Thread: Satellite phone

A long time ago a mate and I picked up an ex-hire motorola for a grand. We were doing the 'big lap' and it was much cheaper than hiring one.

Each trip we now just pick up a pre-paid sim. It's expensive but TBH I've never actually used it. (its only for an emergency).

My mate used it to call his missus once form some middle of nowhere place, I think it was $6 a min. He said the Lag made it hard to have a conversation but would be fine in an emergency.

I'd be looking for one that could work on its own out side of the car. IE if it burns down and you can only grab one thing - you can grab the sat phone.

G'day FourBoar,

Have a look at some of the Inmarsat phones. They have reached the point now where they are about the size of the old Motorola brick AMPS phones.

The plans these days are also a lot better. You can them down to around $1/min.

I personally don't have one but know a couple of folk who have the Inmarsat capable ISatPhone Pro and they seem happy enough. They even come with bluetooth now so you can set up the handset in the ideal line of sight for the satellite and wander around camp talking via a BT headset.

There are deals to be had and most can be had with enough bells and whistles for under $1K.

If the government is still running it's subsidy scheme you can easily get a setup for under $500.

Look for reasonable battery life (it'll never match your regular mobile phone as it's got a lot further to communicate and that takes energy).
Features such as Bluetooth and SMS functionality are useful and more than "nice to have"s.

Anyway that's my 5c worth.

Good luck and happy hunting.

Cheers,
Iain

I can highly recommend the Inmarsat phones, having used and sold a number myself they offer one of the best deals available.

Be it hand held or in car kit with roof mounted mini dome receiver/transmitter theres a option for most budgets.

The beauty is you buy the handset, add a value of credit, and off you go, no contracts, your credit is valid for 2 years......

We field tested one last year, happy to answer any question you may have.

contact me a info@landybitz.com.au for further information.....

I've got an Isatphone Pro. Unfortunately they dropped the 2 year credit expiry from plans bought after July 1st this year. Existing plans keep the 2 year expiry but when you recharge you get the new plan which is only a few months I think. The phone is decent enough, sort of like going back 10 years on mobiles

Originally Posted by RangieBit

Features such as Bluetooth and SMS functionality are useful and more than "nice to have"s.

I think SMS is pretty good for a "we are at xyz, going to abc all is well" type thing when you are very remote or on your own. I do this with my spot when I'm doing long hiking or kayaking trips. Especially if I'm on my own.

The Iridium 9555 works well (Telstra). SMS is handy but all up any call isn't cheap. I've had Satphones for 12 years now and have used only once for an emergency and was very glad to have it.

The SPOT locator system also works well as do the latest generation EPIRBS with GPS. With SPOT you can transmit an "I'm OK" or "We're here" type message as well as "HELP!".

Contrary to DMDigitals opinion regarding the Iridium I use it most days in the Kimberley or try to. We have had endless problems with them from Handset not talking to the docking station, calls continually dropping out, lag between transmision and receiving (this causes great frustration), Handsets and docking stations require frequent software updates.......
On one occasion I broke down up the Gibb and was stuck there until I actually worked out what the problem was with the car and fixed it myself. Luckily I carry 3 days food and water with me wherever i go. The whole time I was there I was trying to call my office to let them know there was a problem. The phone did not work. This incident caused a national safety audit with my company. The outcome was that there is a need for a new and more reliable SAT Phone system. Which is still under review. The upshot of all this it's making a lot of people sit up and think about where they are going. and what they're doing. and how they're doing it.
Anyway that's my 2c worth. I don't trust the Iridium system. Actually no one should trust any Sat phone. The technology that's available for civilian use is unreliable. But we're stuck with it for now.

Cheers
Rob

Originally Posted by flagg

My mate used it to call his missus once form some middle of nowhere place, I think it was $6 a min. He said the Lag made it hard to have a conversation but would be fine in an emergency.

The lag is pretty annoying. We have the 9555 and a couple of the model before that. So great for emergencies but suck for conversation. It is closer to using a CB radio than a phone.

My advice is make sure the numbers you are likely to need are programmed into the phone as in an emergency you are likely to forget how to use the phone properly.

For some reason the car kits in all our cars work poorly when the vehicle is moving so I wouldn't bother with one. Especially if it is only for emergency use.