Email at Sea

From CruisersWiki

Revision as of 21:47, 16 February 2014

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.

Objectives

• To send and receive short text emails while at sea (out of sight of land, out of range of 3G/4G/WiFi coverage).
• To send requests for and receive GRIB data files containing weather information, or other weather data, to assist in passage planning.

Note that there are higher bandwidth satellite systems which allow full internet access at sea, from anything up to fast dial-up/ISDN speeds (around 64K-128Kbit/sec) up to 1MBit/sec or more. These systems are currently outside of the scope of this article because they tend to be expensive, at least outside of the budget of most cruising sailors. Foir more information on those systems see Satellite Broadband.

Options

There are 3 basic options that are able to perform low bandwidth email while at sea. These are:

• HF Radio and a PACTOR Modem
• Satellite Phone
• HF Radio and WINMOR software (the software acts like a modem).

Alternatives

If your primary goal is to receive weather data and only weather data, then there are two options which don't incur some of the costs of these methods for getting weather data:

• Weatherfax -- using just an HF Radio, a PC soundcard and some software, basic weather information can be received.
• NAVTEX -- this provides text format weather data over an MF frequency, some HF/MF radios can be tuned to this frequency although it is more common to purchase a dedicated NAVTEX receiver.

Satellite broadband services are starting to get cheaper each year, but the equipment cost is still very high -- see Satellite Broadband.

Equipment Required, and Pros & Cons

HF PACTOR system

This relies on having a specific type of modem to connect to one of a range of models of HF radio.

• HF Radio
• Modem
• Boat Computer
• Software

Pros and Cons:

• + Operating costs are low, no "call time" purchases are required.
  • Using the sailmail system costs $250 per year.
• + Since an HF Radio will be part of standard equipment for most cruising sailors, this method re-uses equipment that may already exist on board.
• - An HF Radio of a specific make and model is required, most earlier model HF and SSB radios don't support the connections required for the Modem.
• - The specific type of Modem that is required is expensive.
  • Indicative cost for the modem is US$1148 for the Pactor-III modem or $1498 for the faster Pactor-4 modem, as of February 2014.
  • This doesn't include the cost of the HF Radio which could be around $2500 for the radio and tuner, but I would suggest that these are required equipment on a sea-going vessel anyway, even if they are not used for email.
• - The system is not cross-platform, it requires some software which only runs under Microsoft Windows.
• - There is a 90 minute per week connect time limit for using the sailmail (airmail) software. This software is required to fetch email via HF because the HF/PACTOR system doesn't provide a true IP connection, only a limited / proprietary protocol connection over which the sailmail system and airmail software will run. This can be an issue in areas of poor coverage, the sailmail web site suggests using a Pactor-III or better modem to alleviate this issue.

Satellite system

• Boat Computer
• Satellite phone or terminal
• Software

Pros and Cons:

• + The hardware cost of the satellite phone is lower than the cost of the HF radio and Modem, in case an HF radio (or the specific type of HF radio) is not already installed.
  • Indicative price for satellite phones is US$980 for the Iridium 9555 or US$1230 for the more advanced Iridium 9575 as of February 2014.
• + The system is easy to set up and cross-platform.
• - Purchase of call time "minutes" are required.
  • Indicative price of 500 minutes is US$675 as of February 2014.
• + The system provides a true IP connection to the internet, although it is rather slow. In theory it's possible to do anything over that connection that can be done over a normal internet connection.
  • - Additional software and/or service subscription may be required to make effective use of email over the slow IP connection provided by the satellite. Typical plans are about US$30 per month for an email subscription as of February 2014.

WINMOR

• HF Radio
• Boat Computer
• Software

Pros and Cons:

• + Operating costs are low, no "call time" purchases are required.
• + Since an HF Radio will be part of standard equipment for most cruising sailors, this method re-uses equipment that may already exist on board.
• + Most HF Radio types will work, the specific type with modem connections is not required.
• + A Modem is not required, this uses software on the PC to emulate the modem.
• - A HAM (amateur radio) license is required. If you have a standard maritime HF license then you are not allowed to use this system because it uses frequencies in the HAM bands and not frequencies in the Marine HF bands.
• - The software is not cross-platform, it requires Microsoft Windows.

Set Up for Email

HF/PACTOR

See Modem

Satellite

This is covered in Setting a Satellite Phone up for Email.

WINMOR

See WINMOR

Weather Data

GRIB files

GRIB files contain information about predicted wind speed, wave height, etc, for a region over a period of time. They can be loaded into stand-alone GRIB viewing programs such as GRIB Explorer for Windows, or loaded into navigation software such as OpenCPN which allows you to overlay the GRIB data onto your chart/ship position data.

Generally speaking, GRIB files are requested and received as attachments via email, and so you need one of the methods described here to send and receive emails. There are several services that provide GRIB files:

• GMN provides free GRIB data via an email robot.
• Saildocs provides an email based GRIB request service.
• PredictWind provides a premium high-resolution service out of New Zealand.

Weatherfax

Weatherfax data doesn't come in the form of digital files that you receive via email, it is directly transmitted over an HF Radio frequency. More information is on the weatherfax page.

Service Providers

HF/PACTOR

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 its central South East Asian location on the north-west coast of Borneo, in an approximately 3000nm radius. (See the General section below)

WINMOR

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.

• Winlink is a service for amateur radio operators to send and receive e-mail messages from anywhere on the globe.
• Winmor replaces the expensive Terminal Node Controller (TNC) usually required with a relatively cheap sound card and software.

Satellite

See Satellite Service Providers

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.
• GMN Blue Water Cruising Communications Guide

Forum Discussions

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

• Discussion in September 2007
• Experts who can help with pactors and sailmail
• Ways of accessing email
• March 2007 programs discussed (plus how a metal pasta strainer acts as an aerial to tap into a distant wireless internet hotspot!)
• A review of the Skymate Satelite email system. December 2006
• January 2006
• Email at sea thread.

External Links

• Wi-Fi On a Boat Excellent article on the subject.

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