"Bob" wrote in message
ups.com...

SInce our SSB WFAX service may be droped in a efort to keep big
govenment smaller, off our back, and out of our pockets I think I
better consider Iridium. So how long does it take to download a WFAX
map from the Ocean Prediction Center?

Bob,

I don't have the exact time at hand, but last summer I was downloading my
weather info via Iridium email, using Global Marine Network's (GMN,
www.globalmarinenet.net ) Xnet service. My daily wx files we

Grib, about 12Kbytes
East Pacific surface chart, 36Kbyte
24, 48, 96 hour EPAC surface prediction charts, 85Kbytes total
24 hour EPAC wind-wave forecast, 25Kbytes

These, plus any occasional email took about ten minutes of connect time. I
occasionally had a connection drop before the download was complete, but the
Xnet system is pretty good about picking up where it left off once I could
reconnect. GMN also has a specific weather service that is supposed to be
more efficient then what I was doing -- I haven't tried it though. I got
the grib files from Saildocs (see www.saildocs.com), and I had a unix
cronfile running on my ISP's server that would grab the daily WX charts I
wanted, and email them to my satphone email account.

On the other hand, I doubt that the HF WFAX service will really be dropped,
in spite of the call for comments. Just my guess, but I could be wrong.

Good luck,
-Paul S/V VALIS