CB radio versus Sat phone

We have both, but UHF can be used all the time and the sat phone for emergency only.
We bought our sat phone as we travel remote each year. It's a pre paid and cost about 90 cents a minute to dial out, but would never have anybody dials in as they may have to sell their house to pay for the call.
People can send messages to the sat phone for free if they want to, however we hardly ever turned it on.
Regards Hugh

The PLB may be cheaper, but it can only send a distress signal, whereas with the satphone you can actually talk to someone and discuss your problem.
A PLB should only be used in life threatening situations, and once activated, the emergency services assume that is what it is.
However, what if you are simply broken down and need a tow out?
The rescue helicopter that the emergency services sent out is not going to be of much help, and they won't be happy if you are not actually in impending peril.
The sat phone provides a means of clear and concise communication of the problem at hand and also of knowing that the required help is on its way.

Brian, If you are broken down and there is no passing traffic then that IS a life threatening situation.

Peter can I ask if you were in that situation where you had broken down. At what point ( timeframe ) would you activate the safety beacon,
Assuming you had plenty of food and water would you wait a couple of days to see if there is any passing traffic or do you set it off immediately ?

So phone the mechanic 300 kilometers away or send out a search and rescue crew with aircraft and ground crew........

Didn't know the state automotive clubs like the RAA, RACQ, NRMA offered PLB member access.

I think it's a little irresponsible........

QUOTE" and they are much cheaper."...... price should not come into a situation where you need help, what are you going to find the cheapest person to come and get your 4x4 going again!

Yes Olcoolone, that is where I am coming from. A sat phone is less than $500 more than an Epirb, not enough to create the situation you just proposed in my opinion
I have used our sat phone to get out of trouble on three occasions, two of them were requiring mechanical assistance in remote desert areas the other requiring RFDS assistance to airlift a sick child which required us to travel 100 ish klms to a suitable pickup point for them. Valuable time that would have been lost using a Epirb

I don't know what all you precious people are carrying on about. A PLB was designed for the various classes of people including 4WD travellers. See this link, Look under "What types of distress beacons are there?" and "Personal Locator Beacons (PLB)"

Out back safety needs to be considered carefully. No means of distress calling equipment should be used frivolously. However all means of sending a distress call can be used even if you blokes reckon that someone should be using something else.

If someone is broken down on a track where no other traveller is expected to venture along then that is a life threatening situation. If you think there may be some chance of a traveller arriving then it would be stupid to wait for all your food and water to run out before activating the alarm. If you are carrying a PLB then you should also be carrying a CB radio so you can communicate with a search aircraft. If you call early and indicate to the aircraft you just need recovery procedures you may need a few days food to allow a recovery. If you wait too long then it could become an emergency where you need a helicopter for food drops or patient recovery because health due to lack of food.

I'm not sure of the current situation but it is not so long back that there were a few threads where the reliability of sat-phones were mentioned. There were many complaints regarding service dropping out for a while hand holes in the service area. With distress beacons there are no holes in the service area.

I am not promoting these as a means of communication along the Gibb River Road and such places. I am promoting the service for those who go to out of the way places or feel they could stray from the popular outback tracks.

Peter your opening post was along the lines that they both do the job but this one is cheaper to buy.
In your last post you seem to think it is acceptable that a simple issue like damaging your last good tyre warrants deploying an emergency beacon response when you may well be less than 100 klms from a roadhouse that could easily assist with a repair / replacement tyre if you were able to contact them.

I think that that is unfairly taking advantage of an essential emergency service and the public purse on the basis of saving a few $$ on your part.

I and many others would be a bit bleep if someone in my group became sick and needed medical help only to find out all available emergency crews are out helping a stranded traveller change a flat tyre...... and sorry we will have to wait our turn.

Peter and one other thing trip preparation and planning make for a perfect trip....... so if you're going to be travelling on a piece of road that no others travel across you don't have to be einstein to realise something may happen and a satellite phone may be a good investment.

A PLB should not even be compared with a satellite phone as they have two totally different functions.

How are you going to call for medical advice if one becomes sick that may not be life threatening.

Hi thanks for your info is there a better brand than another when best would I get one and what should I ask for ?
Thanks
Greg&Leonie

The particular one I was thinking of is a GME Electrophone TX3100 Plug N Play 80 Channel UHF CB 12V Kit but some of the other brands probably offer a similar unit, you old also get a handheld unit but I suspect these would offer better coverage.
There are a number of companies online and on eBay that sell these for a reasonable price

True but you can't use an Epirb to call for mechanical assistance, seek urgent medical advice over the phone or the many other initially not life threatening situations and if you call 000 someone will answer

I carry UHF ,sat phone and the Epirb from my boat

That is exactly what we carry for now. The EPIRB we regard as our 000 call and it may not be for us, we may come across someone who needs 000 and it may be hours or days to a phone. This is where a Sat phone would be handy but for the amount of time we spend away from civilization these days, we cannot justify one.