After some deft technical work to get around the amazing fact that Iridium does not furnish drivers for the Vista OS (even though it has been out for a year) Arnold has gotten the basics of the Iridium satellite phone to work:
1. He phoned me from Kingston, Washington, and I phoned him back from my land line.
2. He received three text messages from me and he responded with an email to me.
Before I pass on the satellite phone number BEWARE: The costs quoted by Iridium are up to $7.00 AUD per minute for a voice call, depending on what carrier is being used. So don't try this at home.
The telephone number if the Iridium satellite phone is 8816-3161-9904. From Australia prefix the number with 0011 to yield 0011-8816-3161-9904.
I'll quote Arnold regarding the text messages:
Meanwhile, you can send me text messages at www.iridium.com. Select "Send a Satellite Message" at the top right and send the message to 8816-3161-9904. The message length is 160 characters, which seems adequate.
The 160 characters includes the message address above. However, we think that it is cheap to use. Note that the documentation states that incoming messages will be stored only 12 hours which suggests that we will have to bring check for messages at least twice a day. This implies using the external antenna provided with his kit so that we can use the phone in all but the worst weather.
So much for the basics. He will continue his investigations, principally on costs and efficient usage.
This blog began in late 2006 with the planning and preparation for a circumnavigation of the world in my 39-foot sail boat Pachuca. It then covered a successful 5-year circumnavigation that ended in April 2013. The blog now covers life with Pachuca back home in Australia.
Pachuca
Pachuca in Port Angeles, WA USA
Saturday, November 3, 2007
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2 comments:
Robert you are getting more organised every time I visit your site!! Does it cost much to text an Iridium sat phone or for the phone to send emails. While in Japan last time Aneta sent emails from her phone to hotmail and I could hotmail her back. 160 characters in a text message is normal on a CDMA phone and normally costs 25c to send.
Arnold is putting in a lot of time and effort into the setup and use of the Iridium phone. The first big problem was that the PC software provided is not compatible with MS Vista operating system. He managed to use his technical nous to work around that.
He is still investigating the costs of the various services. His first experience of sending email was not good: about 8 minutes to send out the message, at a cost of about $10 USD. Stephen has provided him with a stripped-down email interface that may speed (and cheapen!) things up.
The text messaging worked well. I sent him three text messages (160 chars max, including the address) and he sent me a reply.
We think that the costs of text messaging are minimal, but I haven't gotten any definite information from him on this. I'll get back to you on this when I have the answer.
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