Email at Sea

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You can actually get email while underway? Of course! Utilizing either your HF Radio or a satellite system you can send and receive email right from your boat. There is some specialized equipment needed to connect up, however, and below we'll talk more about that.

Contents

Equipment required

HF PACTOR system

PactorSystem.jpg

Satellite system

HF PACTOR Service Providers

Commercial

Commercial stations provide services over marine HF/MF Radio frequencies. Because users hold a marine license they may communicate from any territorial or international waters. Messages can be encrypted and can contain any type of information.

  • Sailmail The SailMail Association is a non-profit association of yacht owners that operates and maintains an email communications system for use by its members. SailMail email can be transferred via SailMail's own world-wide network of SSB-Pactor radio stations, or via satellite (Iridium, Inmarsat, Globalstar) or any other method of internet access. (Sailmail Association)
  • ShipCom LLC provides email, fax, telegram, and phone patch capabilities from several shore stations around the United States including coverage in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Pacific Ocean, and Bering Sea using WLO and KLB radio stations.
  • BBRemail Brunei Bay Radio provides a Pactor/Airmail based HF/SSB radio email service from it's central SE Asian location on the north-west coast of Borneo, in an approximately 3000nm radius. (See the General section below)

Amateur Radio

E-mail services utilizing amateur radio frequency spectrum cannot be used for commercial purposes. If you plan on communicating any business-related information you should utilize a commercial service provider as these types of messages are not allowed on amateur radio. Also, you should be aware of transmitting from territorial waters of foreign countries as most have restrictions on third-party traffic and whether or not they accept your foreign amateur radio license.

Set Up for Email

Details?

Publications

Books, etc.

  • Yachting Monthly's Using PCs on Board by Tim Thornton - coverage of PCs on board including extensive information on mobile phone, WiFi and satellite communications

Forum Discussions

List links to discussion threads on partnering forums. (see link for requirements)

General

Brunei Bay Radio.
Brunei Bay Radio now operates an extended version of SailMail suited to charter yachts, live-aboard dive and surf charter boats, remote islands, cruising families (ie: with children doing schooling via email), cruisers who still need to manage a business from their boats, isolated jungle camps, off-the-beaten track cruisers, and more. The service uses the same HF/SSB radio, Pactor modem and AirMail software as SailMail, but also permits attachments (Word, Excel, PDF, JPG etc) and larger daily connection time subscriptions; 20, 30 or 40 mins per day. It operates throughout the same service area as the SailMail gateway I host here - SE Asia, NW Pacific and eastern Indian Ocean. The north and west coasts of Australia, Japan, Solomon Islands, Cocos Island, Chagos and the Maldives are all within range of the base equipment here in Brunei.

Many subscribers have relegated their expensive-to-operate satellite based phone/text/email systems to "back-up" status after joining this service. The convenience of a low annual subscription with no monthly bills, reliable service (even in the regular heavy cloud that blocks "low-cost" satellite systems in this region) and local support from Brunei Bay Radio makes this service very attractive.

For cruisers - especially those with school aged children or those still managing businesses - who wish to enjoy the less populated and less commercialised areas of SE Asia and beyond, the additional capabilities of this low-cost HF/SSB radio email service makes uncongested anchorages, remote islands and less travelled areas feasible for many people; free of the need to cruise from one WiFi equipped marina to the next. Info Website

External Links


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