While awaiting to cross over to the Bahamas last winter I spend
quite alot of time looking at WX data. I was pretty disappointed
with the GRIB data I was getting. It rarely matched the other
prediction products from NOAA and when doing a post-mordem
it rarely matched what actually happened. I quit using them. Perhaps
in the Pacific they are more accurate but I was dissapointed with
them in the FL/Bahamas area.

Another nice thing about Winlink is that the total connect time per
day is higher. I was able to download WX products several times
per day. Also, I was using a base station in Gaithersburg, MD much
of the time and it was almost always available and rock solid signal.
Unfortunally the OP lost his job and had to shut down. He, and several
other OPs increased my connect time quota since the WX systems
were so active and fast changing during early Jan.

Never tried the email FTP service. I did use the one Sailmail advocates
though (Sailinfo was it called?). The catalog in Winlink was better and
seemed to offer more products.

Doug, k3qt
s/v Callista

"Paul" wrote in message
...
When I used both systems last summer, PACTOR III was running on Sailmail,
so
the throughput was very good. Receiving my daily GRIB file (a weather
file
format) was much quicker with P.III. I used Airmail 3 (a terminal/mail
program) with both Sailmail and Winlink, with the propagation model,
FAX/GRIB viewer, and station catalogs for both systems. I suppose that if
I
had searched a bit more I might have been able to find Winlink stations
that
were accessable, but I generally tried the top five or so from the
catalog,
depending on propagation details. The ham bands were just so full of QRM
compared to the marine bands used by Sailmail that it soon became apparent
that I wasn't going to be able to make or hold a connection with Winlink.

Have you tried getting email ftp weatherfaxes (etc) from the NOAA site
)? I could only get it to work occasionally, but
I
haven't debugged it -- ended up just receiving wfax via HF through my
PTC-II
Pro modem.

Finally, I can report that my Iridium satphone worked really well. I only
had one or two dropped calls between Hawaii and San Francisco, and the
equipment, activation, and per-minute expenses were better that the
competing full-coverage satphone systems. I occasionally used it for
medium-speed data connections, but mainly used it for voice.

-Paul - wb6cxc - s/v VALIS

"Doug Dotson" wrote in message
...
Winlink is pretty busy. The management team has been taking
steps to ease the congestion. I also had both Sailmail and
Winlink while in the Bahamas and up and down the ICW with
no real trouble with either. There are so many Winlink base stations
and many have multiple receivers so I rarely had much trouble
finding one. The catalog feature of Winlink is what I found the
most useful. Also, the propogation module made finding potential
stations a snap. At the time Sailmail was not supporting PACTOR III
so the superior speed of Winlink when downloading weather
products made life nice. I could reliably connect at 1400 baud and
occationally up to 3200 baud.

Doug, k3qt
s/v Callista