium), and the presence of a similar facility Iridium on board Olivier's boat : Iridium 9575 avec antenne fixe extérieure Sailor, nous avons pu effectuer des tests en situation réelle d’utilisation.
Prince d’Oc en route pour la Croatie
Iridium NEXT the future
The use of Iridium is taking a growing place among offshore sailors. The security of being able to join your family at sea at any time, or to be able to contact a medical service in the event of an emergency, are arguments often raised by buyers. In addition, The satellite phone offers data services to send and receive SMS and emails, and above all make GRIB weather file requests. Unfortunately, To date, the bandwidth offered for data exchanges is extremely low, not authorizing more than 2400 bits per second on average for use from a mobile phone. Only large fixed installations, out of reach of the average boater, offer speeds up to 128 Kbps.
And tomorrow ? Iridium Communications Inc., based in McLean, Virginia (USA), announced in June 2010, the launch of a major programme to develop a constellation of next-generation satellites, gradually replacing the current one : Iridium NEXT. Read more …
IsatPhone Pro versus Iridium, which one to choose ?
I just read, dans le dernier numéro de Voiles et Voiliers daté de mai 2012, un comparatif Inmarsat-Iridium qui me laisse insatisfait. Quite interesting in form, it presents a lot of approximations in substance, et ne permet pas au lecteur de se faire une opinion sur des éléments de comparaison précis et chiffrés. On the other hand, n’en déplaise à François-Xavier Ricardou, les solutions logicielles pour Mac existent depuis longtemps et sont parfaitement éprouvées : just to see the number of participants provided with Mac or iPad at ARC 2011. I will try to contribute complementary, je l’espère, éclairera les acheteurs potentiels. Read more …
Testimony : Transquadra and Navigation Mac
After Jean Debèze, avid supporter of Navigation Mac, made me the pleasure of a detailed tutorial about installing a multiplexer aboard his sailboat, here's a ticket by Jacques Vermeulen, qui témoigne de façon très didactique de son expérience pendant la récente Transquadra, à bord de « Bluestairs », with the owner and friend Marc Bolla.
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Placed at the Transquadra 2011/2012, nous avons rencontré, lors de la première étape de Méditerranée Barcelone-Porto Santo (Madeira), des problèmes de réception et d’envoi de fichiers GRIB et data via le réseau Iridium. Email was impossible to use with the Iridium Airtime cards we used. Ne nous est restée que la possibilité de téléphoner avec l’Iridium.
Back after this first stage, I decided to deepen the subject and educate myself with Francis Fustier whom I had knowledge, jusqu’alors, que par son blog, really comprehensive. Read more …
Send Tweets via SMS from your Iridium
MailaSail nous informe : you can now update your Tweets directly from your Iridium satellite phone (*). Start by sending an SMS from your Iridium with words START or SIGNUP to short code 40404… Read more …
Navigation with iPad trainings : a complete solution
With Weather4D PRO and Iridium Mail, associés à un téléphone satellite Iridium, we now have a complete solution, reliable and low cost to receive, display and manage GRIB files in open seas with iPad.
iNavX and Navionics cartography also provide a complete navigation solution, supporting files transfers with Weather4D PRO : GRIB, routes, tracks, that allows simultaneous display in both applications.
Ces solutions, parfaitement complémentaires et cohérentes entre elles, ont été testées sur plus de 2800 NM in the automn during a crossing from Canaria to the Caribbean, on board Catana 47 « Rafale », token place in ARC rally 2011. In addition, Olivier Bouyssou a pu améliorer « au fil de l’eau » son application Weather4D Pro, correcting, adding and optimizing daily development onboard. Read more …
Iridium - iPad connection – is coming out !
Le routeur WiFi AxcessPoint d’Iridium
I dont like to advertise products or features before they are available, but in this case the subject can guide choices or postponements of purchase among potential users.
Iridium announced on last 7 September the creation of a free service called Iridium AxcessPoint Mail & Web app qui sera disponible avant la fin de l’année 2011. This will be a mail and web compression service, hébergé par Iridium, spécialement conçu pour optimiser la transmission de données avec le nouveau routeur WiFi Iridium Iridium Mail. Read more …
Use an Iridium phone with Mac OS
British company Mailasail provides tools to connect directly an Iridium to Mac OS X. A driver specially designed by them now allows data to be transferred from a messaging application under OS, mainly Mail or Thunderbird, and surf the Internet.
We can make requests for weather files by mail from servers Mailasail, Saildocs, ocens.net or even Navimail. The subscription to Teleport-it provides several services : mail compression, access to the weather file server Teleport Weather (¹), Possibility of creating a personalized blog. In addition, there are two very useful applications : Teleport Firewall and Teleport Proxy.
Finally, Mailasail had the good idea to offer a free trial subscription, allowing you to carry out all the configuration that will follow, and to test mail sending/receiving following procedure described on its website. Read more …