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 ...
Forum Discussion
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
