[pct-l] Foreign Hiker - 2 questions and SPOT Connect

[Melissa Cappetti]

My boyfriend and I just started using the Delorme Inreach SE to communicate
more frequently when I had to get off the trail due to foot injuries. I
LOVE the Delorme. You are correct that sometimes there is a delay in
sending/receiving messages when in canyons but for the most part it works
brilliantly. I am so happy we have this now. We got the plan with 120
custom texts per month and we are using all of those texts (25cents for
each text over that cap). We did our research and from what we could tell
the Delorme was better than the Spot in terms of 2 way communication.

One bug we have found though is that twice the device has sent one of the
canned messages when my boyfriend did not initiate it. I got the email but
he did not send the message. Nor did it show up in his history of sent
messages. It was very strange...he reported this to Delorme so hopefully
they are looking into it. It was a good thing the canned messages was not
"Send Help!". That could have been a disaster.

Our 3 canned messages are:
1) Starting my hike for the day
2) Checking in, everything is okay
3) Camping here for the night, everything ok

#2 and #3 were each sent randomly once to me without him touching his
device. I'm guessing this is some kind of bug.

We use the custom text option quite frequently to communicate resupply
needs and sometimes I send him information on fire conditions, weather, and
accommodations. I did come out to the trail to do a little magic for him
and the device helped us coordinate location and timing perfectly. I can't
say enough good things about it.

Also, Delorme provides me with a map where I can actually track his
physical location. He has his device tracking feature set to every 30mins
so I can see where he is. I'm not stalking him by all means but it's nice
to check in one in a while.

Some of you may think this is overkill and don't want to be connected like
this but I find peace of mind with it and I've been a more efficient
resupply person for him. Plus his Mom gets his canned messages as well and
she is happy to be informed. It helps her sleep well :-)

+1 for Delorme Inreach SE!

Cheers,
Near Miss


On Sun, Sep 8, 2013 at 2:36 AM, Eric Martinot <eric at martinot.info> wrote:

> I live overseas too, and went through this a few years ago.  I ended up
> buying an ATT Go-Phone (pre-paid) smartphone because Verizon didn't seem to
> offer a pre-paid plan for smartphones at the time (may have changed now).
>  After unlocking the Go-Phone smartphone (a major project), I was able use
> it overseas as my primary phone with overseas SIM cards.
>
> I don't know if an ATT Go-Phone (prepaid) SIM card will work in a non-ATT
> phone, someone should verify that before you count on that. (Seems that
> Yoshihiro Murikami's recent PCT-L post implies that that the ATT Go-Phone
> SIM will work in a non-ATT phone.)   If yes, however, ATT won't sell you
> just the SIM card by itself, you have to buy it with a phone.  But you can
> buy a really cheap ATT Go-Phone for $30-40 with a Go-Phone SIM card, and
> then just throw away the phone and use the SIM card.  The biggest problem
> for an overseas hiker is that ATT will only mail the phone/SIM to your
> credit card billing address, so you'd need to have one in the US, I think.
>
> True, ATT service on the trail isn't great.  It was fine in almost all
> trail towns, and at high elevations on the trail with line-of-sight to some
> metro area.  But many times I got a carrier signal of another network, and
> couldn't use it, the phone says "not registered on network" and the
> Go-Phone pre-paid service doesn't allow out-of-network roaming.
>
> I also got a Delorme Inreach to pair (bluetooth) with the ATT Go-Phone
> (Android), and use that for text messages (140-char) when out of range of
> cell service.  Works really well, but its heavy (8 oz.), and requires a
> fairly clear view of the sky, so not in deep valleys, although trees by
> themselves don't seem to bother it.  The Inreach was the first on the
> market to allow two-way communication, so it can receive texts too, but
> SPOT now seems to be providing two-way also?  I'm surprised there hasn't
> been more discussion on PCT-L over the past year about Delorme vs. SPOT, as
> they are now head-to-head competitors it seems, and both useful gear for
> the PCT.
>
>
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