Forum Discussion

Photomike's avatar
Photomike
Explorer III
Jul 05, 2015

Safety - another tool to use

Every once in awhile a thread will pop up regarding safety when camping. I'm not talking about safety from the zombies, or other threats that may want to attack us, what I am talking about is safety while traveling either as a couple, or as a single person, and letting friends and family know where you are and if you are requiring help. We've talked many times of buying different devices, such as a SPOT locator device, so when you are in trouble you can signal for help from friends or family. I think we all know the benefit of such a device, but I also don't think many of us carry such a device.

This past week I decided it was time to upgrade my cell phone from a standard everyday cell phone to a smart phone. Ended up purchasing a Moto E as much for the price as for the features that it contains. While I was in the process of setting the phone up and all the different apps that came with it and that I use on my tablet I was pleasantly surprised to find that it had a built in alert app. When setup this app will either text and/or call the people that you added to a list of contacts. If you have it setup to text a contact list it will send a predetermined message that you have set up when programing the app along with your GPS coordinates to the people on your contact list.

Now do I think that this is an app that we should trust 100% with our lives? Not at all. But for 10 minutes of setting up it is a great way to add another level of safety to our camping experiences without having to go and spend more money. I still think if we want to be even safer that we should look at a service such a SPOT, but I know that many people including myself would not go and buy one because of the expense and the monthly or yearly charges. I'm not sure if other cell phones also offer this app or if it is just a Motorola thing, but it is definitely something worth looking into as it will not cost you any extra.

As a side note, if you are ever in an emergency situation and you do have your cell phone with you many of the 911 services now offer the ability to track calls even if the call is not answered. We had a situation last year in our area where a lady had fallen in a mountainous area with very poor cell phone coverage, she had broke her leg and was unable to move. This lady kept calling 911 but the call would never be able to go through completely because of the coverage. After several calls were there was no one present the 911 service launched a tracking program to find out where she was. It brought rescuers within a few feet of where she had fallen even though she was unable to complete the phone call.

Another cool feature of this app is that you can set up so that it will text at a predetermined time and to a predetermined list of people where you were at that time. Say you are traveling to a campsite, the app would send your location at predetermined times so at least your family and friends will know the road you were traveling on and when you were there. This way people can have a map of where you are traveling (or at least where you have been). This can be very helpful if you do run into trouble that at least your friends and family will know where you're going from the places that you have been. Again I know it's not 100% reliable, but for many of us it would be an easy way to send this information to friends and relatives.

The only big draw back that I see with this is that it is based on cell phone coverage, but again this is free and easy to set up so why not take advantage of it.
Truck Campers

8 Replies

  • sabconsulting's avatar
    sabconsulting
    Explorer
    Jul 05, 2015
    I carry a personal locator beacon in the truck camper and the back pack when in the wilderness. It is emergencies only but has the advantage of having no subscription fee.

    Steve.
  • bigfootford's avatar
    bigfootford
    Nomad III
    Jul 05, 2015
    bobndot wrote:
    Spot or Delorme Inreach ?
    Spot uses Globalstar sats.
    Delorme uses Iridium sats. check hiking forums for updated info regarding coverage.

    I have been speaking to users in New England and they prefer the Iridium because they say, it offers better coverage plus you can have 2-way text communication .
    When using the SPOT, the user has no way of knowing that the signal went out or if was received. They also said that Globalstar was having issues with their sat phones NOT calling out but im not sure if that effected the SPOT or not. But I was told the SPOT can be hit or miss and the user has no way of knowing if the signal went through or not.

    I have been told its very difficult to cancel a SPOT auto renew contract once you sign up. This was a common complaint from some users that I spoke to.
    So far, I've been told the Delorme is a little more expensive , but it does offer 2 - way texting offering some piece of mind for both parties.

    AS for now, only because my usage is short infrequent trips, im still renting a voice satellite phone from Iridium for about @ $10/day free shipping back n forth. Some people only carry it as emergency only communicator to make a 'help call' because there is a $1.99/mn charge to use it for outgoing. Incoming voice and texts are free.
    IMO, even at $1.99 is not a big deal to use it to say, IM OK every day. What is peace of mind worth to your loved ones ?


    There are business owners up there in Alaska that rely on the sat phone you mentioned.
    No cell, no phone lines up in Chicken!

    Although the Delorme Inreach SE are costly the $34.00 non recurring Freedom monthly plan for $34 is a great value. We did exceed the limited 40 text messages and used the heck out of the fixed message... We did do a few messages that are email to folks that you need to contact... They are .50 each.

    http://www.inreachdelorme.com/product-info/subscription-plans.php

    The Inreach does comm with Irridum and also does standard GPS....for tracking.

    Irridium has 16 sat's so some transmits are delayed but from what we saw it was never over a couple of minutes.

    Jim
  • bobndot's avatar
    bobndot
    Explorer III
    Jul 05, 2015
    Spot or Delorme Inreach ?
    Spot uses Globalstar sats.
    Delorme uses Iridium sats. check hiking forums for updated info regarding coverage.

    I have been speaking to users in New England and they prefer the Iridium because they say, it offers better coverage plus you can have 2-way text communication .
    When using the SPOT, the user has no way of knowing that the signal went out or if was received. They also said that Globalstar was having issues with their sat phones NOT calling out but im not sure if that effected the SPOT or not. But I was told the SPOT can be hit or miss and the user has no way of knowing if the signal went through or not.

    I have been told its very difficult to cancel a SPOT auto renew contract once you sign up. This was a common complaint from some users that I spoke to.
    So far, I've been told the Delorme is a little more expensive , but it does offer 2 - way texting offering some piece of mind for both parties.

    AS for now, only because my usage is short infrequent trips, im still renting a voice satellite phone from Iridium for about @ $10/day free shipping back n forth. Some people only carry it as emergency only communicator to make a 'help call' because there is a $1.99/mn charge to use it for outgoing. Incoming voice and texts are free.
    IMO, even at $1.99 is not a big deal to use it to say, IM OK every day. What is peace of mind worth to your loved ones ?
  • bigfootford's avatar
    bigfootford
    Nomad III
    Jul 05, 2015
    tony lee wrote:
    We had the SPOT but found it had a couple of serious deficiencies. First, due to use of geosynchronous satellites, it often cannot get the signal through - and of course there is no feedback to tell you this. It is one way so of limited use for any unusual circumstances. Poor coverage in higher latitudes.

    We use a Delorme SE which uses lower orbiting satellites and so has coverage all over the world and it doesn't matter too much where in a vehicle or on your person the tracker is located. It has two way verification of tracking points and messages sent. Can also send text messages and emails to any phone number or email address in the world and they can reply.
    If you do need to send an emergency call, you can clarify the circumstances using the message facility if you want to. Just this feature makes it unique as in most other personal locator beacons and SPOT, first you haven't a clue idf the emergency call is received and then the responding authority has no idea of what the problem is.

    More expensive, but the extra features make it worth it.

    Not that long ago two young stockmen died of thirst in the outback even though they were only 13 miles from home. SPOT units were sitting back at the homestead but they hadn't bothered to take them.


    Ditto the Delorme SE. We invested in a pair of them for our Alaska trip. We trailered our sons NC700x Honda Motor Cycle up to Anchorage and he flew up to meet us. He went out on multiple day excursions as we ventured along, on old mining roads and even did the Canol Road and then from there over to Watson Lake... 400+ miles of dirt and slush. He was on the road for 3 days. We texted periodically and also was able to track him by the messages that also provide Lat Long information. We were running Delorme Topo and downloaded region advanced topo maps. Along the Canol road he got a bit lost and could not waste gas which he was going to get at Ross River. We could see where he was by the lat/long and the topo maps. He had missed the turn to Ross River by 2 mi... The sign was down...
    He was running the Delorme app on his S5 Samsung and down loaded maps so he could tell where he was too.... This was not a close call but without the SE's we would have been out of touch and that would not have been much fun for us.

    If interested here is our blog from that trip... Bummer that the picture sequence starts at the end of the trip so you have to work your way back....
    The page header shows our Delorme tracks from our laptop and the service provided by Delorme map share!

    http://northtoalaska2014.tumblr.com

    Jim
  • tony_lee's avatar
    tony_lee
    Explorer
    Jul 05, 2015
    We had the SPOT but found it had a couple of serious deficiencies. First, due to use of geosynchronous satellites, it often cannot get the signal through - and of course there is no feedback to tell you this. It is one way so of limited use for any unusual circumstances. Poor coverage in higher latitudes.

    We use a Delorme SE which uses lower orbiting satellites and so has coverage all over the world and it doesn't matter too much where in a vehicle or on your person the tracker is located. It has two way verification of tracking points and messages sent. Can also send text messages and emails to any phone number or email address in the world and they can reply.
    If you do need to send an emergency call, you can clarify the circumstances using the message facility if you want to. Just this feature makes it unique as in most other personal locator beacons and SPOT, first you haven't a clue idf the emergency call is received and then the responding authority has no idea of what the problem is.

    More expensive, but the extra features make it worth it.

    Not that long ago two young stockmen died of thirst in the outback even though they were only 13 miles from home. SPOT units were sitting back at the homestead but they hadn't bothered to take them.
  • FrankShore's avatar
    FrankShore
    Explorer
    Jul 05, 2015
    I own several SPOT "asset management" devices. I like the idea of getting my trailer or my yacht back if they're ever stolen.

    You can get a free SPOT device if you pay for 2 years service in advance. They have this offer several times a year! Well worth it!
  • toedtoes's avatar
    toedtoes
    Explorer III
    Jul 05, 2015
    I'm not a big fan of automated message alerts. Say you're on a road trip and you get kidnapped. The phone is left sitting in your abandoned car. Your friends and family receive a text every day showing that you are at a stop. They don't know you're in trouble. You're better off manually sending a text each day letting folks know where you are and that you're OK. And, if the phone can send an automated text, it can send a manual text.

    With that, my boss and I have been researching the satellite options. The SPOT devices don't seem to be very dependable. The ACR is the best for emergency rescue - it links to government and military satellites, so can pretty much always get your beacon delivered - the problem with it is that you cannot send a text, so you are likely to get a rescue helicopter when all you need is a tow (and you will have to pay for that helicopter). The Delorme lets you text like the SPOT, but is more dependable on the messages getting to the recipient. You can also pay a monthly subscription - only paying when you will be using the device - thereby saving costs.

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