Rockall Challenge: Staying Reliably In Touch 200 Nautical Miles West of Mainland Scotland

Quick Stats:

• The what: record attempt at longest stay on Rockall
• The where: north Atlantic Ocean
• The why: fundraising for The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity and ABF The Soldiers’ Charity
• The who: Chris 'Cam' Cameron

We get a lot of customers at GTC looking to break world records all over the planet. From running across Australia, to floating over the Atlantic Ocean in a long-distance balloon, these amazing people come to us for one thing: to stay reliably connected whether through voice communication or digital data points like remote tracking.

Chris 'Cam' Cameron, is no different. The former Gordon Highlander, trained marine biologist and oceanographer, commercially qualified skipper and Yacht-Master Offshore, and all-round professional on the water since 1992 Cam is no stranger to harsh environments at sea.

Thanks to such experience and expertise, Cam is currently attempting to stay for 60 days and set a new world record for the longest time spent on Rockall, an uninhabitable granite islet 200 nautical miles off the west coast of Scotland. Only home to the hundreds of circling seagulls, Rockall is as isolated as it gets, and so the need for reliable satellite communications equipment was even greater.

Cam has taken an Iridium GO! exec Satellite Hotspot with him as part of his satellite communications set-up (he also brought some PLBs in case of an emergency in the water). Being an Iridium product, it comes with global connectivity built-in as standard and will allow Cam to message contacts back on the mainland in a variety of ways including via WhatsApp (text, photos, and low-quality videos), email, or Facebook Messenger among others.

Having such a powerful piece of satellite hardware with him, Cam is addressing the immediate and ever-present risks involved with living on such a small, exposed, and remote landmass. If needs be, he can even make voice calls through the Iridium GO! exec, thanks to its built-in speaker phone and dual voice lines.

>> Learn more about the Rockall Exped <<