CB radio vs. cell phone vs. HAM Radio

Verizon and emergency satellite message device.

Sprink-Fitter wrote:

GordonThree wrote:
pick up a used police radio off ebay, for emergency use only. if it's truly an emergency, paying a fine and having the radio confiscated would be a small price to pay.

So you know what frequency the police use where you travel?

TTDTIEH

and what mode (analog, digital?) if a trunked system then you'll also need the "key" to access the system. this is a very bad idea.

It's not as hard as you'd think. We make sure to destroy our old radios so they don't end up online. Want some extra fun? Buy an old Moto Data Radio off e-Bay (operates at real low mhz) and receive fun police data terminal broadcasts. Data is broadcast at low baud, unencrypted.

FBI CJIS audits are slowly closing the gaping hole but lots of small agencies continue using them, since it's VERY VERY expensive to replace.

Ed_Gee wrote:
Here is another plug for the Delorme Inreach satellite SOS and texting unit. It is probably the single most cost effective, easy to use, and reliable device available for emergency communications requirements no matter where on the planet you are. I don't think most people are even aware of this option.

yes, they have addressed the biggest issue with the spot messenger. The inreach is I think the only reasonable priced locator with full duplex communication. Although the spot is a viable alternative, just not as complete as the Inreach.

If I ever need to replace my spot's, I go with Deloreme Inreach

I've used spot and spot communicator for years and never had a transmission failure for any messages, BUT you can only send messages, not recieve them. And the sat's they use are only capable of that. Unfortunetly the Globalstar (part of spot) sat's they use for sat phones are geo synchronous, so they are not very reliable for communication, must have a clear view of the southern sky. Deloreme uses Irridium which is vastly more reliable for communication. Even in very unusual terrain, Irridium won't have more than about a 10 minute time before you can get a sat in view, and in most cases you will have multiple sats in range at all times.

GordonThree wrote:
...in the lower 48 you're never alone. Even down the roughest dirt road, someone else always comes along.

My personal record of unintentionally not seeing or hearing another person or vehicle is 48 hours. 24 hours is not uncommon where I go. Your results may vary.

I use this

http://www.findmespot.com/holiday/lander.php?gclid=CjwKEAiAp97CBRDr2Oyl-faxqRMSJABx4kh9Ds05p5xIVmevDjrHhpQbJbi7ULAw2ObIl0ThaP25ohoCv3_w_wcB

TNGW1500SE wrote:
I use this

http://www.findmespot.com/holiday/lander.php?gclid=CjwKEAiAp97CBRDr2Oyl-faxqRMSJABx4kh9Ds05p5xIVmevDjrHhpQbJbi7ULAw2ObIl0ThaP25ohoCv3_w_wcB

what does a service subscription cost and can it be activated only for the months you want it?
bumpy

Tiger4x4RV wrote:

GordonThree wrote:
...in the lower 48 you're never alone. Even down the roughest dirt road, someone else always comes along.

My personal record of unintentionally not seeing or hearing another person or vehicle is 48 hours. 24 hours is not uncommon where I go. Your results may vary.

I guess I'm not going the right places. Alaska, Utah, Nevada, Montana, Michigan's UP. I've had vehicles drive by within a few hours of stopping. Closest I think I've gotten to being alone was Valley of the Gods and Goosenecks park. Hadn't seen a car in six hours, drive into Goosenecks mid-December, looked deserted, when I stop a car pulls out of a "hiding spot" behind a distant out building, drives over to me, and the occupants try to peddle some authentic jewelry.

Bumpyroad wrote:

TNGW1500SE wrote:
I use this

http://www.findmespot.com/holiday/lander.php?gclid=CjwKEAiAp97CBRDr2Oyl-faxqRMSJABx4kh9Ds05p5xIVmevDjrHhpQbJbi7ULAw2ObIl0ThaP25ohoCv3_w_wcB

what does a service subscription cost and can it be activated only for the months you want it?
bumpy

well, here is my comparison

spot annual cost is about 1/2 that of delorme, about 150/yr
spot is now on sale for half price, about 75, which is 1/4 cost of delorme
I don't think a spot can be month to month only annual.
spot does not have a LCD display or touch pad, so it may be less likely to get damaged beyond use in an accident.
Spot uses replaceable lithium batteries. I think delorme uses a rechargeable internal battery. Don't know if can use other batteries.

info is at www.findmespot.com

Now I do have a spot, had them for about a decade. but IMHO the delorme is a much better choice now.

delorme allows sending AND recieving SMS texts anywhere in the world. Delorme has around a 100 or more hour battery life, longer than the spot. I don't know if you have to store the email or phone info for who you are sending a text to on the Delorme. you do need to on the spot.


Spot will ONLY send messages and ONLY a choice of TWO preporgrammed messages to a FIXED SINGLE list of people. a 'help' and 'ok' SMS text you compose.
and it does NOT have worldwide coverage. they use LEOS sat's like delorme, but not as good of coverage. Spot has good continental US coverage and Hawaii, degrades as you get into northern canada territories and alaska. And coverage outside of europe is spotty. IMHO it's not an issue if you are in the continental US, Mexico, and canadian provinces. Spot map will show better coverage than I indicated, but my experience in northern alaska, NWT was it took up to an hour to get a message out and our tracking took a long time to get updated on the web. Same in Turkey.

Delorme I think has map built in that you can see on the built in LCD display. Spot has no such capability.

I have a spot connect, the same idea as the delorme but that is no longer sold. with it I can type and send text messages to up to 10 different address lists. but again ONLY send. and I need to do it through a android or apple app to connect via bluetooth.

Now with all that said, either are a good thing to carry if you are going to places w/o any emergency access and doing things that may be an issue. I always have mine with me when riding off road motorcycles, even with a group. great to get emergency help.

Both use GEOS for help and both have the same cost for GEOS medivac extraction for an extra cost.

both allow tracking so others you allow can track where you are. It looks like spot costs less for constant tracking. and spot rather than mapping location every 10 minutes like Delorme, is more active and tracks distance, speed, etc and tracks accordingly. When riding my motorcycle it may send out a location every 1 minute or so, but around the campfire, it may be 10 or 20 minutes. On spot you can pull up the location on google earth and zoom in. Don't know if that is the case on delorme. When we were in Turkey, our kids pulled up one location, zoomed in on Google earth, and showed our location in the middle of a old roman outdoor theater. neat.

If you really only want the emergency capabilities, then the spot could be the best alternative. Lowest cost initially and annually, and spot coupled with GEOS does have a reputation of being reliable for the intended purpose of getting you out of a jam.

If you want two way communication, then the Delorme is better.

IMHO spot got the idea started, but Delorme has jumped ahead in providing two way communication and SMS messaging.

I don't know why spot discontinued the spot connect. all the features of the spot AND the ability to text message either 10 predefined messages quite long or type and send to anyone on up to 10 different message groups. All that delorme does but still lacking the recieve capability. And the annual cost is the same as the regular spot.

If I didn't have the connect and the regular spot, I'd be shopping for a Delorme.

But in the meantime we carry the spot with us whenever we travel.

BTW if you think, well I have Onstar, or something similar offerings by toyota, MB, etc. I don't need anything else. check carefully. Onstar communication relies on ATT or a GSM cell signal for communication. We go lots of places where that is NOT available and you can't rely on onstar in those cases. Others may use GSM or CDMA, but they still rely on a cell network, they are not sat phones.

GaryKH wrote:
I would question why the OP feels that he absolutely needs some sort of communications to begin with.

I have read several stories where people had communications, It may have been nothing more than a 2 Meter hand held, or it may have been a Sat phone, or it may have been a decent High Frequency rig. but they had communications and they lived to tell the story.....

I've also read the stories of folks who had no communications.

Alas.. The story was told by investigators, for the people involved,, Well they are not able to tell the story themselves, at least not in THIS life.

So yes, Communications can easily be a matter of life or.... That other option.. and as a professional in that specific area of communications (9-1-1 was indeed my office phone) I do not like "that other option" one bit.. That is the enemy.