This is a contentious topic but less people are going HF, especially since the Government HF stations closed in 2002 and the private HF station Penta Comstat closed a few years ago.
I used HF professionally in the Navy and it has equipment serviceability, ionosphere bounce and ducting problems. Night time can mean you can talk to the US but not a local station. HF does provide the ability to put out an all stations call, if anybody is listening, but you can't be sure it will be received by anyone or that they can contact you to let you know they have received it. Some cruisers use HF to talk to other cruisers for a chat and a sat phone for other comms.
Sat phone is more reliable in many circumstances but also has problems. I use mine in the cockpit as deck mounted antennas in my experience aren't reliable. I therefore have a problem in heavy rain and with wind noise but I have never failed to put a call through. Obviously it is a one to one call so the other person has to be near the phone but not using it.
I have the rescue organisations numbers and secondary numbers in my phone.
A sat phone costs about $1000 on eBay (my Iridium 9505A cost $800 6 years ago). How much is HF?

G'day BM, I get a sim card from TC Communications in Sydney whenever I am doing a trip. It cost a fee for the sim of $50. Call costs are $1.20 per minute in 20 sec segments within Australia.
Between trips it sits in its box under my bed with no costs apart from a regular charge.

Hi,

I have used HF, Sat phones and Satcom C while cruising: here is my synopsis...

Iridium (don't bother with anything else) sat-phone: easy and relatively cheap to purchase; expensive to run and make calls - means it is useful for emergency and maybe the odd text use only. good call quality, pretty much works everywhere, easy to learn and use. stand alone can take into life raft. data use v. expensive.

Satcom C: need a radio license and call sign, relatively cheap to purchase; limited ability to message outside operations emergency use excellent - can include message of what is wrong (pan-pan and mayday). high seas weather forecasts, needs computer to run. hard wired onto boat. not many cruising boats use nowadays. cost about $15/month

HF: can be difficult to learn and fiddly to operate in some meteorological conditions, license required, callsign and shipstation license required. Modem required for data (free* text only email from anywhere on earth!); get DSC compatible set if possible. weatherfax software excellent and free; calling availability to all ships in locality, radio nets for contact with other cruisers.

*free = $150US/year sailmail or equivolent

If I was going for a 3 months cruise mainly coastal or short overseas hops and didn't have any existing coms or licenses, I would get a sat phone.

If i was going on a 5 year around the world odyssey I would buy a full HF / Pactor Modem / sailmail set up- worth the money and hassle.

If i was given a satcom c unit I would use that as a back-up (as I was).

money no object I would have all of the above - they each have their uses.

Cheers

James

santanasaga said..

Those in reach systems look the bomb.

In that case I would get rid of the satcom and satphone and use inreach for txt message to home and HF for contact with other seafarers and email.

James

And relatively cheap compared to the other bits of equipment too. The monthly charges might be a little steep but not too bad either. I like the 'Ping' feature. What other equipment can do that?

Have followed this post with keen interest. On short passages , out of 3/G ,4/G coverage , I determine that Satphone is the cheapest investment as I don't run an HF transmitter. Can anyone tell me the best ( cheapest ) way to receive weather on the internet i.e. YrNo and BOM ? I gather that an internet connection via Satphone is possible but can be exey, due to slow download speed. Ideas I am mulling over- phone a person at home that can read weather and give me a verbal report ? and to AngelaCumming -what is a "grib file " ? Any other ideas welcome . Cheers, Bob

How do you get the grib files (cheaply) out of internet range?

BlueMoon said..

How do you get the grib files (cheaply) out of internet range?

You're going to need Internet connectivity to use Grib (as well as email, etc.). The Grib data files are about 35kb, so not particularly large.

IMO, the very first communications device any coastal cruiser should install on their boat is a marine antenna, so you can continue to pick up 3G/4G while offshore. For example, on Arriba I have a Laser 746 Marine antenna (www.laser-antenna.com/product.php?product_id=314), mounted on a 4m pole. I typically still access terrestrial mobile phone networks when I'm 20 nm offshore, which is 90% of my sailing.

Obviously for offshore sailing, mobile phone networks will be out of range and for that you'll need 2-way satellite data-capable phone, such as inReach.