450: Installing External IridiumGO antenna

[JeffBurnes]

Can you recommend a good plan or are you using pre paid SIM cards?

[davedindubai]

Hi Rick, would you share your thoughts on the Go now you've been using it?
Does it allow use of the predict wind offshore app or does it simply email you a gribb?
Did you go for the unlimited plan?

[tuskie]

Originally Posted by onavegador

I was using a Iridium Phone since 2001 until 2014 on two different cats. One built in GRP the other in Epoxy and Foam Sandwich. I had an external antenna for a while but this one failed because I tightened the screws during the installation to much and water penetrated in the external antenna.
I found that without the external antenna the reception and transmission quality has not changed or not so much that I had feelings that the function of the Iridium Phone was impaired.

Fair winds
James

Thanks James.
I've seen a couple of cruising yachts with Iridium Go! installations whose owners report no benefit from an outside mounted external antenna. One has an external auxiliary antenna which operates from the ledge inside the front windows of his catamaran.
Perhaps it's worth assessing the reception before going to the effort to mount an antenna outside?

[Rickthesailor]

HI,

We just completed a cross Atlantic from Las Palmas to Mindelo Cape Verde to Barbados... The IridiumGO worked fine the whole way. We bought it through PredictWind and use their SIMS... The PredictWind offshore app works good, slow but good.... Just don't bother downloading everything and keep it just to two days out... None of the forecasts were correct beyond two days... I found the ECMWF model matched what we saw the best... We also used a weather router who had access to a more detailed report....

We did find that the IridiumGO unit needed to be rebooted about four tines over 22 days...

And we had a five bar satellite signal about 98% of the time with the external antenna.

Regards, Rick

[Rickthesailor]

Originally Posted by davedindubai

Hi Rick, would you share your thoughts on the Go now you've been using it?
Does it allow use of the predict wind offshore app or does it simply email you a gribb?
Did you go for the unlimited plan?

HI,

Yes we have the unlimited plan from Atlantic Radio, and the weather data is accessed from the PredictWind offshore app and the download is automatically loaded into the offshore app... Very simple to use.. Just set your start and end points via click and drag and the weather for that line is loaded... You can also add waypoints to the,course... You have an option to add a GPS tracking point on the offshore app that puts your real time location on the app...

Regards, Rick

[davedindubai]

Thanks Rick.
That's another thing ticked off my list then. I'll order it today.

[DavefromNZ]

Fairly easy to install and run the cable to the nav table:

[TRACKAmap]

Hi all, I spent a lot of time with the Iridium GO last summer (while creating a live tracking program, details in the commercial post section) so want to add a few thoughts to this thread.

Firsly I've seen a few boats (including in posts here) where the device has been hidden away. In my opinion it should be as accessible as possible and installed on the sliding mount so it can be grabbed quickly in an emergency. We keep charged power banks and an old smart phone in the grab bag so we have a good chance of clear communication if we ever abandon the boat. We have EPIRB's too, but they don't tell you if anyone is coming to help...

I spent a month thinking the external antenna was useless before finally pulling out the multimeter and uninstalling the cable to discover one of the connections was busted (likely delivered that way). A 2min soldering job and we now get full signal 99% of the time. As others have mentioned the supplied cable is a pain, it's huge and doesn't bend. Final antenna location is on the solar arch around 1.5m from the radar, which is closer than recommended but doesn't seem to cause any issues. Having the antenna on the very top of the mast would allow a greater view of the sky (negative angle to horizon) but any lower and the mast will obscure the view considerably. Best to have it towards the bow or stern with as clear of a 360 degree view as possible, remember the sky isn't just straight up it's all around you The internal GPS antenna is great and has no problems getting a fix from below, in my testing the worst case has been accuracy to within 20m, instead of the usual 5cm.

If you are using the Iridium GO for regular weather you'll want the unlimited plan (the expensive option, unfortunately). Getting GRIB's can take longer than expected on the slow collection. The benefit is you'll be able to send as many emails, sms's, facebook updates and tracking points as you want, plus check the news headlines (all I really find the internet connection useful for).

Feel free to fire me any questions and have a look at my tracking program.

Cheers,
Shannon

[lamadriver]

After two years and two Indian Ocean transits I can tell you if you have no improvement with the external antenna hten you have a bad connection. IMO the unit is unusable with out the external antenna. if you have the GO mounted inside.

I had a connector issue with the small TNC cable and had a new longer one made up for my installation.

If your having trouble with the cable order some ultrafex.

LD

[JeffBurnes]

Originally Posted by TRACKAmap

Hi all, I spent a lot of time with the Iridium GO last summer (while creating a live tracking program, details in the commercial post section) so want to add a few thoughts to this thread.

Firsly I've seen a few boats (including in posts here) where the device has been hidden away. In my opinion it should be as accessible as possible and installed on the sliding mount so it can be grabbed quickly in an emergency. We keep charged power banks and an old smart phone in the grab bag so we have a good chance of clear communication if we ever abandon the boat. We have EPIRB's too, but they don't tell you if anyone is coming to help...

I spent a month thinking the external antenna was useless before finally pulling out the multimeter and uninstalling the cable to discover one of the connections was busted (likely delivered that way). A 2min soldering job and we now get full signal 99% of the time. As others have mentioned the supplied cable is a pain, it's huge and doesn't bend. Final antenna location is on the solar arch around 1.5m from the radar, which is closer than recommended but doesn't seem to cause any issues. Having the antenna on the very top of the mast would allow a greater view of the sky (negative angle to horizon) but any lower and the mast will obscure the view considerably. Best to have it towards the bow or stern with as clear of a 360 degree view as possible, remember the sky isn't just straight up it's all around you The internal GPS antenna is great and has no problems getting a fix from below, in my testing the worst case has been accuracy to within 20m, instead of the usual 5cm.

If you are using the Iridium GO for regular weather you'll want the unlimited plan (the expensive option, unfortunately). Getting GRIB's can take longer than expected on the slow collection. The benefit is you'll be able to send as many emails, sms's, facebook updates and tracking points as you want, plus check the news headlines (all I really find the internet connection useful for).

Feel free to fire me any questions and have a look at my tracking program.

Cheers,
Shannon

Hi Shannon,

Thanks for your post - would you recommend installing the external ariel on top of the mast then, as it really is the only place to achieve 360 degree uninterrupted views.

[TRACKAmap]

Jeff, I got myself a bit off the point mentioning the top of the mast (I don't think there is a long enough properly rated cable that will allow you to install the antenna up there). Instead my recommendation is to keep it away from the mast, as you move away the amount of viewing angle it restricts gets smaller (both for the horizontal view and the vertical view).

An important thing to remember is that opening up the antennas view of the sky doesnt necessarily improve the reception, it just increases the changes of seeing satelites, which in turn will improve reception and increase the chance of staying connected as you and the satelite move. That's why sometimes you can get great service inside the saloon and sometimes it's poor outside.

Originally Posted by JeffBurnes

Hi Shannon,

Thanks for your post - would you recommend installing the external ariel on top of the mast then, as it really is the only place to achieve 360 degree uninterrupted views.

[tuskie]

Originally Posted by lamadriver

. IMO the unit is unusable with out the external antenna. if you have the GO mounted inside.

Don't know about the design or construction of your Dix vessel, but can testify that our Iridium Go! works just fine WITHOUT an external antenna in our Lagoon catamaran. This thread is in the Lagoon catamaran section. It is situated on the ledge immediately inside the front vertical windows and has good reception almost all the time in all sorts of weather and vessel motion.

Other catamaran owners, with different brands of vessel have reported similar experience. One actually had superior performance once removed from the external antenna. Perhaps there was a defect or installation issue in this case?

I agree that the unit should be accessible rather than remotely mounted, for various reasons.

[DavefromNZ]

Just returned from Auckland-Tonga. Our IridiumGo was 5 bar strength 99% of the time with aerial in position you see in picture earlier in this thread.

[DavefromNZ]

PS I would recommend mounting the IridiumGo unit where you can see it. Several times the "socket error" and other iridium problems occurred so a restart helped. Also, with lots of crew you can see if it is being used and so wait for your turn or ask them to stop so you can download weather info.

[offpist]

Pic of our iridium antenna (the one on top).
The other two are for wifi and 3G/4G.

Crossed the atlantic twice and works well.
Really important to install it in the open so i think in the mast may not be the best.