MacSailing.net

Hi

Please be kind if this has been covered before, but at the moment I just can't spend hours trolling through hundreds of posts hoping that I stumble across what I need.

I am a Canadian living in NZ, refitting a big cruising boat, with two kids under 4, a to do list a hundred miles long and a time line for our first 1000 mile passage that is getting shorter by the day. Here goes.

I have:

Iridium 9505 with serial adapter on the bottom
Passage Plus (free NZ charts)
MacBook OS X 10.5.8
Furuno GP 32 with data feed to MacBook that works!
Mac ENC (bought today)
Mac Wx ditto
500 prepaid minutes on Iridium
a serial USB adapter that works well with the GPS (ATEN UC 232A)

ICOM M802
Pactor II Pro

almost no usable time on my hands

no experience with or understanding of boot camp

much of this hardware came with the boat. They ran windoze, so i have a mitt full of useless Serial adapters etc and a bunch of other things that are no good to me or my mac or both

Questions:

what do i need to do in order to get the Iridium to talk to my macbook? what parts and pieces are required?

How important is it that i get XGate (more subscription $)?

how can i make this process easy (or easier)?

any help will be deeply appreciated.

thanks

scott

Here is what you need.

1. keyspan USB to serial adapter
2. a data adapter for your 9505a although a docking station would be better.
3. an external iridium antenna with properly matched antenna cable is highly recommended
4. xgate e-mail compression software for Mac OS X
5. MacWx by the same folks that created MacENC

total cost...
$59 keyspan
$105 - data adapter
$588 - sat trans docking station for 9505a
$250 - external antenna with mounting bracket
$149 - 10m of antenna cable
$59 - xgate signup fee
$80, $139, $240 xgate subscription for 3, 6, or 12 month respectively
$138 - MacWx with WxNet subscription
$75 - prepaid weather card for data.
$649 - Iridium 500 minute prepaid air time.

Let me know if you require any additional info.

Take care.

--luis

-- Luis Soltero, Ph.D., MCS Director of Software Development, CTO Global Marine Networks, LLC StarPilot, LLC Tel: 865-379-8723 Fax: 865-681-5017 E-Mail: lsoltero@globalmarinenet.net Web: http://www.globalmarinenet.net Web: http://www.starpilotllc.com

Hi Luis

thank you for the quick response.

as long as what i have called a serial adapter for the phone is the same thing as the data connector, then i have everything on the list except the X Gate subscription. i even have a docking station, although i guess i did not say that the first time.

so, X Gate is important?

and how does it all work?

is it simply a matter of plugging it all in and following simple instructions? i like that!

thanks

scott

Luis does not generally monitor this forum. Probably best to communicate with GMN directly ..

http://www.globalmarinenet.net/contact.php