Tips for emergency preparedness
- Thread starter modernsnipe14
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I am leery of some of their claims, and would like to see more details, and a demo.
cummingc
Newbie
I have the inreach mini with text messaging. We spend a lot of time without cell coverage in Eastern Oregon. The mini works great. I have reached some repeaters with my HT but not much going on or people just don't want to respond.
For emergency use only, I belive that a call placed to 9-1-1 will go through the tower system of any cellular company in range, with or without an active account.
If there are any towers/sites in range, that are compatible with the phone. Dialing 911, or whatever emergency number, does not make the phone have a new RF band, nor mode.
To the OP, as noted in this post and others, Iridium is the solution I would first try before relying on any amateur repeaters, or simplex. I like the mini due to its size, but the Garmin inReach SE+ has double the battery life of the mini and the SE+ is $290 on Amazon. That is just the device though. You can get annual or monthly service subscriptions you can turn off / on as needed. What is also convenient is the ability to send and receive text messages for non-emergency situations. A particular number of text messages are included and you pay for extra, or unlimited depending on the plan. (That's per text message whether sent or received) See the bottom of this page for plan details. Satellite Communication Devices | inReach® by GARMIN
jim202
Member
Iridium is fine as long as there is no major activity going on.
As an example, when Katrina hit the New Orleans area, it worked fine for the first day I was there. After that, you could not make a call to save your life during the daytime. There were just too many people using the system. You would have to wait until way into the evening when the use fell off to make any calls.
So bear this in mind when planning the emergency response and use of an Iridium phone for emergency use. They do work well if there is no major response going on. You might be much better off with a radio link like VHF, low band or HF radio channels for your required communications. These won't be a non monitored channel, but they will allow you to communicate.
Jim
Hello Jim,
The Garmin inReach SE+ and the Garmin mini are not Iridium phones. They send short messages and should work for what the OP posted regarding their respective needs.
A wide area/population infrastructure issue is a different topic to discuss, but your point is a good one to remind people about.
The Garmin inReach SE+ and the Garmin mini are not Iridium phones. They send short messages and should work for what the OP posted regarding their respective needs.
A wide area/population infrastructure issue is a different topic to discuss, but your point is a good one to remind people about.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
Right, they do use the Iridium network, but just SMS. They'll queue up and send the message.
We've had a PLB we've carried on the trail for years. Just bought an InReach Mini to carry also. Seems to work well enough in my limited testing.
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