Satcom coming on strong

Satellite based communications choices continue to grow

- John Kettlewell

We’re not quite there yet, but the era of Star Trek-like communicators is mostly here — though many of us are impatiently waiting for the day we can beam ourselves between home and the boat. In many ways, the smartphones we use every day are more sophisticated than the basic flip-phone communicator that Star Trek imagined, but most of us are still limited by the distance to the closest cellphone tower.

However, that tie to terrestrial towers may soon end. Hundreds of satellites for Elon Musk’s Starlink are in orbit and capable of providing limited Internet coverage. It is claimed that by the end of 2020 there will be some sort of coverage over North America. The company says, “Starlink will deliver high-speed broadband Internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive or completely unavailable.” That sure sounds good for ocean cruising and voyaging; of course, the system will be designed to focus on providing broadband to places where people regularly live.

In the meantime, there are already satellite communications systems in place that can provide limited voice and data services via Wi-Fi to our cellphones — though, these services require specialized equipment, apps and service plans. In the past, many of us have connected satellite phones to laptops and other devices using cables and connectors, which always required much experimentation and plain luck to work properly. I sailed around the Caribbean with a large bag of cables and connectors that ended up not working or failing for some reason. By utilizing Wi-Fi, these new products and apps eliminate one of the biggest hassles of satphone connectivity.