Have you used Sailor Satellite/ViaSat?

[mikehar]

Have you used the Sailor/Viasat ka band sat on you boat? If so, I'd love to hear what you think and what you use it for.

 

[BandB]

Have you used the Sailor/Viasat ka band sat on you boat? If so, I'd love to hear what you think and what you use it for.

Not being expert in this and being away from those more so than me at the moment, the Sailor part is easy. We've used Cobham Sailor since 2014. Always very happy with it. Use it for internet, satellite phone, and television. Sea-tel, being their internet brand.

My understanding of Sailor/Viasat is that it's a co-branding of Sailor equipment using Viasat's terminal and on board system. I do not have experience with that version but trusting Cobham/Sailor would feel pretty good about it. I see they are using the latest satellite equipment except for the Sailor XTR, which is more a commercial product.

So, guess I can help on half your question.

 

[mikehar]

Not being expert in this and being away from those more so than me at the moment, the Sailor part is easy. We've used Cobham Sailor since 2014. Always very happy with it. Use it for internet, satellite phone, and television. Sea-tel, being their internet brand.

My understanding of Sailor/Viasat is that it's a co-branding of Sailor equipment using Viasat's terminal and on board system. I do not have experience with that version but trusting Cobham/Sailor would feel pretty good about it. I see they are using the latest satellite equipment except for the Sailor XTR, which is more a commercial product.

So, guess I can help on half your question.

Thanks!

It's a bit complicated. The Sailor system has (at least two) different kinds of antennas. The most common one is the Ku band. KVH, SeaTel, lots of providers on Ku. More recently (2016?) Ka service became available. ViaSat is one of those providers. That is the service that I'm really interested in hearing about.

 

[BandB]

Thanks!

It's a bit complicated. The Sailor system has (at least two) different kinds of antennas. The most common one is the Ku band. KVH, SeaTel, lots of providers on Ku. More recently (2016?) Ka service became available. ViaSat is one of those providers. That is the service that I'm really interested in hearing about.

Cobham offers Ka service in several options. For instance, in the 600 series, they have Sailor 600 VSAT Ka, 600 VSAT Ka High Power, 600 Viasat Ka. They do similar in the 900's. On the 1000 XTR they use Immarsat.

Now, as to the Viasat, I'd feel comfortable, since Cobham is. They're supposed to have excellent worldwide coverage with Viasat and Eutelsat coverage which is also included on the Viasat network.

I did also pick up some third hand information as an engineer with us today called another engineer who she knew was on a boat using Viasat and a boat with high demand owners. I listened in but as they spoke in Italian I understood nothing. However, he confirmed to her that they are extremely happy with Viasat. So, not direct information, but at least a little.

 

[tpbrady]

I have worked on the larger SeaTel antennas and my only comment is their documentation was poor. You had to use two different manuals to configure a system and even then left things out. I would check out the documentation before I made the leap.

Tom