The Social interaction is a huge plus to PLB with texting
I have been toying with getting an delrome in reach, mostly because me and my jeep are both old and have a lot of miles on us the jeep has 166,000 Garmin bough delorme and the prices seem to have jumped about 50 bucks per unit plus I think whne it was de lorme you buy a subscrition on a use as you basis. now that it is Garmin, I think you have to pay a registration fee and a subscription fee (yearly) so instead of being like 450 its a couple of hundred more. I have not confirmed the exact numbers but it seems to me that is getting pretty pricey.
So here are my questions those of you that actull have an in reach how do you like it do you use it much? what about costs?
What other alternatives are there?
Ham HF would be about the closest non-satelite comms, in an area without cell phone coverage
how much does it cost for a ham radio? how hard is it to get a liscence?
Ham radio can be as cheap as $20, as much as $2K. It really depends on what you want to do with it.
The General license, which is what you'd need to run an HF radio takes a bit of studying.
What other options are availble Plb etc?
Spot is a direct competitor (I think it was the first of these two that came out).
My use would be soley as a rescue or request for help in the vent of a break down or worse.
I think you are missing out on the best part of PLB with texting ability
Mainly in the west washington oregon Ca idaho utah colorado az?
In my personal opinion from using the Inreach SE, you'd be missing out on the most fun aspect of using an InReach, or Spot with texting ability. The whole "Social" thing.
I've only used the InReach for one major trip. Eight days worth of exploration from California to Moab, UT, and back across the Mojave Road, but my family and friends still talk about that trip (it was over two years ago now).
* they could follow along the route almost real time on the password protected web site, with a Google Earth Overlay
* we could text back and forth real time. My brother was quasi "spotting" for me by using Google Earth, and letting me know what was coming up on some of the trails. It was a riot
* Family and friends could check in as they pleased to see where I'd been, and where I was currently at
* My other brother sent me a text to slow down, because I was doing 75mph (I was in an 80mph zone)... lol
* I'd take pictures with the cell phone and post them to Flickr. As soon as the cell phone had any kind of data reception the pictures would post up, and people would comment on them via the text ability
* After the trip my one brother who is retired, said it was the closest thing to actually being in the Jeep with me, but without all my burps and farts... :elkgrin:
* when the trip was over, I didn't need to tell all the friends and family about it multiple times because it was all there for them to "see" already, and they got to play a part in how it went.
The whole "social" aspect of the trip is still talked about, and everyone is urging me to go on another one soon. Of course, maybe they just want to be rid of me for a while... Hmmmm :elkgrin:
A plus for me was, there was such constant viewing throughout the 8 days, that had I been in a spot where I couldn't activate the SOS button, one of my family or friends would have caught this, and reported it. So while it was a lot of fun for all of us, it was an additional safety layer. Sort of a redundancy of safety.
I do the plan where I pay a yearly fee of $25, and then just pay by the month(s) of use. The only thing I would do different from the first trip is to do the top monthly plan (for the month of the trip), so it updates more often. When people are following along, and the trail is fast, they like to see the line of travel better. Especially when they are following along with Google Earth, with how well it zooms in.
It's only like $30 difference, which is like one hotdog, and a beer at a Giant's game...
Hope this helps bring a different perspective that maybe you hadn't already thought of. :beer:
