This was a great article and prompted us to do a review of my own communication requirements.
Over the next two years we intend to travel extensively in the central and western deserts region, additionally, we undertake a reasonable amount of remote area mountaineering and
rock climbing. Our vehicle is equipped with a Codan NGT
HF radio, however we wanted to ensure we had a redundancy fall back for this in case it did not work, or for the times when we are remotely located from the vehicle.
We also have a 406
Beacon and Spot tracking device which we also use when remotely located. After having reviewed the requirements for the subsidy it was clear we would most likely fall within the scheme’s arrangement and applied on that basis.
The process was straightforward and received a 50% subsidy within days of submitting the application. We have elected to go with the Pivotal Globalstar network as it provides the cheapest entry cost, and whilst the service is somewhat degraded in the northern parts of Australia, when compared to Iridium, we decided it would meet our own requirements.
Noting, that what it means is that it may take longer to acquire a connection in northern Australia, not that it doesn’t work in that region. Once again, thanks to Michelle and the ExplorOz team for the
well-researched article!
Cheers, Baz – The Landy