Label : Iridium

Iridium NEXT the future

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Constellation Iridium actuelleThe 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 ?

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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

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BluestairsAfter 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 …

Navigation with iPad trainings : a complete solution

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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 !

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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

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mailasailBritish 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 …