Can I ditch my SSB radio for an Sat Phone type Iridium Go?

[a64pilot]

Sat phones or iridium Go are a point to point communications device. Meaning that they are great to call a specific place or person, but not so good for calling a Mayday we need help at the following coordinates to hope a nearby ship or boat will respond.
Different devices, for different purposes.
Kind of like asking which is better a jib or a spinnaker?

[Reefmagnet]

I ditched the HF radio for a satphone. I do have a SDR reciever that will work on marine HF frequencies for receiving weather reports, etc.


You'll probably find that Marine HF isn't actively monitored on emergency channels anymore in a lot of places and instead relies upon DSC. Making a GPS enabled EPIRB a much better choice nowadays, imo. At least you can take it and a satphone in the life raft with you.

[model 10]

Part depends on where you cruise. We could not do without getting wx in the morning from Chris Parker over the hf radio.

[wingssail]

[QUOTE=lvictorlucas;2938213]

Originally Posted by psk125

If you get into trouble and need on-site help ASAP, you want to be able to communicate with anyone within listening distance, so they can respond and get to you ASAP.

Immediate help is much more useful than a few hours at best!

Immediate help? Anyone over about 10 miles away is going to be a few hours from helping you anyway. You'll just be talking to them, so it might as well be on the phone.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Ecos

Part depends on where you cruise. We could not do without getting wx in the morning from Chris Parker over the hf radio.

Well he sends emails too

[wingssail]

Costs-Expenses!

I had an SSB but resisted Pactor as old tech. single thread, etc.

I was waiting for years for good sat. Internet. It hasn't arrived yet. Anyhow, it was going to be expensive I figured.

I then thought about sat phone but I was worried about $150/mo airtime bills.

I finally bought a pactor and signed up for sailmail. Wow! not hard to use, and not expensive. Weather, Grib, email, and more. That was 20 years ago.

Not much has changed. If I had no worries about airtime costs I'd go with the sat phone. If Musk or Bezos do what McCaw failed at (global low earth orbit internet sat system, for a reasonable price) I'd go that way. Right now I continue to use my cell phone when near land and my SSB/Pactor when offshore.

[model 10]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Well he sends emails too

No, I need to listen to most of the broadcast to understand. Then sometimes subscribing boats will be in our area!!

[MicHughV]

...this is an interesting topic....

...back in the day, I had both (and used both) a SSB and Ham radio, but they both shared the same antenna tuner. In addition I had a laptop that could be wired into either radio to download weather faxes....

..." back in the day"...there was WOM working out of Ft.Lauderdale....they were the " High Seas" operator and were listening 24/7 on multiple frequencies. You could always reach them day or night....
...alas they are no more...and have been off the air for quite some time....

...I got into Ham radio and worked my way up to an " extra" class radio and there for a while, the Ham bands had a variety of sailnets, etc, but most importantly, many Hams could provide a phone patch if I needed to talk to someone...it takes some knowledge to learn who is listening to what frequency and what channel...but generally speaking, I could always count on connecting with someone.
...like WOM, the old time ham nets have started to fade out. Getting a General Ham license now is easy as pie. The morse code requirement, which was the big hangup, " back in the day" is now gone....

....so, having said all that, if you have the equipment on your boat, keep it and learn to use it, but let's face it, modern technology has made relics out of SSB and Ham. However, I offer this caveat, learn to use both the SSB and Ham radio. Keep a radio log of who listens to what frequency and when. This may require some extended listening time, both day and night, to accumulate this data. You can purchase books or or other documents, which will list all the various frequencies, ham nets, etc, which one's to use at day or night, distance, etc...

...cell phones, sat phones, power boosters, long range cell towers, boosted antenna's, computers, etc, are here and getting better every day!

...but all these " devices" are merely tools to use for communication, so why not have as many tools as possible. Sooner or later, you may have to use one or the other.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Ecos

No, I need to listen to most of the broadcast to understand. Then sometimes subscribing boats will be in our area!!

OK just to continue to be a pain, he does have a web broadcast apparently of the radio program.
I’ve not used that though

[CassidyNZ]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Sat phones or iridium Go are a point to point communications device. Meaning that they are great to call a specific place or person, but not so good for calling a Mayday we need help at the following coordinates to hope a nearby ship or boat will respond.
Different devices, for different purposes.
Kind of like asking which is better a jib or a spinnaker?

Given that a Mayday is reserved for critical all-is-lost situations (defined as “imminent and grave danger”) I would be inclined to depend on the flick of a switch on my EPIRB rather than trying to get a Mayday call out. In essence, whilst there may be many a grimace to follow, I believe Mayday to be about as redundant as SSB.

It would be a stretch for me to believe that any commercial shipping monitors SSB these days, if ever, and although many boats profess to have emergency antennae for their SSB, very few actually have. So if your rig comes down or your batteries get inundated (sinking) SSB is a dead duck. And any vessel near enough to be of assistance would probably pick up a VHF call. And then of course there is the AIS signal as well.

The irrefutable advantage of Iridium Go is that it will continue working for 12hours or more from your liferaft

No, I’ll risk the ridicule - on my boat, Mayday is redundant.

[model 10]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

OK just to continue to be a pain, he does have a web broadcast apparently of the radio program.
I’ve not used that though

Sometimes the web thing takes a while, do these little objects work that way? I thought that service was for someone who had a computer connection or 4g.

[roland stockham]

Would you consider ditching the VHF for a mobile phone? So why would you ditching a long range radio for a long range mobile phone. Radio and phone are complementary

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by zeseb

I have a SEA 222 model (VEry old) that inherited from my boat purchase. It's not even connected anymore...
Plus HF would mean I need to learn how to use it but a Iridium-Go is just easier I would think.

Yes, by all means, avoid anything which would require you to learn something.

HF is still useful. There are still nets with lots of input/feedback from other cruisers (and a controller who can give advice and help obtain assistance), there is still email and GRIB capability without adding to your credit card balance. And if you dropped your sat phone in the bilge or toilet, you have a back-up

But SSB/Ham does require some learning. Many people use it as a hobby.

[psk125]

[QUOTE=wingssail;2938324]

Originally Posted by lvictorlucas

Immediate help? Anyone over about 10 miles away is going to be a few hours from helping you anyway. You'll just be talking to them, so it might as well be on the phone.

So the Satphone gives you the phone numbers of everyone around you, so you can call them?

[CassidyNZ]

[QUOTE=psk125;2939542]

Originally Posted by wingssail

So the Satphone gives you the phone numbers of everyone around you, so you can call them?

Boats up to 10nm away (given heights above water level of both antennae) will be in line-of-sight and if your VHF is in any reasonable shape would be contactable without the need for HF radio. Satellite comms put you in touch with all the agencies that can really help in times of need. Those agencies in turn will be in touch with shipping in your area that will be most effective in a rescue if required. Besides, the modern yacht has several other satellite-driven sources of emergency contact which show up an HF radio for what it is - a relic from a bygone technological era (IMHO ).

If you really want an SAR quandary in terms of communication, you should consider sailing up the east coast of Africa. Once you leave a South Africa waters, nobody mans any form of radio base, mostly they don’t know what a satellite phone is and if they did, there is in any case no SAR of any description that will come to your aid.

We spent 3 days anchored in the Pungwe River (harbour to Beira, Mozambique) calling harbour authorities who we could see, sitting in their office, on VHF to get permission to go ashore. On the fourth day we went ashore without authority and on speaking to the harbourmaster he told us that they saw/heard us but decided we would be too much trouble (we were apparently the 1st private leisure vessel into that port in 15 years) so refrained from responding. And that was with our boat anchored 100 yards from their office. Good luck calling them from where they can’t see you.