InReach Satellite Phones

Bill

I was fortunate to trial one of these about 4 years ago. They are impressive.

Some examples of the use I had from it.

The first was, our son knew we were going towards their home and we had not arrived. He had the code to see where we were and located us. We were out of mobile coverage but he told us exactly where we had been.

The second was, our other son was to meet us near Nowra. There had been extensive rain both at Coolendell, where we were and also in Canberra where he lived. No mobile coverage at alThe second was, our other son was to meet us near Nowra. There had been extensive rain both at Coolendell, where we were and also in Canberra where he lived. No mobile coverage at all so I sent a text message by it to advise him not to come and he replied to say it was very wet there too. I sent a text message by it to advise him not to come and he replied to say it was very wet there too.

Our whole trip had been tracked on this tracker so we could see where we had actually been, which was out to Birdsville races and then to Cameron Corner to Bourke and down the Darling River and up the Murray River into Canberra via Jindabyne then to Coolendell and finally home.

I did not buy one but am planning to hire one for a trip into the more remote areas later this year.

Cheers
Duncan

They seem very expensive on a monthly basis to me for what they do.

The base plan at $20 per month gives you 10 messages and tracking is 30c per point. The $35 plan gives you 100 messages and 300 tracking points.

That's almost a useless amount of tracking points over a month.

If you need people to know where you are even if you have no phone coverage, but its no good for real snail trail mapping with only 10 points per day.

EO's Track me would do a better job with an Iphone. When you get coverage it will catch up and track very regularly.

Then get a sat phone on a Telstra plan. Cheaper and better.

Hi Bill

Have you looked at the SPOT 3 ?



Cheers



Stephen

I can see the pros in the Inreach units, cost aside. What I see as a real con (as in minus!) is that if you have to have a conversation I would expect hunt and peck would become old quickly. Eg. a conversation about a health crisis or about fixing a vehicle failure. You'll be under the pump; conditions will be difficult (if Murphy is along); you'll both need to be able to communicate clearly and succinctly; there's no hints to meaning from voice tone and rhythm and so on.

The big plus is 2 way comms of course, and that puts it in a category above Spots.