Wayne.B wrote in
:

My rig is on the boat. Pactor, Winlink, APRS and Airmail are the best
things that ever happened to ham radio in my estimation, and serve a
real purpose when you are cruising offshore or in any
non-wifi/cellular area.




I have a 3W 800/2W 1900 bidirectional cellular linear from
cellantenna.com, the DA4000. It's really a nicely made piece of
equipment. Alltel is on 800 Mhz, here, so I'm using an 11-element
Decibel Products, gamma-matched 800 Mhz paging point-to-point antenna a
friend who was in the paging business for years gave me. Haul the beam
up the main on a lanyard and point it in the direction of shore with 24W
ERP really makes a hot CDMA cellphone going down the coast. I also use
it in my service truck out in the country fixing church organs for fun
and profit. My old V60i still has AMPS and that helps, too...(c;

I've never used the ham email services. Pactor was a mistake as it's way
too expensive and proprietary, of course. But, if you want service, you
have to bite the bullet and buy it. Too bad, I think.

When Iridium went bankrupt, I stumbled upon an Iridium
phone/charger/etc., for $25 as they thought it was going dark. I kept it
for a museum piece, then suddenly Iridium was back, of course. It
connects but I don't buy service as I don't need it. If I were going
seriously to sea, I'd buy Iridium service. I've carried it to sea out
250 miles just to see how well it connected and it works great just
anywhere in a plastic yacht.