Do I need Should I have???
Submitted: Monday, Mar 10, 2008 at 22:26
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Steve from Top End Explorer Tours
I don't like asking this type of question as I am very confident that most decisions I make are the right one.
But SWMBO and I discussed the need for a second Sat phone today, the second being a new Iridium phone.
Now we have 4 tour vehicles each has a 3G phone that work for 95% of the tour, each car has a 5 watt
uhf radio able to contact each other 100% of the time and one Sat phone ( Pivotel Globalstar). now I don't need the bullsh1t talk about Globalstar as I know what the system achieves for me.
My point is that, 2 is better than 1, her argument is that 1 is enough, this is not a money thing as we get $1100 subsidy for the phone.
If you were a participant on our tour would you be happy with what we have in place.
Thanks in advance for your constructive replies.
Cheers Steve
Reply By: Andrew from Vivid Adventures - Monday, Mar 10, 2008 at 22:34
Monday, Mar 10, 2008 at 22:34
G* told me that they would be reselling the Iridium service soon...
and that you would be able to trade in your handset.
I have yet to see what they are offering, but you might want to look into that.
I'm surprised the G* works for you at all enough to be useful, but of course believe you if it does.
But to answer your questions I would want to know more - like:
Do your vehicles usually travel together?
How many days have you travelled and not seen other vehicles or how many
places do you go to that others don't within 24 hours?
Cheers
Andrew.
AnswerID:
292015
Follow Up By: Steve from Top End Explorer Tours - Monday, Mar 10, 2008 at 22:44
Monday, Mar 10, 2008 at 22:44
Hey Andrew.
Hows things hope all is good.
For me Globalstar work with patients, lol, The new offer is on thread 55345.
So with that deal I could keep my Sat phone and get the new one for $900, as I said not a money thing.
The cars are within 20 km all day, they are day tours to Jim Jim and
Twin falls, hence the uhf 100% all day, I think it would be better to err on the side of caution.
Cheers Steve.
FollowupID:
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Follow Up By: Andrew from Vivid Adventures - Monday, Mar 10, 2008 at 22:54
Monday, Mar 10, 2008 at 22:54
Things are mad Steve.
G* doesn't work with my patients - in fact I was the patient myself on RFDS, and it wasn't working damn it ;-)
If cost were not issue I'd have HF radios in a couple of them - that way you can call any sort of help any time - but having an Iridium is probably pretty much the same level of capability too with the additional in-bound call capability. Do they all have a GPS so they can tell help where to find them?
Anyways, you're never really too remote or too far away from other travellers - it just becomes a question of how professional you want to be.
Cheers
Andrew.
FollowupID:
557379
Reply By: Member - John (Vic) - Monday, Mar 10, 2008 at 22:37
Monday, Mar 10, 2008 at 22:37
Steve a bit of a loaded question me thinks. :-)
Most of you're clients would not know what is needed or indeed what you may actually have in place, thats why they hired you in the first place as they believe you will have what is needed for the area they are visiting and the conditions likely to be found.
You are asking a question of the converted and the answer will be different based on the collective knowledge of the
forum as opposed to the knowledge of you're clients.
For what its worth in my view toss the Global$hit and you only need the one sat phone being the Iridium as at least you know it will work when you want it.
AnswerID:
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Reply By: John S (NSW) - Monday, Mar 10, 2008 at 22:51
Monday, Mar 10, 2008 at 22:51
Steve,
I agree with
John. Most of your clients will have very little experience, and be looking to you as a god on the tours.
You are responsible (too some degree) for their safety (be it directly or indirectly) and if anything happens you will feel responsible whatever the outcome.
Go with your gut - if you believe that 2 is needed then get it - better to be over prepared and not need it.
Personally I believe that 1x UHF, 1x Next G & 1x Sat Phone is enough - but them that is what I deem Ok for where I travel with my friends. It can be easy to loose all communication equipment in a
river crossing gone wrong. Its all about risk assessment, even more so when you are a Tour Operator.
AnswerID:
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Reply By: Footloose - Tuesday, Mar 11, 2008 at 00:04
Tuesday, Mar 11, 2008 at 00:04
Steve, you know what I'm going to say :)
A
HF radio might be a handful if the emergency is the guide; not too many tourists could press the right buttons I'd suspect. Since your operations are fairly
well constrained in terms of
geography, Hf might be overkill.
I'd definately toss the Global $%^&. They're not going anywhere but downhill in a hurry.
Irridium would be my weapon of choice in handheld units. Even I don't have any problem using them, and I am useless with 3G next G oh Gee type stuff. So even a touro could quickly yell for help, and the oncosts of training your people to use them are almost nil.
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Reply By: John R (SA) - Tuesday, Mar 11, 2008 at 18:50
Tuesday, Mar 11, 2008 at 18:50
Yeh, get another sat phone. And an HF.
But I'm a fan of gadgets. It's just not possible to have too many.
Seriously though, I've no idea what your clientele's knowledge of satphone & hf is, so I won't try and second guess them.
However, in your business I don't think you can afford NOT to be able to contact emergency
services if (when?) a client has a mishap. Like it or not (waiver or not!), people pass the mantle of responsibility to you when you lead a tour.
If I break my leg, I want to know that everything that can be done, is being done. Much of that would come down to how you handle a catastrophe. Frankly, if you are in control and have several plans and procedures for what to do when there's an accident, that would placate me.
If I get bitten by a taipan though, I want to be bloody sure I'm going to get in touch with anti-venom pretty damn smartly. To me, part of that would be to ensure he/she/it who is keeper of said anti-venom is aware that I need it, and is ready to greet me.
This might all sound like overkill. However, those of us who travel under our own steam do so at our own risk. We wear the responsibility for mitigating accidents when walkabout, but your business can't afford to have negative publicity (I don't buy that 'no such thing as bad publicity' bit).
Obviously you're not waiting for some catastrophe to occur before you think about it, and if murphy's on your shoulder you could wear the cost of a dozen sat phones without incident occurring. But, the day you leave them all at
home . . . . . .
There's no easy answer, I don't think.
If I was on tour with you, I'd be quite happy with the knowledge you've got a sat phone. If I have an accident and the phone doesn't work,
well . . . . . provided I live through it without losing too many bodily organs or functions, then I'd be right!
Cheers,
John
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