Sailmail

I have downloaded the "Airmail" software used by SailMail. Ron showed me how to use the software via the internet as a fast way of getting acquainted with many of its features.

On the boat I'll be using a Pactor modem whose sounds and flashes reminds me of the modems that we used before the advent of the Internet. However, instead of using a telephone line as the communication medium it uses the short wave radio.

These are two screen shots of my laptop which should best be seen enlarged (double click the left mouse button).

The top screen shows the "propagation" screen. On the left is the list of the Sailmail stations throughout the world. When you highlight one of the stations you get the corresponding display on the right. In this case we are looking at the Honolulu transmitter. The left column of the display at the right lists the frequencies of the Honolulu station. Across the top are the hours of the day, GMT. The main matrix indicates the quality of the signal to be expected for the various frequencies at the various times of the day. The cells in green indicate the good propagations. The ones in red indicate poor ones.

My understanding is that I will be able to click onto one of the cells and the laptop will automatically tune the HF radio to that frequency. I will then listen to the modem. If it is not making a chirping sound, indicating that it is busy handling another connection, I will then request a connection.

The second screen shows the mail screen. On the left you can highlight in-box, out-box, etc.
The out box is populated by emails that I have composed or emails generated by the software as a result of my requests for grib files, faxes, weather reports, etc.

Once the modem connection is established the contents of the out box are sent out. After this has been done any incoming mail is delivered. The email has the look and feel of Outlook or similar email system. It can handle multiple destinations, CC's, and attachments.

The lower photo shows a GRIB file that I downloaded. It shows the location of the boat, wind arrows, and isopressure lines.