tboehm
Well-known member
Who is offering the best affordable plan for alaska? What phone do you like? Where did you get your plan and phone?
Best satellite cell plan?
- Thread starter tboehm
- Start date
iofthetaiga
Well-known member
Sat phone, or cell phone?
My cell provider is GCI, and it sucks.
As far as sat phones go, i think the iridium network has the best coverage.
My cell provider is GCI, and it sucks.
As far as sat phones go, i think the iridium network has the best coverage.
AK Mauler
New member
Had Iridium for years with the "Northern Lights" plan. Best thing I ever did was get rid of it and replace it with a Garmin Inreach.
I have Copper Valley, but I live in Valdez. Even then, programs like OnX don't work in my bear stand 15 miles out of port. I can text from the Gulf but no internet at all out there. There has to be something better for outdoors enthusiasts.
Fuel E Fishin Sea
New member
Garmin inReach. Service anywhere, monthly plans that you can cancel anytime is easy. My plan is $15/month for like 30 texts, SOS service and GPS tracking. Wife can follow my route on the laptop from home, and it allows you to check in and get weather reports in the field. It has decent battery life.
worth the investment for peace of mind, especially in an emergency situation with zero cell service.
worth the investment for peace of mind, especially in an emergency situation with zero cell service.
iofthetaiga
Well-known member
The iridium system was originally exclusively military. Circa early 1990's the Alaska Fire Service and the BLM Fairbanks District Office began working with iridium to adapt and develop it for civilian use. Maintaining lengthy voice connectivity can be challenging...and you need to have a reasonably clear sky view, especially to the south...so if you're down in a hole on the north side of a ridge you're likely to be SOL. Still, its limitations notwithstanding, of the satellite comm systems currently available in Alaska I believe iridium still has the best coverage. Like others have stated above, I too use a Garmin InReach...so that if something goes gunnysack at least my home base knows where to look for the body. InReach uses the iridium satellite system, so you still need a reasonably clear sky view, but it only sends data, and only periodically and in small packets, so it doesn't suffer the challenge of maintaining a continuous voice connection.
AK Troutbum
Well-known member
Iridium and www.roadpost.com is who I go through, but I only set it up and use it during hunting season.
Doug in Alaska
Active member
I use a Garmin inReach and subscribe to the service year round. It's kind of a pain in the azz to text with it when out of cell range, but it works. Also love that my wife can see where I'm at when out in the field.
We started out with a Garmin In-reach but a couple years ago AT&T got into a dispute with Garmin and none of our messages were coming through that my wife was sending from her cell phone which was AT&T provider. We flew out and so i was waiting on weather info through the mountains that she could look at on the FAA cameras but the messages never came. We got a Sat phone and we go through surveyor exchange co. Like stated before every now and then it drops calls but i can have a solid 10 min conversation which is very beneficial if you have a lot of information you need to relay to someone.
Doug in Alaska
Active member
My grandson drew a youth caribou permit this year so I sent my inReach along with my son. He has cell service with AT&T and I'm with Pure Talk. Text messages worked fine for us. Wonder if AT&T and Garmin have gotten things straightened out?
Our party uses Alaska survey exchange or the satellite phone store by mooses tooth. They are very comparable but it all depends on how much you use It. I carry an inreach too but that is only good for limited communication with friends and wife for weather and updates for sanity.
when it comes to logistics in the field we have to use the sat phone. We usually get a plan with 100-150 minutes and it costs us around 400$ To rent. This is only a 100 per person per year so that isn’t a big deal for us. We can work plane rides meat hauls and pickups and transfers via voice and not intermittent text.
they use iridium phones and make sure you charge that extra battery before you leave for a few weeks.
joe
when it comes to logistics in the field we have to use the sat phone. We usually get a plan with 100-150 minutes and it costs us around 400$ To rent. This is only a 100 per person per year so that isn’t a big deal for us. We can work plane rides meat hauls and pickups and transfers via voice and not intermittent text.
they use iridium phones and make sure you charge that extra battery before you leave for a few weeks.
joe
z987k
Member
Irridium uses polar orbits so you do not need a southern unobstructed view. It could be almost any direction to the most in sight one to very much include north.
Globalstar uses the equatorial orbits that need line of sight to the south.
iofthetaiga
Well-known member
Good luck with that. I've had to hike to a ridge top to make a call more times than I care to recall.
iofthetaiga
Well-known member
With hypothesis vs reality. If in reality you have to climb a ridge to achieve connectivity to have a conversation, some dude on the internet telling you you don't because of polar orbits doesn't count for much.
z987k
Member
You sure you were on iridium vs globastar?
Of course you could have had to climb a ridge, but you could have also waited 10-15mins and it would have been overhead.
iofthetaiga
Well-known member
Yes, I'm sure. Have been using iridium for over 30 years.
shotgunner2012
New member
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2012
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I used to rent a sat phone for $75 from Surveyors Exchange.
For the past 10 years I've used InReach and never had a problem.
I like the long battery life of the old InReach Explorer which I still use...
I used it daily for 2 weeks and it still had > 85% battery life when I got home.
My monthly subscription is $12.99 for the InReach
For the past 10 years I've used InReach and never had a problem.
I like the long battery life of the old InReach Explorer which I still use...
I used it daily for 2 weeks and it still had > 85% battery life when I got home.
My monthly subscription is $12.99 for the InReach
caribouman
Member
I bought an Iridium 9505A lightly used on ebay many years ago for about $500. It paid for itself within 2-3 years vs. renting. I buy a 30 day / 75 minute sim card through Amazon for about $145 when I'm planning a hunting trip. I mostly text on it when communicating with home and loved ones which uses only 20 seconds of time and they can email me for free, (maybe text too, I can't remember). Texting is a pain since it doesn't have a keyboard so you have to press the #1 key three times to write the letter "C" etc. I call the flight service when I need to communicate with them and I've never run out of minutes, but it can be frustrating when your call keeps getting dropped and like others have said, you have to climb a mountain to get better service. They charge you for all those dropped calls too. This year my flight service has the ability to receive a text (due to the increasing popularity of InReach). So I bought the InReach mini and tried it out in addition to the Sat phone. I couldn't be happier! Instead of carrying that Iridium brick everywhere I go, I left it in camp and now I only carry the tiny 2 or 3 oz InReach! I always carry my cell phone anyways as a camera and I can now pair the InReach with the phone and type with a keyboard. I no longer need to carry my GPS as the InReach replaces it. Every night I sent a preset message home to my wife for free. I was able to get weather reports (not very accurate where I was on Kodiak though). I had the $15 a month plan but might up that if I don't take the sat phone next year. That reminds me, I should go online and put my InReach plan on hold so I don't have to pay for it until my next adventure.
z987k
Member
Did flight service finally get around to allowing you to open or close a flight plan via text?
