I am sharing this information with the list as well as Mike: I feel that Winlink and Sail mail are some of the best systems--because of the added benefit of weather fax, the ability to get Text weather and Notice to Mariners, the ability to access ham and marine SSB nets--even when traveling on the waterways. The Winlink site is: http://www.winlink.org/ Steve Waterman is sort of the man behind the effort: http://www.winlink.org/k4cjx/ I believe that there are 28 stations world wide--and effectively 24 hour a day world wide coverage. Each station has a reciever or recievers scanning a number of frequencies. The soft ware "airmail": http://www.airmail2000.com/ is free. Any modern computer will run the system. The "modem" is the PTC IIe (certainly adequate for boats) http://www.scs-ptc.com/ is around $700, and the Icom 710, model that does ham radio as well as marine SSB will run close to $2000 with tuner. Ground and antenna run another $200. However not only is there the free E mail, but Weather fax, the ability to communicate on Marine SSB and ham nets--all valuable cruising and safety tools. My own experience is that my close friend used this on his last cirucmnaviagtion. We had E mail communication every day! We had direct voice from here to North Australia (might have pushed it a bit further if I wanted to stay up at night) Picked up again in the Red Sea. So that even in those "dark" areas to ham, there was good reption. Remember that I have a good (not outstanding) antenna farm, and the boat was optimized for reception. Winlink is no shoe string operation--although free. Each of these hams has tens of thousands of dollars invested as a hobby. I get messages every week from people all over the wold--at times requesting medical advice. Sail mail is a parallel technology--using the same programs and modem, but on the marine SSB frequencies. This is a paid service:$200 a year. Many of the same people were involved and although slighly competative, work in parallel and together. There are 11 sites, some with several transmitters. http://www.sailmail.com/ The equiptment necessary is exactly the same as winlink--but you can pass commercial messages. There are now crusing nets and weather nets on both Marine SSB and Ham radio. These give world wide coverage. But they also provide safety (more so the hams--since if an alert goes out on ham radio, it will be on the world wide nets in hours, plus computer shore side etc). I have usually found "missing boats" within a day via the ham nets--This includes obscure areas of the S. Pacific etc. Most of my friends use a combination when state side--but rely principly on Winlink, even on the ICW and loop. It is not as fast,but it is sure convenient. The only disadvantage is in some marinas where there is electronic "noise". Then the "inter net Cafe" --be it the marina office etc takes over. I have used this concept both in boats and the motorhome. Using an AOL "anywhere" or hotmail etc account. However from this standpoint I think that Pocketmail is probably the easiest. Not only do I have boater friends using this, but my Cousins who are world travelers adventurers--bicycle etc. They have gotten me daily messages from Red China, Russia, bike trips across USA (did Australia and New Zealand and SE Asia,but often no phones). Satelite phones--one of my friends has the magellian system. He has so many minutes a month,but feels that it is terriably expensive. One of the problem areas is the Bahamas, where there is no third party agreement with USA--I understand that Batelco (Bahamas phone company) is not the most reliable: http://www.geographia.com/bahamas/investment/telcom01.htm http://www.american.edu/carmel/mr6931a/infrastructure.shtml There are problems with cell phones in the Bahamas--my friends who were there last year felt that it was still virtually impossiable. For urgent calls they used their satelites, for routine the Winlink. Even shore phones are not reliable--and internet service, because of interuptions is not good. Here is the experience of a cruising boater on the East coast: http://www.interchange.ubc.ca/coulthrd/boatmail.htm Mexico and Central America, I used ham--the phones were not reliable--exception was Rio Dulce Guatamulea and Isla Mejueres Mexico are nor fairly good (the latter near Cancun). As for the bag phones and cell phones along the coast--my personal experience is that there are gaps with the cellular voice system. All you have to do is drop the connection for an instant and you have lost your E mail capability. The other problem is even "universal providers" are not really universal. We have At&T which is susposed to have one of the best coverages--there are lots of holes. On my trip from Clear Lake to Pensacola--I made contact every day--but over half were via small celluar companies with the roaming charges--the main cell towers of the big systems are along the interstates--not the ICW. Just my experience: Bob Austin, 30 foot single diesel aft cabin Carver Pensacola, FL. ----- Original Message ----- From: Mike Schooley To: Robert Austin Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 10:19 AM Subject: Re: TWL: Information on accessing e-mail and the internet while cruising I have no "cruising" experience, that is why I am hoping to get input from the list. All my experience is on "go too fast" boats and military comm systems. I would appreciate information on Winlink. I have a section describing Winlink and Sailmail which still needs a lot of work. I'd like more infor on coverage, actual throughput, daily capacity and hardware cost. Thanks; Mike Schooley ----- Original Message ----- From: Robert Austin To: schooley@keyway.net Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 5:02 AM Subject: Re: TWL: Information on accessing e-mail and the internet while cruising