Thread: Thuraya Satellite Phone Experiences

Obviously I don't live in Australia...but I have used mine to order a head gasket set 400km from the nearest Land Rover stockist in Oman's empty quarter! It paid for it's self in one call.

Prices for calls have come down alot in recent years too. If you can afford one then get one.....very nice to have for emergency back up use.

Originally Posted by HowardSmall

Anyone tried the Thuraya Sat Phones recently? If so, what is your experience with it and would you recommend it?

Howard

Hi Used Iridium In Siberia, well worth the money and saved lots of trouble when stuck

Well it seems no one knows so I bought one and will give reports as I get experience with it.

To date:

With it installed in a holder hanging off a suction cap on the Defender windscreen the satphone gets great signal when heading in the NW direction and varies with direction until no signal in the SE direction. This is on the Atherton Tableland where it is generally flat.

Put it in the Nissan X-Trail with similar installation and it works pretty well in all directions. The difference is that, as we all know, the Defender has a huge area shielded by metal. Drove from Kuranda via Mareeba, Atherton, Ravenshoe, Mt Garnett to Mt Surprise and it worked fine. Travelling at 100kph around Undarra had a phone call with the office - no problems.

It would definitely gain from an external antenna.

General comments: as it talks to a geo-stationary satellite it is a big plus in that you know the general direction the satellite is sitting and if you have a line of sight to that satellite you will get a signal. I have not used Iridium but you will not know the satellite location and may have to wait until one appears overhead before you can communicate (as I said I have not used Iridium so do not flame me on this!). The big minus is you will not know where NE is - believe me! I am not a novice at map work, etc but you will have no idea where NE is when you are driving these areas so having a compass with you can be handy. I used my Brunton electronic compass in the car and was constantly astounded to find NE was nohwere near where I thought (OK we can stop and look at the sun but that does not really work too well at 100kph...).

The antenna on the satelilte is HUGE and the performance to the hand held is really amazing.

Costs from the handheld are what you would expect. Calls to you from local phones are about $5.50 per minute which is pretty rough but then again you are not paying it.

I am off to Georgetown and Croydon next week so will be able to give some more reports after that.

At this stage my basic comments are:

1. does what I had hoped
2. battery life seems less than expected (one days driving)
3. external antenna would be a great addition
4. spare battery (available from HK) definitely worth while
5. car power adapter a necessity
6. 2510 is compact and extraordinarily light - carry it in my shirt pocket without problem.
7. must use the external mic/earphone for calls as the handheld can then be kept in best location for comms with satellite (or left in the cradle I mentioned which seems to give good comms path)
8. must read the manual and do some experimenting if you are going to rely on it for emergency comms.

I will now be selling my Qmac HF-90 as I can contact RFDS more reliably with my Thuraya 2510 and I can use other sets for my amateur HF activity.

Hope this is of interest.

Howard

Originally Posted by HowardSmall

I will now be selling my Qmac HF-90 as I can contact RFDS more reliably with my Thuraya 2510 and I can use other sets for my amateur HF activity.

Hope this is of interest.

Howard

Not worried about the phone, whats a second hand QMac worth?

Dunno for sure. Guess about $1200

Howard

Originally Posted by Hymie

Not worried about the phone, whats a second hand QMac worth?

Last week travelled from Kuranda to Croydon. The Thuraya gave excellent coverage apart from some road sections East of Ravenshoe. Overall the savannah out West is perfect for this system giving a good path to the satellite from a vehicle.

One interesting feature is that it sends and receives SMS virtually instantly to/from Optus mobiles but will not SMS to/from Telstra. Contacted Telstra second level support who confirmed this is the case and indicated it is not likely to change. It costs about 30cents to send an SMS from Optus to Thuraya and about $1 from Thuraya to Optus.

I understand the opposite applies to the Iridium system, i.e. it will SMS with Telstra but not Optus.

The only down side is that the handset I bought is faulty - reboots intermittently and unpredictably. At this stage I am having some problems getting the supplier to replace it - they keep saying they will repair it under warranty but having had the fault since new I am saying it was not of merchantable quality and I want it replaced.

Howard