[paulfin]

Hello All,
I am an SFBay sailor - working on a transition to multihulls.

I am intrigued by the SailMail Service - email over SSB. Their site shows that their client software, Airmail, is Win based. Does anyone know of an effort to create a Mac client for this service? I am assuming that there is no real technical obstacle to this.

paul

[GPSNavX]

There is no technical obstacle at all. Someone just needs to take the initiative and do it. I do not have the SSB and Pactor modem nor the $250/yr sailmail service.

[GPSNavX]

Looks like I am going to be able to secure the required hardware and SailMail account to make an OS X SailMail client a reality.

www.sailmail.com

[ReeferJon]

Excellent news!

[jforder]

I suspect you have identified an untapped market...
This is great news.

[rich morpurgo]

this is good news!

I will buy this as soon as it is available.

rich

[svtrio]

Great News!

I'm sure that you have gotten positive support from the guys who put SailMail together ... be sure to include compatibility with Winlink for us ham users Jim Corenman KE6RK wrote much of the SailMail program and added one for faxes and grib files that have become very popular too. He is a very nice fellow and I imagine that he will be pleased to help you.

Interesting to discover this positive news, because some hams on a recent SSCA forum were speaking about changing from PCs to Mac if they could get the Winlink/SailMail support. They recognize that nav software is available.

Best of luck to you ... and I look forward to the new product.

Roger

[kathill]

Just installed the SSB and the Pactor III modem. Ready to sign up for SailMail this summer, but hoping to be able to use my Mac.

How is this project coming? If I have to get one of those Windows simulators I will be miserable!

[color:indigo][/color]

[adjuvantjfoster]

Looks like I am going to be able to secure the required hardware and SailMail account to make an OS X SailMail client a reality.

www.sailmail.com

Did this ever happen?

Or have the rapid updates, welcome for sure, to GPSNavX and MacENC prempted even thinking about this project?

[pturn]

I just installed SSB and the Pactor modem for email on board. Has there been a good email solution for the Mac on this yet?

[pturn]

Anybody have any experience configuring WindowsXP on a MacBook for SailMail setup?

Pat

[GPSNavX]

When the MacBook is running Windows XP via Bootcamp, it is exactly that - A Windows PC. SailMail works exactly like it would on any other Windows PC. There are no special configuration or installation issues.

[gumboat]

For the past 3 years I've been using the Airmail client app on a G4 PowerBook running Virtual PC. It is painfully slow compared to running natively on a PC, but it DOES work. I have been able to connect well from all over the Pacific and have been able to download gribs and other saildocs. I now have a MacBook Pro with Parallels Desktop running Windows XP. I've installed the Airmail app but haven't checked how well it works when hooked up to the modem. The big problem I've encountered when trying to do this kind of thing (like running the Windows-based C-Map navigation software) is getting the GPS (or modem) to communicate through the USB/serial adapter and the necessary drivers both on the Mac and in Windows. ANYWAY, any work done on a NATIVE Airmail app would be GREATLY appreciated. By the way, when I was originally trying to set up Airmail, I got Jim Corenman to come out to our boat. He said that the Mac is a great platform and that he regretted that he just didn't have enough time to re-write the software for it.

[iBook-FR]

I have been studying the question of Airmail & Mac for a while. Kiel Radio http://www.kielradio.de/index.htm has a special firmware version of the Pactor III which uses standard Hayes AT commands. This allows creating a normal TCP/IP session and using what ever email client you want. (they claim linux users) This should allow the use of the standard Mac Internet connect scripts to create a PPP session. I have NOT done this yet but it's my idea if I do a long offshore stint. I have a ham license and a radio that I can use but the SCS modem and Kiel license is a chunk of change just to test it. Sailmail says the Kiel firmware works on their system, but I am afraid it may not work if you use the method you use for Kiel Radio. I have done some coding on a mac wefax and navtex program so I'd love to give it a try, but will wait until my high seas ideas become a reality.

[lsoltero]

Hello All,

Yes you should be able to run the Pactor PIB with a Mac. The Pactor PIB is a mode in the Pactor III firmware which allows computers to establish PPP links over the Pactor protocol. Hence the name PIB which stands for Pactor IP Bridge.

The PIB also implements a hayes compatible comand set which in theory allows a generic computer (such as a mac) to establish a pactor link without having to install any kind of special software.

Does the PIB work? Yes. Does it work well? not unless you have specialized compression software.

Here is the problem. Pactor (as many of you have experienced) has a ** VERY ** slow line turn around. This means that it might take a long time (seconds or 10's seconds) to reverse the flow of data. Given that most internet protocols (such as mail POP and SMTP) were designed for duplex networks with 0 latency in the line turn arounds poor performance is observed over pactor when using them.

Lets take a look at sending an e-mail. Internet e-mail is sent using a protocol called SMTP. Smtp requires 5 line turn arounds to send a mesg + one line turn around for every e-mail address in the to, cc, and bcc fields. This means that i can take minutes to send a one line e-mail, over pactor, to a few people.

The other problem with internet protocols is that there is no compression. Pactor does implement RLE compression but this is not as good as the block compression used in efficient compression programs such as our XGate software.

Finally, Internet protocols don't know how to restart a failed download caused by a drop in a satellite link.

So the bottom line is that you will not be happy with the performance of your mail application running over the PIB.

Note that we (Global Marine Networks, LLC) are members of a PIB based HF network with stations here in the US, EU, and Africa. XNet has choosen not to support standard internet protocols over PIB because of poor performance issues mentioned above. XNet users are required to use our compression based e-mail client (XGate) and our Weather Product called WeatherNet when using the Pactor PIB.

For more information on XNet visit http://www.xnetmail.com

Thanks,

--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

[iBook-FR]

I agree with all the challenges of SMTP etc over Pactor, but this is a Mac group I am sure Xnet works well as do solutions like Airmail for Sailmail or Winlink2000 if you have a Ham license. But, the search is for a Mac OS X solution. There is an OCENS Weathernet solution for Mac: http://www.macwx.com/ but no email solution that I know of right now.

I'm hoping to work on winlink2000 for Mac when & if I get a pactor, but I have another day job right now ;-)

[GPSNavX]

After waiting for literally over a year for the SailMail folks to provide an SSB and Pactor modem so I could do an OS X port, GMN has come through with an OS X compatible version of their XGate software. XGate offers many significant advantages over SailMail.

http://www.globalmarinenet.net/email.htm