I have a friend (not a pilot) that will be at a remote outpost cabin most of the summer, he is thinking about an Inreach, because of the text function for communications. I have an Iridium phone and suggested he stay with the Iridium system for use in our area, he would like to save some money if the Inreach is a feasible alternative. The question is if the text function works well enough to consider using it rather than getting a phone? Next question: what does one have to do in order to set up your home computer to receive text messages? Thank you for any thoughts.

Steve

steve wrote:I have a friend (not a pilot) that will be at a remote outpost cabin most of the summer, he is thinking about an Inreach, because of the text function for communications. I have an Iridium phone and suggest he do the same, but he wants to save some money if the Inreach is a feasible alternative. The question for you is if the text function works well enough to consider using it rather than getting a phone? Next question: what does one have to do in order to set up your home computer to receive text messages? Thank you for any thoughts.

Text function: Sure, works as advertised. Though he's gonna find it painful to type messages using the keypad on the Explorer. Using bluetooth and linking with an iphone (or android) to use the keyboard on the phone is the way to go. As you know from using an iridium phone, you need to have a clear view of the sky, same rules here. So he's not going to be sitting in the cabin texting at night, but with bluetooth he should be able to leave the InReach outside and send and receive messages from his phone. That might be kind of cool.

Home computer/text messages: I assume this isn't related to the above because remote cabins have neither internet nor cellular coverage, if correct then if you're on IOS you can receive message via iMessage from everyone else using imessage. If you aren't, you have a couple other options. Google voice lets you get SMS messages, but they wouldn't be sent to your mobile number they would be sent to your Google voice number. You could also try Whatsapp, which like iMessage is a closed ecosystem, but unlike iMessage isn't tied only to apple users.

Wifi to your phone and hang it In a tree and text away works great there is a fairly big delay, as much as a half hour in areas I've used it but that's the only downside.

steve wrote:I have a friend (not a pilot) that will be at a remote outpost cabin most of the summer, he is thinking about an Inreach, because of the text function for communications. I have an Iridium phone and suggested he stay with the Iridium system for use in our area, he would like to save some money if the Inreach is a feasible alternative. The question is if the text function works well enough to consider using it rather than getting a phone? Next question: what does one have to do in order to set up your home computer to receive text messages? Thank you for any thoughts.

Steve

If the computer text question is in regards to the inReach, they will send an email that can obviously be retrieved on the home computer.

We will have to try to find a unit to look at to see how difficult it is to manipulate the keys for texting. My friend does not have a need for a smart phone, so would probably have to discount that option.

I did not realize the text would be sent in e-mail form, that answers that question.

It sounds like the newer Iridium phone with text capabilities would probably be the ultimate route for him to go, but it's not my money to spend. Will have to see what he decides. Thank you for the replies.

Steve

steve wrote:We will have to try to find a unit to look at to see how difficult it is to manipulate the keys for texting. My friend does not have a need for a smart phone, so would probably have to discount that option.

I did not realize the text would be sent in e-mail form, that answers that question.

It sounds like the newer Iridium phone with text capabilities would probably be the ultimate route for him to go, but it's not my money to spend. Will have to see what he decides. Thank you for the replies.

The "text" can be sent as SMS, email or facebook (maybe one more?)

Strictly speaking he doesn't need a smart phone. He can get an ipad or ipod touch (which will also provide him with music while he's alone for months at a time) and use that to connect to the inreach.

It is very difficult to manipulate the keys on the Explorer (and, of course, the other model doesn't even have a keyboard). That's really only an option if he's going to send a text every couple days. Would be very frustrating very quickly to do any more than that.

I've found the speed of sending and receiving really depend on where the satellites are relative to the unit at time of sending/receiving.

I believe the unit and the satellite do a handshake on a clock interval, meaning if you send your message one minute before the system is primed to communicate it will go quite quickly. Sometimes I get a reply very quickly, other times it takes about 20 minutes.

I've used an InReach as my exclusive means of contact while in the bush for two full seasons, this will be my third. I've had a few issues, but am generally happy enough to recommend it to anyone.

That said, the text input user interface is awful. If I didn't use my smartphone to write my messages I would be sending 2 word messages all the time.

Allan

How remote? We have a long range radio at our fishing camp, we string an attend up between two trees about 100 ft apart and can talk over 150 miles. This is in eastern quebec

albravo wrote:I've found the speed of sending and receiving really depend on where the satellites are relative to the unit at time of sending/receiving.

I believe the unit and the satellite do a handshake on a clock interval, meaning if you send your message one minute before the system is primed to communicate it will go quite quickly. Sometimes I get a reply very quickly, other times it takes about 20 minutes.

Both statements are true. The default handshake is twenty minutes, but if you are sending tracking points every ten (or two or one) then it also checks for messages when it sends the tracking point. The twenty minute default is a battery life thing, so if he's in a remote cabin that has good power (battery backed solar array or whatever) then he can change the default and just recharge his inreach more frequently.

rw2 wrote:
Both statements are true. The default handshake is twenty minutes, but if you are sending tracking points every ten (or two or one) then it also checks for messages when it sends the tracking point. The twenty minute default is a battery life thing, so if he's in a remote cabin that has good power (battery backed solar array or whatever) then he can change the default and just recharge his inreach more frequently.

If you have an enterprise plan you can set the time interval for when it checks the satellite for messages. I have mine set for every 5 minutes.