Many thanks to those who have helped me out, via blog comments and emails, with troubleshooting the continuing connection failure problems I am having with Iridium Go! and SatLink / XGate ( http://www.sailblogs.com/member/rhudson/?xjMsgID42105 ). On a small boat at sea, with the Iridium Go! and SatLink / XGate as the only email method available, frequent connection failures (never knowing whether or not one can connect, with failures lasting up to several days) make important operations such as receiving GRIB forecasts difficult.

Ralitsa and Andrey pointed out that there are fewer Iridium satellites near the equator, so if this is an Iridium problem (as opposed to a SatLink / XGate problem), the problem will be worst near the equator. My experience somewhat bears this out, as the frequency of problems got worse as I approached the equator (we're across the equator now, and sailing away from it, but it is too early to tell if the frequency of connection failures is yet decreasing).

Andrey (who really knows a lot about antennas) suggested that if the satellite I am communicating with is high overhead (as opposed to near the horizon), adding a ground plane to the antenna will increase signal strength greatly. Since I have a steel boat, this can be done simply by placing the Iridium Go! on top of the pilothouse (normally I hold it up high, to keep it as far away from sails and rigging as possible). I was able to connect this way, but have not yet had a chance to try this immedately after a failure.

George Ray did much searching, posted a query on the Seven Seas Cruising Association Forum, and sent me the following posting from the Iridium Go product site about a very similar-sounding problem affecting Apple IOS and Android clients: ****************************************************************************************************** Product Advisory: (the only one listed and it is dated Sept. 26, 2014 )

Affected platforms: Apple iOS 6.1 or later, Android 2.3 or later



• Symptoms: Error messages such as �"Connection Failed�", �"Could not connect to the network�" displayed during network connection phase



• Brief description: Iridium Mail & Web utilizes the integration capabilities offered by Iridium GO!. When a user initiates a network connection to go online from the app and there is sufficient satellite signal strength available, Iridium GO! authenticates the user with Iridium�'s backend authorization systems and starts a network Iridium Mail & Web app Bulletin 4 of 4

connection. The authentication phase can sometimes fail resulting in the app unable to open a network connection.



• Resolution: Iridium plans to address this issue with a mid-October update to the Iridium Mail & Web app. This update will include increased connection buffers to improve connection reliability. In the interim, users are advised to redial the connection in case of an authentication failure. ******************************************************************************************************

The frequent (about 30%) connection failures I have been experiencing appear quite similar to the above (see my earlier post for log extracts of the failures). The failures I get in the XGate log are either that the session terminates during Negotiation, or times out after Connection.

My environment: * SatLink version of XGate 4.07 software running on both a Windows 7 laptop and a Windows Vista laptop (both 32bit, and both experience the same failures) * Iridium Go! device with Firmware Version 1.0.66 Vendor is Blue Cosmo (info@bluecosmo.com, +1 206 329 1947).

Partial log (XGate seems to overwrite its log on startup, and records only times, not dates, so I have an incomplete listing of failures that can be fully mapped to dates, times and locations) of connection failures: Date:Time Lat/Long Failure Type 2014-11-20:1715 24N/110W Connect Timeout 2014-11-21:1822 24N/110W Connect Timeout 2014-11-22:1751 24N/110W Connect Timeout 2014-11-25:1824 20N/105W Connect Timeout 2014-12-12:1912 15N/112W Negotiation did not complete 2014-12-13:0208 15N/112W Negotiation did not complete 2014-12-13:0217 15N/112W Negotiation did not complete 2014-12-28:2228 10S/119W Negotiation did not complete 2014-12-28:2230 10S/119W Negotiation did not complete

Thanks very much in advance for any help.



UPDATE JAN 23, 2015:
The problems with SatLink/XGate over the Iridium Go persist, but the problems are being better understood.

To aid in troubleshooting, I created a spreadsheet of connection attempts, position, battery charge, success or type of failure, and logfile extracts. The spreadsheet is at http://www.issuma.com/rhudson/SatLinkFailureLog.xls Over the two weeks (Dec 28 to Jan 13) that the spreadsheet covers, there were a total of 41 connection attempts, of which:
19 (53%) succeeded
14 had a Termination Failure
3 had a Timeout Faillure
5 had an Idle Timeout Failure
The terms used for the types of failures are the ones listed in the SatLink/XGate log messages.

While keeping detailed records of all connection attempts showed that the problem was worse than I thought--46% connection attempts failed, the numbers are improving due to things that have been observed and tested.

I have observed that making a connection attempt with the Iridium Go battery at less than 93% charge (92% is still five bars of charge on the display) is likely to fail. This can only be observed from the Iridium Go web Status Page (use a browser to connect to http://192.168.0.1/Status.php, login as guest, password guest).

I have also observed that failures are much less likely to occur if the PC running SatLink/XGate is rebooted before running SatLink/XGate and making the connection attempt. I was surprised by this, but several attempts have shown that I need to reboot the PC (not just wait the amount of time it takes to reboot and try again) before running SatLink/XGate. Whether this is specific to my PC, or to older PCs, I don't know--SatLink/XGate had problems communicating over the Iridum Go on the first computer I installed it on also, and I'm running out of computers to test with.

A description of the issue was posted for me on the Seven Seas Cruising Association Forum (www.ssca.org). From that thread, a satellite engineer made a number of very useful suggestions including observing the color of the flashing LED on the Iridium Go, as it indicates connection status. This led me to realize that when SatLink/XGate said it was Hanging Up, followed by Finished, that the Iridium Go had not hung up the call! With the cost of satellite airtime, that could get expensive. The Iridium Go needs to have SatLink/XGate calls manually (from the buttons on the device) ended.

Experiments with moving the Iridium Go to atop the steel pilothouse instead of above the windward rail have been mixed--sometimes its better one way, sometimes the other (the higher position gives a more clear view of the sky, the pilothouse position adds a ground plane).

A query to GMN Technical Support (rather than going thru Blue Cosmo, the vendor I bought the Iridium Go and SatLink from) provided an informative opinion that the connection that was failing was between the Iridium Go and the Iridium servers that the Go talks to (who owned the other end of the connection was not clear to me before this). Also that the problem was caused by poor signal quality as a result of one or more of:
a. no external antenna (using the small patch antenna that comes with the GO)
b. if using an external antenna then a poor connection (water in the coax?)
c. poor antenna placement... using the unit below deck or with a large portion of the sky obstructing the antenna?
d. RF interference with the signal
I have had several years of experience using an Iridium phone with modem and external antenna on this vessel with about a 99% connection success rate, so I doubted there was an RF interference issue. After I asked if they had seen problems with Iridum Gos that were resolved by adding an external antenna (not an option for me at Easter Island), GMN Tech Support said they had no direct experience of this, but that external antennas almost always seemed to help.

A friend posted a query to Iridium about the problems I was having connecting. Iridium sent the query to GMN (who said it was a Signal Quality Issue) and to the vendor, Blue Cosmo. Blue Cosmo's tech support person emailed me later, saying that my Data-Only minutes were good for both Data and Voice, and suggested that I had to first get voice calls going, then use Iridium Mail & Web application from a phone, and only lastly use SatLink/XGate. They also told me there are not yet any firmware updates available for Iridium Go.

I"ve been trying to get the Iridium Mail & Web application installed on an Android phone, but the internet connection is very slow from Rapa Nui, and I've not been able to yet (connection keeps timing out at the internet cafe).

To summarize the status, while the Connection Failure Rate has been really high (46%), experience has shown that success is more likely if the Iridium Go battery is at least 93% charged (so not only looking for 5 bars in the display, but going into the Iridium Go web status page), and if my PC is rebooted before running SatLink/XGate.

Thanks very much to all who have helped.


UPDATE, OCTOBER 18, 2015:
After buying and installing an external antenna, and permanently mounting the Iridium Go belowdecks, connected to its USB charger, I am very happy to report the system is working well now.

Connection success rates are now in the 90% range. After staying put for many months (so not using Iridium), I'm now cruising Patagonia, where nearby mountains limit the antenna's view of the sky, so I expect to get better connection success rates at sea.

I still need to use the buttons on the Iridium to manually disconnect calls because the XGate/SatLink software doesn't do that when it says it is hanging up (leaving the call open will eat up satellite airtime minutes quickly), but I'm aware of this, so its not a problem.

It is great to have a working system now. Thanks very much for all the help!