The blog
In June 2012, I wrote a post about the future constellation of communications satellites Iridium NEXT. While intended for operational use in 2017, the calendar had been shifted by a few months. Indeed, the launch of the first ten satellites by the private company SpaceX, originally planned on 12 th 2016, was postponed for a few months by the explosion on September 1 of a Falcon rocket 9 rocket explosion during the fuel filling on its launch pad before a shot of engine test.
[Update 15 February 2019] The recent update of the application Iridium Mail & Web app gives me the opportunity to refresh this post originally written in December 2011.
The Wi-Fi Gateway Optimizer from RedPort allows owners of a mobile satellite phone to make requests and receive GRIB weather files from an iPad or iPhone on the high seas, into the wild, anywhere on the world.
After implementing and testing this solution On a long journey, It proved to be perfectly operational. However, it is limited to the receipt of the forecasts of the GFS weather model worldwide, and the wave pattern WW3, obtained by the American server's autoresponder Saildocs.
If satellite phone rates, mainly Iridium and Inmarsat, have not evolved in the United States., this is not the case in France. After storage removal of products remained on the shelves, new supplies from distributors saw a sharp increase. Indeed, the combined action of Euro decline and French VAT rise obligated to a significant prices increase, both the material as communication SIM vouchers, prepaid or postpaid. Read more …
Iridium announced to its distribution network the shutdown of the AxcessPoint WiFi router at the end of February (¹) which allows an iPad or iPhone to connect to an Iridium phone to access an email service.
No need to worry for current users : the associated Iridium email service will remain active and accessible to all users. However, this router will no longer be able to be ordered from the 25 February. Read more …
Since release Apple iOS 8 early October 2014 the messaging app Iridium Mail & Web app (qui a remplacé Iridium Mail & Web app) was no longer able to export an attachment to another application using the “Open in” function.… ”. De ce fait on ne pouvait plus utiliser un fichier météo GRIB reçu en pièce jointe depuis le serveur SailDocs dans aucune application, principalement Weather4D PRO.
Il aura fallu plus de 3 mois pour que deux mises à jour successives viennent corriger ce problème sévèrement handicapant pour les utilisateurs clients de Iridium :
Since the release of Iridium GO! (¹) There were two different pages of subscription (for free) to messaging service, and two applications (iOS/Android) to connect to Iridium devices. Now there is only one application : Iridium Mail & Web app pour se connecter soit au routeur Optimizer, soit à Iridium GO! Read more …
Since its announcement last February, and GO! took a long time to arrive at retailers until the beginning of this month. The company E-SAT gave me one to conduct some tests. Although too late to carry out these tests at sea, the Quai des Antilles on the Ile de Nantes offers a wide sky clearance also than the deck of a boat, enough to connect satellites of all-round. Two types of tests were carried out : requests and receipts of GRIB weather files from an iPad featured with Weather4D PRO app, functions related to telephony from an iPhone.
Global satellite company aims at the consumer market with Iridium GO!™ : pack it for camping or world travel.
In all public places where you can wirelessly connect to the Internet today, une connexion Wi-Fi n’est pas encore omniprésente. Et si vous êtes un plaisancier, randonneur, pilote, en camping-car ou quelqu’un qui passe beaucoup de temps dans la nature, les chances de vous connecter au cyber-espace dans certains endroits éloignés est presque impossible. Il ne s’agit pas seulement des données. Try making a cellular phone call in such places !
I mentioned in two previous posts, d’une part le système ADS-B équivalent de l’AIS pour l’aéronautique, d’autre part le futur des communications satellites avec la prochaine constellation Iridium NEXT. Figurez-vous que le site NewScientist nous apprend, dans un récent article daté du 14 December, que les satellites Iridium NEXT vont embarquer des appareils de transmission ADS-B. Je vous en livre ci-après une traduction librement adaptée.
Ces deux technologies de communication associées vont révolutionner le trafic aérien dans les dix ans à venir. Read more …
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