tom_uk Posted August 28, 2007 #1 Share Posted August 28, 2007 At the current moment, none of the P&O webcams are working: all the ships are listed as being 'Out of satellite range'. In fact, Artemis only left Southampton this afternoon, Aurora & Oriana are trekking westward through the w. Med, Oceana is in the fjords, and Arcadia was in Helsinki today (next call Copenhagen). Does this happen frequently? Or could it be a breakdown at PandO HQ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merecat Posted August 29, 2007 #2 Share Posted August 29, 2007 Oceana,s is the worst ,hardly ever on. When I was on Artemis earlier this year ,I was told the problem was a fire at the centre in the US that controlled things and because of this the ship had no communication at all with P&O at Southampton. If thats the case ,then most of P&O ships, are out there and not in touch with home.:confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soletread Posted August 29, 2007 #3 Share Posted August 29, 2007 They carn't possibly have no connection with home as all satalite and communications are linked and vessels of a cruise ship size can go no where without Sat Nav Also if the computers on board were working abd picking up internet/email ect; there must have been some link to the UK. I would suspect the webcams operate via an independant satalite link and if there was a fire a the control centre that would effect connection Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom_uk Posted August 29, 2007 Author #4 Share Posted August 29, 2007 The present position (just after 12 noon BST, 29 August) is as follows:- Arcadia: working; at sea in the Baltic, next call Copenhagen Artemis: working; at sea in the North Sea, next call Kristiansand Aurora: not working; anchored in that remote & primitive location, Palma! Oceana: not working; at Olden in the fjords; Oriana: working; anchored at Gibraltar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pontius Navigator Posted August 29, 2007 #5 Share Posted August 29, 2007 Soletread, There seems to be a misunderstanding between SatNav and SatCom. Sat Nav depends on a constellation of orbiting satellites that transmit a signal on a specific frequency. The ground unit, ship, car or aircraft receives signals from as many of the constellation as are visible and a computer calculates and continuous updates the positional output. A commercial hand-held GPS will have an accurracy of 20 feet or less provided it has a clear view of the sky. 20 feet is quite adequate for a block of flats like a cruise ship. The satellite transmission is between satellites and then down to earth. A ground station will also act as an uplink to correct and satellite positioning erros. Sat Com on the other hand uses geo-synchros satellites in a fixed orbit at 24000 miles above the equator. A ground station will have a dish pointing at a particular satellite much as your home based TV Satellite receiver. A mobile platform, OTOH, will need a steerable dish to lock on to the best geo-synchronous statellite. This will not necessarily be the same satellite that the ground station is looking at. In the sat com case the path is two-way. The ship-shore link may be direct via one satellite or multi-path through two or more or even multi-path through satellites and ground stations. The potential for signal loss is much greater. On our last cruise the ship would not promise to display any particular TV programme as a particular satellite might be masked from the ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merecat Posted August 29, 2007 #6 Share Posted August 29, 2007 Well I,m glad you have both explained that but must tell you ,I,m non the wiser .As to the Artemis ,all I can say, this is what a senior officer told me.:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pontius Navigator Posted August 29, 2007 #7 Share Posted August 29, 2007 Merecat, where was Artemis at the time? If the satellite it was uplinking to had a downlink to that station in the US and then a further uplink from there or transatlantic cable then failure of that 'node' would break the link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merecat Posted August 30, 2007 #8 Share Posted August 30, 2007 We were in the Eastern Med.,actually just after we had had a fire on board ,they told us that the fire at the centre in the US had put all the computers off and they couldn,t communicate with Southampton.:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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