I’m here in N. America obviously, rarely travel abroad. Flame away, but I’m looking at used Iridium Sat phones for emergency use only. The phones themselves, even barely used ones are not terribly expensive.. it’s the airtime that gets you. All I know is what I’ve learned tonight online. If you’ve got experience or tips please let me know.

Check into renting one as you need it.

Not a bad idea, but renting one for an unplanned emergency is a bit hard.

Lol, ok, I meant rent one whenever you travel. You’d have the latest software and hardware, voice mail, texting, all set up for you.

Good luck to you.

Link

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Thank you sir..

Have used one occasionally for work related communications.
Any specific questions?
Stand outside, let it find the satellites, dial number.


PC

Where do you plan on using it? N. America or international? Desert, mountains, alpine environment?

Do you just want to be able to call for help or give periodic updates to family/friends? How long will you be out of normal communication?

There are Sat phones and other beacon type devices. Some use satellites and link to your phone to send messages when you're out of cell coverage.

I've never used one myself but have been on trips where someone carried on.

On a climbing trip in Utah, our guide had one that would send three pre-programmed massages. They were basically. OK just running late(this was if you were late for a normal check-in with base camp), in trouble send help, shits really hit the fan send everything.

You can get a monthly plan from Comsat:
North American service plans require a minimum one year contract. Early termination fees will apply. IsatPhone Pro North American Emergency Plan is $24.95 per month and $0.99 per minute. When making or receiving a call the charge per minute applies, even if they use the GON. A one-time activation fee of $49.95 applies per SIM. Emergency Plan includes 10 minutes included each month. Free minutes do not roll over. North America is considered the Continental United States, Canada, and Alaska. Calls made or received outside of this area will be charged at a higher roaming rate.

Thanks guys.. I’m interested for clearly emergency situations when cell usage is out or so overwhelmed a call can’t get through. I’m in Texas 90% of the time, not much terrain to speak of except out west. Being outdoors for service is fine.

It looks like Iridium has the best satellite coverage for our part of the earth.

If the cell network is down or congested, who are you going to call?

My understanding is that cell coverage may be down locally, but not everywhere.

If you don't need voice comm, you might also consider a Garmin InReach device. Not a voice device but you can send and receive text and email and you can set it up to "drop a turd" on your chosen time frequency which is uploaded to your website with Garmin. People wanting to track you can visit the website and see your track. Also has an SOS function.

We used this for an ocean crossing a year ago to stay in touch with our weather router and so family could see our progress.

^ Interesting, I’ll look at Garmin’s website. Thanks

I was involved in creating an executive emergency communications bag after 9/11. Each bag included, among other things, 3 cell phones from different carriers and a sat phone. The biggest challenges?
1) Keeping the phones charged. If you leave it in the charger all the time, the battery capacity gets diminished over time. Not a big deal but one needs to track it.
2) Keeping the phones current. Making sure that, every now and again, the software is checked.
3) Sat phones are line of sight. Unless there are provisions for an external antenna, the phone must have a clear line of sight to the satellite.

None of the challenges are insurmountable.

It depends on your use case for a Sat phone, if you are using it often it's likely worth the investment, otherwise rent. When I researched the cost per minute it was high but when you need comms in the middle of nowhere, they work.

^^. Thanks for that!

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:

If the cell network is down or congested, who are you going to call?

There is an old fashioned thing called POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service).

It uses a hard-wired connection to a telephone Central Office. Power for this does not depend on the local utility company, POTS is powered by 48 volt batteries at the Central office (I know a bit about this stuff, I was a design engineer at Bell Labs, for Central Office stuff, way back in the dark ages when AT&T used to be a real company before the consent decree that led to AT&T's demise).

Many people still have POTS in their homes. You could call one of them if the cell network is down or congested.

Confession: I no longer have POTS. I discontinued it maybe ten years ago when I realized that I was paying around four hundred bucks a year and the only people, without exception, who ever called, were telemarketers.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
There is an old fashioned thing called POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service).

I am one of the old fashioned types that has 2 POTS lines.
In fact, I have a couple of rotary phones sitting around in case the power goes out so we can make or receive calls.

Cell service at my house is marginal to non-existent.

A funny thing that happens when the power goes out is the utility company sends an email informing us the power is out and follows up with update emails as to when the power is going to be restored.
I see none of these until the power is restored.

Another recommendation for the Garmin Inreach.
We’ve used ours on trips to Africa, the Middle East and Asia without fail.
It takes about 2 minutes for a message to reach the other side of the world, very acceptable for our use.

We suspend our service when we’re not traveling then activate it just prior to our next trip.

I just ran across this on another forum.
No one had any direct experience with this so be advised...

https://satpaq.com/

Thanks for this..it’s interesting looking. I wonder if all of the satellites being launched by Amazon and Starlink for global internet coverage will have any impact on this subject?

https://www.starlink.com/

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
I just ran across this on another forum.
No one had any direct experience with this so be advised...

https://satpaq.com/