Lee Higbee of Anchorage, AK, asks:

1. I understand that you have an iridium phone on board. Do you use the iridium for e-mail?
2. If so, are you able to transport photos?
3. If the iridium baud rate is 2400, how long does it take to send and receive an e-mail page (with and without photos)?
4. From the photos, I see you have a KVH antenna - is it for tv, or a mini-M system?

Jim Leishman Responds:

We have an Iridium phone system aboard NORDHAVN and a modem so we can receive and send Email. The Iridium phone seems to send and receive at 4800 baud. We could send a photo; however, the cost is quite high. By mistake our office sent us (aboard the boat) about 6 high resolution photos of the new NORDHAVN 40 flybridge. It took about two hours to clear the download - we could not receive other email until that was eliminated. We later contacted Stratosnet (our provider) and put a block on any attachments to prevent that from happening again.

Normally we write our days Emails, put them into an Outlook outbox and then go on line. The emails are sent and then incoming emails are received. It seems as though we receive five or six emails per day and send at least as many. The air time is generally around two or three minutes at $1.50 per minute.

We're not getting any sponsorship whatsoever from Iridium, but the system has really been excellent.

The KVH antenna is for our Tracphone satellite phone system, which only works in North America, Mexico, Panama and the Caribbean. We installed it prior to going to Alaska last summer and have not used it at all on the ATW trip. When we cross the Atlantic it will be back on line.

Thanks for your interest,

Jim Leishman

Back To Forums