This evening I have after various struggles got the Thuraya GmPRS connection to work on my current laptop (why does nothing from Thuraya work straighforwardly "out of the box"?). This is the stage I got to a couple of years ago before giving up as it was slow. It is indeed slooow. This is only usable if I were to have a dedicated minimalist website for transferring essential weather data and nothing else. Next puzzle is how to construct such a page.
Answering mdoerr, I have a Vans permit aircraft, so an antenna does not need certified paperwork. The aircraft has a bubble canopy so I do not know whether a proper external aircraft antenna would deliver material signal benefits. It would be much easier to mount it inside the canopy until its utility were proven (after testing on a car as suggested above).
I am a bit confused about the references above to the need for a phone docking station; with a suitable cable an external antenna could be connected, and the wifi hotspot does not seem to require the docking station either?
Incidentally when flying from country A to country B the phone stays locked to the original country A and needs to be switched off/on to be recognised as in country B. If you don't do that the signal appears to degrade as you transit country B.
Incidentally when flying from country A to country B the phone stays locked to the original country A and needs to be switched off/on to be recognised as in country B. If you don't do that the signal appears to degrade as you transit country B.
I am not saying you are wrong but I don't think it is supposed to work that way.
This may be yet another problem I have not encountered, because I use the 9.6k dial-up mode so I work fast, get the tafs/metars and hang up damn quick so I spend just the $1.
But if you open the GMPRS connection and fly for a few hours, you will be transiting a number of spot beams
and then you may well be right.
It's funny how when you google for "Thuraya spot beam" the top hits show that everybody and their dog is making Thuraya interception equipment 
Clearly every respectable modern Interior Ministry official is very concerned about satellite phones.
Bluebeard yes you will need a special website. But I think there are people on this site who might be able to help you out.
Regarding the logon / logoff and the Windows configuration. This is basically the price you have to pay for the relatively high bandwidth with Thuraya. I personally went another way using an Iridium module. I was able to make that solution very robust but the Iridium bandwidth is so slow that traditional web brosing can be ruled out. You need a specialized application that transmits just the compressed weather data and displays it.
Did you try to reconnect the phone in flight in order to get it into another spot beam? I once did some testing with an SG2520 and the GPS did not work properly while in FL100 at about 165kt so it could not connect properly. But apparently the new XT phone seems to work better.
Yes Sebastian, the XT happily reconnects after crossing a border, when you turn it off/on; but it will not spontaneously change country. The Mediterranean it seems to treat as a separate country, so when you are over the sea it says "Med" where the country normally appears. I was not aware of the spot beam technology, maybe it will not spontaneously change beam. In that case the system will need to be rebooted sometimes in the course of a longer flight. Signal strength seems to vary arbitrarily, for no obvious reason.
I am a bit confused about the references above to the need for a phone docking station; with a suitable cable an external antenna could be connected, and the wifi hotspot does not seem to require the docking station either?
If you find the bayonet connector that fits into the backside of the XT, then you can do without the car docker but you'd need some sort of clamp to hold the phone to the bayonet because it requires constant pressure.
It is indeed slooow.
It is actually very fast for a satellite connection. And don't confuse bandwidth with latency. The latter will always be terrible with a satellite. The typical web page requires a lot of connections which is not suited for a satellite connection. One request and as little back and forth as possible.
This is only usable if I were to have a dedicated minimalist website for transferring essential weather data and nothing else. Next puzzle is how to construct such a page.
Add your email address to your profile or ask Peter to put us in touch.
Incidentally when flying from country A to country B the phone stays locked to the original country A and needs to be switched off/on to be recognised as in country B.
In my all metal C182, the phone is mounted under the metal roof and it has no problem getting a GPS fix from there. It does not update its country display in my experience so you might want to restart it from time to time. Typically you would not travel through more than 2 spot beams.
Regarding the logon / logoff and the Windows configuration. This is basically the price you have to pay for the relatively high bandwidth with Thuraya.
That can be handled by a small wifi hotspot, 40 € with integrated battery.
the XT happily reconnects after crossing a border, when you turn it off/on; but it will not spontaneously change country. The Mediterranean it seems to treat as a separate country, so when you are over the sea it says "Med" where the country normally appears.
Check the image Peter posted, it contains the honeycomb spot beams. Those have different frequencies and the phone should know where it is to choose the best frequency. The GPS has another function and this is billing. There are some places on the planet (e.g. some remote islands) where one can charge a lot more for a satellite phone/data connection and this is what Thuraya does. Depending on where you are, different charges apply.
Signal strength seems to vary arbitrarily, for no obvious reason.
Yes, I saw the same with the builtin antenna but am getting very good and consistent results with the rooftop antenna.
@Sebastian .. yes I did .., the reason being I was doing a major upgrade and made a package deal.. (I bought 2x Ifd540 in the prebuy promo + tas + twx670 + mlx770 + aspen 2000 + asp alt hold. Otherwise I would have waited..
I am refering to this antenna which shows both iridium and thuraya..??
I also hear very positive things about a gsm/3g booster with an antenna installed at the bottom.
Signal strength seems to vary arbitrarily, for no obvious reason.
AFAIK the Thuraya system optimises the spot beam powers according to how many people are active in each beam.
I often find that I get a low signal and the signal level ramps up a lot as soon as the data call starts.
The GPS has another function and this is billing. There are some places on the planet (e.g. some remote islands) where one can charge a lot more for a satellite phone/data connection and this is what Thuraya does. Depending on where you are, different charges apply.
I don't think Thuraya is doing that, but obviously they could. However the spot beams are not at all accurate e.g. you can be in the UK and have Thuraya France showing on the phone.
As to why they need a GPS fix to work at all - and nowadays Thuraya need a fresh fix daily - is a good question. All satphones need a GPS fix. I suspect a big part of it is that the lat/long is transmitted with the call and this allows the various national security agencies to go after terrorists who use it. You could literally send a GPS guided missile right at the person making the call - if he is online for long enough. The lat/long is encrypted but the crypto is well broken and everything is easy to monitor. Thuraya's sats are made by Hughes who would not have ever got the export license unless the NSA could read absolutely everything going via the system.
I don't think Thuraya is doing that, but obviously they could.
They do. Check out this site for example. "Rates are based on calls made from satellite mode, and will vary slightly depending on the country the call is initiated from.".
I also hear very positive things about a gsm/3g booster with an antenna installed at the bottom.
I wouldn't believe that. It simply cannot work. GSM/3G towers focus their transmit power to the horizontal plane using sector antennae. There is almost no signal in the vertical plane. In densely populated areas, the GSM towers have very low transmit power so they can reuse frequencies. Also phones are not designed to receive hundreds of answers when they send out broadcasts for available towers. In addition to that there are several more reasons why it can't work well in an aircraft.
"All satphones need a GPS fix"
I think Iridium does not. They have their own triangulation method. The location where the data transmission originated is even included with the data but the accuracy is only a few kilometers. Therefore an Iridium cold start can be done a lot faster than aquiring a GPS fix. I operate Iridium and GPS on the same antenna and you can see quite well how fast Iridium aquires the signal compared to the GPS.
