Panbo

The Marine Electronics Hub

Category: Communications

Inmarsat, Iridium, & Globalstar…the horse race 15

Handheld / Communications / The Trade

Inmarsat, Iridium, & Globalstar…the horse race

inmarsat_isatphone-pro_collage.JPG

Competitive heat is really building in the portable global sat phone/messenger sector, and once it gets sorted, it’s got to be good news for those of us who venture beyond cellular networks.  Last week Iridium announced that its smaller, cheaper 9602 SBD modem is ready ahead of schedule to some 90 “integration partners,” and a few weeks before that Inmarsat detailed its IsatPhone Pro (due in June), including its game changing pricing.  And while I discussed both of these developments here in January, it’s Globalstar that may be the dark horse in this race…

DSC VHF channel changing SAFETY ALERT, depressing! 9

Communications / AIS

DSC VHF channel changing SAFETY ALERT, depressing!

DSC_channel_changing_safety_alert_cPanbo.JPG

Sorry, but I’m going to start off this week with depressing news:  The U.S. Coast Guard — which I’ve always thought of as a major proponent of DSC VHF — recently issued a Safety Alert that treats one of its core features as a hazard.  In fact, the Guard now “strongly recommends
disabling the automatic channel switching feature…”  Does this mean that placing direct DSC calls to AIS targets — a function that seems to be nicely designed into the DSC system, and one that many of us are enthusiastic about — may not work well?  Yes, it probably does.  But, then again, the USCG found itself between a rock and a hard place…

Iridium OpenPort vs KVH FB150 testing #3, VOJ in the Pacific 14

Communications

Iridium OpenPort vs KVH FB150 testing #3, VOJ in the Pacific

VOJ_South_Pacific_courtesy_Google_Earth_cPanbo.JPG

Talk about a blue marble!  Visions of Johanna is now half way from the Galapagos to Easter Island, and very far from home. But Gram Schweikert was able to call my Google Voice mail number from VOJ yesterday, and the recording sounds decent, as you can hear below. He’s going to keep trying the two satcoms system across the Pacific, but he’s already completed the main  testing, as you’ll read after the break, and the news is pretty much all good…

AC33, Communications Challenges 11

Communications / What's on board...

AC33, Communications Challenges

P1060227 (Small).JPG

From Dan Corcoran in Valencia, SP:  Because of the great speeds of the two sailboats, this America’s cup will be held further from shore and on a longer race course than those of recent memory, causing tremendous challenges communicating on the race course. Even the judges are unsure that they will be able to communicate successfully in boats equipped like the one pictured above with retractable towers for VHF communications and satellite dishes.

Iridium 9602 & Inmarsat IsatPhone Pro, oh boy! 8

Communications

Iridium 9602 & Inmarsat IsatPhone Pro, oh boy!

Iridium_9602_with_Card.JPG

The smaller, cheaper Iridium short-burst data (SBD) modem I heard about at Fort Lauderdale is now official and, wow, doesn’t it look able to “disappear into as many marine devices as possible!” It even has a GPS input/output ports so that it and the modem can easily share a dual-mode antenna.  Hardware and service costs aren’t specified but Iridium is claiming that the 9602 will have “the highest value in the industry.”  I, for one, can’t wait to see devices like the Spot Messenger that are global and bi-directional, and what the MFD and marine security/tracking developers might do with the 9602.  And I’m glad for Iridium that it’s got this and OpenPort going on, because it sure looks like Inmarsat is about to attack its dominance in the satellite phone department…

DeLorme & Spot, who knew? 14

Handheld / Communications

DeLorme & Spot, who knew?

delorme-pn-60w-and-spot-communicator.jpg

The gadget and GPS blogs are all over this combination of DeLorme handheld GPS and Spot messenger, which will apparently get official when the CES opens tomorrow.  With good reason, too, because a user will be able to key a free-form text message into that new PN-60w and get it delivered from a lot of places where cell phones are useless.  I didn’t think a Spot could handle custom messages from the point of origin, and it sure makes me wonder what we don’t know yet about the fixed marine model…

Shakespeare sailboat VHF antennas, clever 18

Communications

Shakespeare sailboat VHF antennas, clever

Shakespeare_sailboat_antennas.JPG

These 3-foot, 3dB VHF whips look very smart for sailboat mast head installs, especially the Windex-style apparent wind direction indicator built into the $190 Galaxy 5440 model.  Both it and the $160 5445 model come with 65 feet of RG-58 coax cable and an “exclusive solderless connector system” that enables easy removal of the whip, and also looks easier to fish up a mast than the standard PL-259 connector at the other end.  Press release here.