Glynparry25
Member Since: 16 Feb 2009
Location: Miserable Midlands
Posts: 3015
 
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There has been talk about sat phines lately, and even though I am a fan all my contact with them in the past is with work........ for personal use at £500-1000 for the phone plus credit (which expires after a few months) for something I hope not to need is a bit much.
So, I was looking at a Spot 2, which routed me to the Spot connect. This sounds good- £100 for the year in subscriptions and it just sits there happy.
Then I found the InReach. This has monthly subscriptions of £6-30 a month and you have to keep the subscription for a minimum of 1 year (you can upgrade/ downgrade the service as needed (£15 to downgrade). But the packages also include the messaging (Did the math and it is 25p a message) up to 140 characters compared to the Spot which requires message bundles and is only 41 characters.
So all in all I think it will be about the same price for a years adventuring. The Spot Connect doesn't have an external supply either  where the InReach can have one for an extra £50.
Oh, and start price for Spot is about £120 where the InReach is about £170.
So it look like they are reasonably equal on paper but has anyone used either and have any feedback on how they get along. There just aren't any great reviews online comparing them.
I like the idea of being able to sent the gf/ family/ fb messages when I am out of cell phone coverage and the ability for them to log-on and 'ping' the device so they can check and track me on my adventures too.
Cheers for any input in advance,
Glyn  
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25th Mar 2013 7:18pm |
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quentin
Member Since: 23 Jul 2012
Location: on tour
Posts: 119
 
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I have Spot 1 , battery life is much better than Spot 2.
to give you an idea of how useful they are have a look at my blog www.goingbush.com
the home page will show you where we are now,
the GPS Tracking page shows our track , you can zoom out and click on any dot for more info from the Spot device
we are a few weeks into round Australia trip, been all blacktop so far, should start hitting the dirt soon
would not go remote without either a Spot or a satphone .
hope this helps , cheers Don
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9th Apr 2013 9:37am |
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