Satellite phones

[Sandman]

This would be for piece of mind but of course I would want it to work.

[2.ooohhh]

If you are reasonably close to a vehicle you can just leave a spare battery charging in the car. A short hike to the car to swap out batteries every few/every other day is no sweat compared to carrying all the stuff required to maintain a charge indefinitely.

[173rdABN]

What was overhead/sky view? Mine lasted around 2 days+ out on the open ocean, but not so much in my wooded back yard testing in the valley I live in.(more realistic to TN backwoods)

Almost always clear in the summer. Very little clouds. When it was cloudy it would last 2 days roughly.

[tnguy]

I have one of the fire USB burners. You burn small twigs and it powers a USB device.

 

Looked at one of those but it was for backpacking and it was too big and bulky. Still want one though. Good idea.

[tnguy]

Alternatively, don't get too far from service and head back in on a schedule every 4 hours or so.

[AirCav]

Anyone have one or looked into them? I've starting searching and was going to get views from people who have them.

 

I use a SPOT personal locator beacon (PLB) but it's only one way messaging (you to them) and doesn't provide for free form text messages. Another PLB option that does permit two way text messaging (but still no voice) is the DeLorme InReach.

 

Ran across a couple other text options that appear to work with an existing device. I'm not familiar with these but I'd guess that useful battery life would be limited by your phone/tablet.

 

Text Anywhere

 

Cerberus

Edited January 17, 2014 by AirCav

[tnguy]

I use a SPOT personal locator beacon (PLB) but it's only one way messaging (you to them) and doesn't provide for free form text messages. Another PLB option that does permit two way text messaging (but still no voice) is the DeLorme InReach.

 

Ran across a couple other text options that appear to work with an existing device. I'm not familiar with these but I'd guess that useful battery life would be limited by your phone/tablet.

 

Text Anywhere

 

Cerberus

 

Interesting. I'm guessing they work off the regular phone satellites. Looks like batteries are internal. Most phones and tablets are unable to power external devices.

[TMF]

I use a SPOT personal locator beacon (PLB) but it's only one way messaging (you to them) and doesn't provide for free form text messages. Another PLB option that does permit two way text messaging (but still no voice) is the DeLorme InReach.
 
Ran across a couple other text options that appear to work with an existing device. I'm not familiar with these but I'd guess that useful battery life would be limited by your phone/tablet.
 
Text Anywhere
 
Cerberus

But if are running a global device you're still limited by view of the sky. Same issue if you had a PLB or sat phone. I'm familiar with the SPOT, which uses globalstar infrastructure as opposed to Iridium, and they can be temperamental under canopy. I think that has more to do with how powerful the transmit antenna is and less about the satellites. They run off of AAA alkaline whereas iridium based PLBs I've seen run off rechargeable lithiums and transmit at a higher wattage.

[2.ooohhh]

 Another thing I wanted to note after looking at my iridium's battery the other night is that it is 2800mah, that's a nearly double what an iPhone 5's battery is so if a device such as the biolite takes 4 hours(guesstimate) of burn time to charge a dead iphone 5 it would require nearly 8 to fully recharge the iridium. Not impossible but likely more time than I would typically care to sit there and feed it firewood.

 

For comparison my solar panel weighs 12 ounces(older brunton) and will charge the iridium in around 3 hours of decent sunlight. Works well laid out on a portage pack in the center of a canoe while you paddle, which makes it nearly convenient.

[Dustbuster]

There's a co in nashville outfitter satellite that's hot for satellite phones. There's diff systems for diff parts of the world. Some if the better plans require a flat annual w per minute use. There is no savings texting w a sat phone. It's worse than voice charges. Buy a used phone w a new battery for best savings,avoid the kits, buy extras as u need it hope this helps


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2 of course it ate my spelling.

[AirCav]

Interesting. I'm guessing they work off the regular phone satellites. Looks like batteries are internal. Most phones and tablets are unable to power external devices.

Yeah, it appears that the TextAnywhere and Cerberus devices use Iridium.

 

They do have their own battery but apparently serve as a "repeater" and still rely on your existing phone for text messaging functions, addressing, etc. If so, you're going to at least lose that functionality when the phone dies. But I could be wrong, I don't have any experience with them.

Edited January 19, 2014 by AirCav