Day 10 - The Technology

Sawsealady
David Moore
Tue 5 Dec 2006 12:22
"20:09.319N 35:16.18.678W "
 
Day 10 -  The Technology
 
We have decided that from today each blog entry will be written by a different crew member.
I am first off.
 
We keep being asked how we are sending emails.
Here's what we do -
 
We take photos using a digital cameras. Adjust the photo, cropping, etc, using Adobe Photoshop Elements. The photo is resized to 8ins in width then saved for the web.
The photo below started at 1,421kb and finished at 19kb. 
 
The email is produced in Outlook Express on David's Acer laptop. On transmission the email is reduced in size by software from Mailasail to further cut down the slow communication speed.  This is done to both outgoing and incoming emails. Our Motorola Iridium phone is plugged into a USB port.The phone is held up to the sky. Once there is a good signal we dial out to the ISP. In this case Mailasail. The position is taken from the entry we put in the top line of the blog.  Mailasail position this on Google Earth which you see when you go to our blog page.
 
There are 60 Iridium satellites orbiting the earth in a moving polar orbit. With a perfect view of the horizon, we normally get several straight away.
 
As well as the blog we send an email of our position to ARC control. We then get any emails waiting from friends or any urgent info from ARC such as Maydays.
 
The only difficulty is typing with your nose while holding yourself down with one hand and the laptop with the other.
 
 
 
 
This photo, taken yesterday, was in 10ft waves - they don't show on still photos !
 
Donald McSwein - Blogmeister