Hi, We have used OCENS Satellite phone & email service and think they are tops.
We bought an Iridium 9555 Satellite phone, and also a stubby antenna we mounted externally and also a small Docking Station to keep the phone in that runs off of 12 volts at our inside steering station. We have (except for a couple test calls) always used the phone just for email. We installed it in April of 2011 just before our 38 sea days, going from Brunswick GA to Falmouth England in 2011. WORKED LIKE A CHARM. We used the version of the software for MAC computers and it worked well. They spent time holding hands this July till I got it set up all over again from Serbia on the internet over SKYPE after I had removed prior software they had supplied. They are great at support, which I cannot say for others, as I found other service wanting and the principals at their competitors not interested in doing anything but selling you time and suggesting you just email them questions you have in setting it up. The competitors tried to give support with online videos, but they were not helpful. We switched back to OCENS because of this. All emails are batched so that you compose them offline, and then when you log onto the mail program it compresses all outgoing and incoming messages. We would typically send as many as 8 simple email messages of text only in .7 or .8 of a second. This made it truly economical. Most recently we have taken ANGEL LOUISE, across the North Sea to Holland, for travel up the RHEIN RIVER and then by canal to the DANUBE, where we have been going downstream to join the BLACK SEA, with plans to spend next winter on the Asian coast of Turkey. Presently we have the boat in BELGRADE. Anyway, we thought we would switch services to an English Satellite company (Mailasail) that serves many of the folks doing the Atlantic Rallye for Cruisers from the Canaries to St Lucia every year. We found the service not on a par, and the compression a joke compared to OCENS. After spending 50 minutes of precious Satellite time and doing just a few emails, we decided the savings from the compression of OCENS made their service far more economical in the long run. We have been using the Satellite phone from Central and Eastern Europe. I have heard good reports on the services with the Iridium equipment worldwide. If you have any specific questions, please advise. Ed and Sue Kelly... USSV ANGEL LOUISE On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 3:50 AM, john sexton <[email protected]> wrote: > Does anyone here have any experience with the OCENS mail-satellite phone > email service? I have a friend traveling to a remote location in Africa who > would like a review and your thoughts. Thanks, > John > _______________________________________________ > Liveaboard mailing list > [email protected] > To adjust your membership settings over the web > http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard > To subscribe send an email to [email protected] > > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ > > To search the archives > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > > The Mailman Users Guide can be found here > http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html -- Ed Kelly sailing vessel ANGEL LOUISE - Catalac 12m US Skype phone #: 202-657-6357 [email protected] _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
