HELP!!!!!! I am having great difficulty in trying to decide whether SSB/Pactor modem/laptop is the best most cost effective and reliable way to go. Or is globalstar satellite (GS-1600 handheld) data tranfer cable and laptop better. We want to be able to monitor thru the web our online banking each month to pay bills, talk to our kids, or e-mail friends. Beyond that sending pictures would be nice but I believe cost prohibitive with any system. I have a laptop and I have an SSB (ICOM 700) I would need either the pactor modem or the global star phone. I am concerned the SSB is not reliable enough due to propagation etc.etc. I was convinced the globalstar GS-1600 with date cable($600 bucks) and 50/mo. for 120 minutes was the way to go for reasonable cost and reliability. I have not been able to get any distributor to give me a demonstration however to see at what download speed the system actually works at to go on line for banking needs. I called one distributor in Jacksonville who said I really needed the $2500 fixed unit and data compression software to be effective and that the handheld was useless. Can anybody who is using Globalstar with the handheld please tell me the real story on that system. Thanks