February 3, 2020
On Legacy, we have two ways to get email and weather data: HF radio and an Iridium Go satellite device. One requires a rather advanced understanding of all things computer and substantial technical skills, is only marginally reliable at best, and always frustrating. The other is the HF radio which is only a little less frustrating.
As you may surmise, I’m not a fan of Iridium. We switched our poorly made and unreliable Iridium satellite phone (9575) for their Go! satellite modem thinking it would be better. Nope. While it worked on our trip from Christchurch to Nelson, New Zealand, it didn’t work on our first outing from Nelson to D’Urville Island. We were unable to send and receive data to get weather charts. It soon failed completely and we were unable to make phone calls. (Did I mention that there’s no cell service or internet at D’Urville?)
It’s not as serious as it could have been. We had alternatives. We could get unreliable and seldom accurate weather from Metservice over the VHF radio. We were also in a very protected place and no matter what the weather did, we’d probably be pretty comfortable. If we were out on a passage with a dead Iridium Go!, it would be a different matter.
Our backup plan has always been the HF (HAM) radio with email over Winlink using a Pactor modem. It’s been a while since I’ve used it and in that time, the preferred software has changed to from Airmail to Winlink Express. I installed it a while back and did some testing to make sure I could make it work, then promptly forgot what I’d learned. When the Go! failed, I dusted it off and put it into service. The results reminded me of why we bought a satellite phone in the first place.
The problem with email over HF radio is that you have to have conditions that favor radio wave propagation. That means using the correct frequency at the correct time of day to get a signal through. Here, we had a marginally acceptable signal at 7:00 AM and again at 9:00 PM. I was able to get GRIBS (weather files) only one morning. Other times, couldn’t connect to a Winlink station.
Does anyone know where we can get a really big ball of string? -Rich
