Forum Discussion
ktmrfs
Nov 21, 2017Explorer III
Ductape wrote:
If you can meet your needs with texting, the Garmin Inreach is very affordable. Send and receive texts from the irridium network for a price similar to cell service. But no voice calling.
my suggestion as well. we have the inreach explorer +, it uses the irridium sat's, so you are just as likely to get a connection as a irridium phone. We have used it now for about 6 months flawless. But like a sat phone, need to be outside. Once you contact someone by text or email they can text or contact you via internet.
may cost you less to buy a inreach and keep using it than renting a phone. inreach also has good gps, tracking, and SOS and extraction for emergencies included.
Now on Sat phones. I have several friends with sat phones, ALL of them had tried globalstar phones and quickly got rid of them for irridium. Globalstar phone use geosyncronous sats at the equator so you MUST have a view of the southern sky. without it you will NOT get reception.
Irridium uses LEOS sats that overlap around the globe. If you are on flat land you can pretty much be guaranteed 100% coverage. if you are surrounded by mountains, there are times when you can be without coverage for 10+ minutes every hour.
That is one advantage of the inreach, it will keep transmitting or recieving periodically till it verifies it made sat contact.
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