Iridium emails accessible via webmail

On this opening day of the Paris Nautic boatshow, and as the Christmas holidays approach, I can't resist providing a small gift to the users of the satellite messaging app Iridium Mail & Web app. A tip that I have just been reminded of in the last newsletter of our friend Dominique, to iTabNav.fr, that you may meet on the Booth E11 – Hall 2 to ROM-Arrange.

For those who don't know yet, the email account created for use with the Iridium Mail & Web app (¹) has been accessible for some time by a webmail From any internet browser. Read more …

Iridium services : Inflation in Low Earth Orbit

Inflation does not spare satellite telephone services, to believe that the price of radio waves increases with the cost of transport ! Does this mean that the cost of the round trip of a radio wave toward Iridium satellites (environ 2 x 780 km) is directly impacted by the increase in fuel prices ? Damned, I will have to be explained ! 

Anyway, the bad news has just reached us through our partner iTabNav.fr : Significant general increase in Iridium subscription prices on January 1 2023 affecting all resellers. Read more …

Share GRIB files with Air Share [Update]

More and more of you have adopted the Iridium GO! for its easy way to request GRIB files, directly from Weather4D and some other applications. But some also want to transfer these files to a PC to import them into Windows software. (as you know, no one is perfect !). An easy solution is available : the messaging app Air Share, compatible iOS/iPadOS (¹). [Update 30 th 2022] Warning : the application has changed its identifier code on the AppStore. Read more …

Urgent ! Iridium GO!® firmware update and app GO!®

A new version of the firmware 2.1.22 is now available for the’Iridium GO!®. This release includes an update to fix an incorrect time and date issue for the device Iridium GO!® and the application GO!®. This problem does not affect the functionality of the device/application. Appeals, the data, SMS, SOS and follow-up are still working normally. Only cases where a message (Quick GPS, tracking, SOS) contains a date/time, this one will be incorrect. The order of messages in the Iridium GO app!® may not be respected, as well as missed voice calls. Upgrading the device to the new firmware version 2.1.22 will fix this issue.

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Iridium GO! Positive feedback [Update]

Iridium GO! cruising

Since it was introduced to the market in September 2014 (Eh, yes, 5 years already !) this device, with its indisputable ergonomics and excellent quality/price ratio, has become a must-have for offshore sailors. Easy to implement, without the need for an external antenna (except metal build) it can be used inside the boat.

A test run of several weeks, carried out in October and November 2016 during a transatlantic delivery, had already demonstrated its ability to download GRIB weather files and weather maps despite the low rate (environ 10 KB / mn). With the new Iridium NEXT constellation (¹) we notice since 2019 a real improvement in the global coverage without satellite disconnection.

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The new Iridium NEXT constellation is completed

A few months late, Iridium has just completed its Iridium NEXT satellite launch campaign (¹).
With his 75 new satellites successfully deployed by SpaceX over the past two years, Iridium has achieved the feat of completely replacing its first constellation in record time. The last ten satellites, successfully orbited this January, 11 with a Falcon rocket 9 during the eighth and last launch, definitively complete the new constellation.

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Iridium NEXT maintains its schedule [Update-3]

In June 2012, I wrote a post about the future constellation of communications satellites Iridium NEXT. While intended for operational use in 2017, the calendar had been shifted by a few months. Indeed, the launch of the first ten satellites by the private company SpaceX, originally planned on 12 th 2016, was postponed for a few months by the explosion on September 1 of a Falcon rocket 9 rocket explosion during the fuel filling on its launch pad before a shot of engine test.

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Iridium Mail & Web app : GRIB weather files on iPhone and iPad in open sea [Update-2]

[Update 15 February 2019] The recent update of the application Iridium Mail & Web app gives me the opportunity to refresh this post originally written in December 2011.

The Wi-Fi Gateway Optimizer from RedPort allows owners of a mobile satellite phone to make requests and receive GRIB weather files from an iPad or iPhone on the high seas, into the wild, anywhere on the world.

After implementing and testing this solution On a long journey, It proved to be perfectly operational. However, it is limited to the receipt of the forecasts of the GFS weather model worldwide, and the wave pattern WW3, obtained by the American server's autoresponder Saildocs.

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Satellite phones : prices increase in France

If satellite phone rates, mainly Iridium and Inmarsat, have not evolved in the United States., this is not the case in France. After storage removal of products remained on the shelves, new supplies from distributors saw a sharp increase. Indeed, the combined action of Euro decline and French VAT rise obligated to a significant prices increase, both the material as communication SIM vouchers, prepaid or postpaid. Read more …