Satellite Phones

monica · Newbie

Satellite Phones

Mike Harding · Guru

If you will be staying on the bitumen (ie. well used roads) then I don't consider it necessary.

Either your mobile phone or CB will find a friend or you can flag someone down.

monica · Newbie

Thanks Mike. I will be travelling to wa in 2018 and I do have a uhf in the truck. We will be doing a little off road but not anything major. thanks in advance if anyone else has traveled up that way.

woofta and precious · Senior Member

Hi Monica,
If you are towing a van, I would think any place you can go in Australia, there will be some one along in the next 24 hours at least. As long as you carry enough water for a few days, the population will catch up with you...

woolman · Guru

Based on the fact that most of the area of Australia does not have mobile coverage, I have a Sat Phone as security. Well worth the $15 per month as insurance. So far we have helped out others with mechanical breakdowns, saving them much time, travel and stress.

Always carry sat phone in pocket when walking, just in case. If needed minutes are important.

Neil

monica · Newbie

Thanks woolman. My husband is a bit of a just in case person and know I would be feeling alot happier if we had one. Any help with a brand and type of plans for it would be good. Are they easy to get service with the satellites. Have you used it in WA.

Thanks Monica

woolman · Guru

We have a $15 plan through Pivotol and a Thurava phone. We are from WA and it works good for us providing have clear view to NW, no trees. Best to stand still when you have coverage. Calls are expensive, quick call will cost $5. Still cheap for a low stress life.

Neil

TheHeaths · Guru

Monica,

we have a Globalstar GSP 1600 phone, through Pivotel, at $20 per month, no lock in contract. Can view on the Sat Phone Sales ad at the top of this page. The phone is a bit "old style" but works fine.

Uses a normal mobile number, so cheap for others to call in. Costs are about $1 per minute to call out. A refurbished phone is $449 with 6 month factory warranty. They have good service. I had a car power cord replaced no problems after 6 months due to failure. Phone has proved fine the few times we use it.

I can recommend them for you, as I am like your husband. As an aside, when you go to WA there is very good mobile coverage around the major highways from the NW all the way down the coast.

-- Edited by TheHeaths on Wednesday 22nd of March 2017 07:56:12 PM

Mike Harding · Guru

If you are going to acquire a satellite phone you may be able to use a *post* paid Telstra SIM which has international roaming enabled. This was the case five or more years ago but may have changed. In any event it will still cost an arm and leg :)

There are other options but it all depends upon how often you will go bush, what sort of bush you will go, how much money you wish to spend and how technically capable you are?

Spot Messenger

EPIRB

HF Radio

Are all possibles too - Google is your friend.

If you do go with a sat phone *ENSURE* you have a printed list of all the possible numbers you may need to call and check if 000 works with your provider - it use not to. Make test calls before you go and ascertain whether you need to use a +61 prefix.

You should also ensure you own and are familiar with a GPS receiver and are familiar with latitude and longitude coordinates and their variations of degrees, minutes, seconds or decimal degrees (and other variants) and are confidently able to read those from your GPS and pass them to someone on the sat phone. There is no point in having sophisticated communications if you are unable to tell anyone where you are.

villatranquilla · Guru

I can use my Telstra sim (it's the larger sim card and must be set on global roaming) in our sat phone. Initially had it on $35/mth plan which ran out after 2 yrs - then I tried the Telstra sim after hearing about it on the forum.
Will be selling our sat phone if anyone is interested as our big travel days are over. Only used it once for some blood test results. But gave us good peace of mind.

-- Edited by villatranquilla on Thursday 30th of March 2017 05:07:09 PM

C00P · Senior Member

Sat phones are good, but some services are not always available (satellites not in convenient location).
We use one of these beacons:

www.acrartex.com/products/catalog/personal-locator-beacons/resqlink-plb/

The advantage is that emergency services know who you are, where you are, and that you are in serious trouble, within about 4 minutes of turning it on.
The disadvantage is that it should only be used in life-threatening situations, so not suitable for (eg) ordering another clutch or gearbox...
But at a cost of $279 it's pretty cheap insurance for really serious problems, like serious medical issues or nasty accidents.

As the medic in a rescue chopper once said to me: These devices take the search out of "search and rescue".

Cheers,
C00P