I'm sure that in 4-5 years the world will have changed alot. Right
now a SSB with Sailmail seems like a good solution. I don't consider
$250/yr to be prohibitive. But the up front cost of the equipment is
several BU. Then again it is multipurpose so not all that cost can be
applied to support the writing activity.

Doug
s/v Callista

"rhys" wrote in message
news
On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 17:44:38 -0500, "Doug Dotson"
wrote:

If you have Marine SSB, I suggest that you check out SailMail.
You can do commercial work such as your writings for a pretty
nominal flat fee ($250/yr now I think). Tool up is probably
around 1BU.

I actually have zero equipment at this point in the offshore
communications department (OK, excepting VHF units).

I will qualify for SSB licencing before I buy in the next five years
(projected departure 2008-09) because the advancements are coming so
rapidly in this area I don't want to be stuck with the next Iridium
phone.

It is possible that cruisers will have more and./or cheaper options by
then. I certainly hope so. Writing for a living while offshore is
possible today (half the writers for the sailing magazines seem to do
it), but it's neither cheap nor convenient. I expect that will change.

R.

Winlink limits attachment sizes to 50K normally. Not sure what
Sailmail's policy is now.

Doug
s/v Callista

"Dick" wrote in message
...
I'm a writer by trade and my cruising life will be greatly facilitated
if in five years' time I can send and receive e-mail at a reasonable
cost, say, between 45 N and 45 S.

Weatherfax and SSB will do for me otherwise. The TV stays at home.


A lot of cruisers use SSB to send email now. It is great not to have to
come to
town to use the email. How it would work on large documents I do not know.
But
it may be worth looking in to.

Dick

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 16:43:01 -0500, "Doug Dotson"
wrote:

I'm sure that in 4-5 years the world will have changed alot. Right
now a SSB with Sailmail seems like a good solution. I don't consider
$250/yr to be prohibitive. But the up front cost of the equipment is
several BU. Then again it is multipurpose so not all that cost can be
applied to support the writing activity.

Agreed. I already have a SW receiver to monitor cruiser nets so I can
pick up on people like Herb H., and the etiquette/usage.

Cost: $20 at a ham swap meet. Oh, and $10 for 150 of antenna
wire...luckily I have a long yard!

R.

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 16:44:44 -0500, "Doug Dotson"
wrote:

Winlink limits attachment sizes to 50K normally. Not sure what
Sailmail's policy is now.

If you stick to basics like RTF files, 50K can be several pages of
"plain text". There is the option to send sequential attachments, too.
The problem would be if I were to do design work offshore. Such files
are prohibitively huge.

Another issue is sending pictures or audio back home to relatives...I
think that has to wait for a port.

So far. Things change fast. My club installed wireless access last
year and now I can get weather radar on board before I leave...which
is cool as I am near an airport and they have very good local wind
data.

R.

Dick,

You need to check out Skymate.com if all you need is email. Connectivity
is total via low earth orbit satellites. Cost is very competitive.

pander

"R.W. Behan" wrote:

Greetings-- We're planning a trip to Alaska next spring via the
standard inside passage route. Our boat is a Victory Tug 37. I'd
like to have uninterrupted internet access along the way, aboard the
boat. If this is possible, how do you go about it? Any advice or
suggestions will be much appreciated. Sorry to be so
computer-disadvantaged. Thanks, Dick BehanLNVT "Annie"

Thanks, Pete. I'll look into that.
"Pete Anderson" wrote in message ...
Dick,
You need to check out Skymate.com if all you need is email. Connectivity is total via low earth orbit satellites. Cost is very competitive.

pander

"R.W. Behan" wrote:

Greetings-- We're planning a trip to Alaska next spring via the standard inside passage route. Our boat is a Victory Tug 37. I'd like to have uninterrupted internet access along the way, aboard the boat. If this is possible, how do you go about it? Any advice or suggestions will be much appreciated. Sorry to be so computer-disadvantaged. Thanks, Dick BehanLNVT "Annie"

I would hardly call Skymate competitive if all that you're looking for
is e-mail. Check out www.SailMail.com or www.airmail2000.com if you're
a ham.

-- Geoff

Pete Anderson wrote in
:

Dick,

You need to check out Skymate.com if all you need is email.
Connectivity is total via low earth orbit satellites. Cost is very
competitive.

pander

"R.W. Behan" wrote:

Greetings-- We're planning a trip to Alaska next spring via the
standard inside passage route. Our boat is a Victory Tug 37. I'd
like to have uninterrupted internet access along the way, aboard the
boat. If this is possible, how do you go about it? Any advice or
suggestions will be much appreciated. Sorry to be so
computer-disadvantaged. Thanks, Dick BehanLNVT "Annie"

Attachment decoded: untitled-2.txt
--------------E9F4C15BD7B7EF83F1D182FD
!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"
html
body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"
Dick,
pYou need to check out Skymate.com if all you need is email.
Connectivity
is total via low earth orbit satellites. Cost is very competitive.
ppander
p"R.W. Behan" wrote:
blockquote TYPE=CITEstyle/style
font face="Arial"font size=-1Greetings--/font/font font
face="Arial"font size=-1We're
planning a trip to Alaska next spring via the standard inside passage
route.  Our boat is a Victory Tug 37.  I'd like to have
uninterrupted internet access along the way, aboard the boat.  If
this is possible, how do you go about it?  Any advice or
suggestions will be much appreciated.  Sorry to be so
computer-disadvantaged./font/font font face="Arial"font
size=-1Thanks,/font/font font face="Arial"font
size=-1Dick Behan/font/fontfont face="Arial"font size=-1LNVT
"Annie"/font/font/blockquote

/body
/html

Attachment decoded: untitled-3.htm
--------------E9F4C15BD7B7EF83F1D182FD--

That Skymate looks pretty cool. The $1000 puts it way out of my
budget...guess I'll still be lugging my old notebook to the internet cafe.

Glenn.
s/v Seawing

"Pete Anderson" wrote in message
...
Dick,
You need to check out Skymate.com if all you need is email. Connectivity is
total via low earth orbit satellites. Cost is very competitive.
pander
"R.W. Behan" wrote:
Greetings-- We're planning a trip to Alaska next spring via the standard
inside passage route. Our boat is a Victory Tug 37. I'd like to have
uninterrupted internet access along the way, aboard the boat. If this is
possible, how do you go about it? Any advice or suggestions will be much
appreciated. Sorry to be so computer-disadvantaged. Thanks, Dick BehanLNVT
"Annie"

It's the monthly access fees and the excess bandwidth charges that get me.

-- Geoff

"Glenn A. Heslop" wrote in
news:_fQsd.441391$%k.73274@pd7tw2no:

That Skymate looks pretty cool. The $1000 puts it way out of my
budget...guess I'll still be lugging my old notebook to the internet
cafe.

Glenn.
s/v Seawing

"Pete Anderson" wrote in message
...
Dick,
You need to check out Skymate.com if all you need is email.
Connectivity is total via low earth orbit satellites. Cost is very
competitive. pander
"R.W. Behan" wrote:
Greetings-- We're planning a trip to Alaska next spring via the
standard inside passage route. Our boat is a Victory Tug 37. I'd
like to have uninterrupted internet access along the way, aboard the
boat. If this is possible, how do you go about it? Any advice or
suggestions will be much appreciated. Sorry to be so
computer-disadvantaged. Thanks, Dick BehanLNVT "Annie"