HF Radio compared to Sat Phones

I have the same unit and worth noting that 000 works without any available credit as well

Same again. Also thanks on the confirmation of the "000" access Alby.

But I agree it would be handy to have someone nearby hear a call for assistance. Can't do that with a phone so we wear the cost to get the car towed or lifted out if we brake an axle. Or whatever. I think that you get my point.

Our satellite phone cost about $500 new after the subsidy and we are on a prepaid account with no monthly fees. It has about 100 units credit at the moment. If we need more time then we just bung some time into it when we go remote. I hate monthly commitments. Even the old Nokia mobile is a prepaid. And I don't even use it. Not a member of the Borg society.

But then again we do not use it for chatter. Only for emergencies.

Phil

Phil that is a good point regarding also being able to access a nearby travellers assistance. As a recovery tow will in most cases cost more than a HF setup
Ideal situation is to have both.
The prepaid cards have a shorter use by date now, on my last trip I just bought a $30 dollar prepaid before I left, cheap insurance in my view

That's cheap insurance, at $30 a trip. According to the phone "balance statement", our credit should expire on the 1 June next year. That's more than six months. No idea what's going on with it. We put some money into it just before the Simpson drive last year and it still has 113.50 units credit with a date of 2013/06/01.

Am I about to tell them it should have run out last Christmas!!! Nope!!! No way Nellie. I don't like telling people that they are wrong and made a mistake. Far be it for me to criticise them. Maybe it will magically extend next year as well.

I know about having both but we have chosen the phone and that will do us.

Phil

i understand your thinking however it depends where you are when a catastrophe occurs.....sat phone wont work under heavy tree cover and various other situations etc ,i remember a few years ago when sat phones were used to report on the fink races out of alice ,the sat fones wouldnt work and the officials resorted to hf to report results.....anyone heard of wicken a service to communicate on multiple events including natural desasters....uses hf.

but i agree with you in an ideal world,both would be the way to go.

Both have their own weaknesses, saying a sat phone will not work under trees is a bit wrong when you made no reference to what network they were using...... saying that we did have difficulties with our Iridium sat phone dropping of the network when we were in the northern Simpson, this happened mostly when we were between dunes.

We have had times where we have not been able to use the HF for a few days due to atmospheric conditions.

Tim is one the money with his KISS theory, a sat phone is way more easier to use and in an emergency that plays a big part.

There is enough issues with people understanding technology and even using their TV remotes so I could only wonder what these people would be like using a HF radio under pressure.

99.9% of the worlds population know how to use a telephone and less than 1% would know how to use a HF radio.

Calling a HF base outside scheds can be a trying experience with frequency, selcall and base location having to be taken into account..... compared to a sat phone; using HF requires a BIG white board and complex calculations using many different coloured texta's.

We carry sat phone, HF, UHF and a GPS enables PLB, the sat phone gets the most use but the HF is alway on just in case someone close by who we cannot hear needs help.

I would recommend a sat phone any day over a HF anyday.

Hi Jo,
You state " use your everyday Telstra sim if you have one." can you please state more on that? are you saying use my everyday sim card out of my standard mobile phone can be used in a sat phone to make sat phone calls???
I have contacted Telstra and they told me that the lowest plan is $30.
cheers
Brenden

....any post paid Telstra sim card should work (subject to global roaming being activated). In my post above I only mentioned that I had a Telstra $10 casual plan because my normal phone is Optus. The $10 plan is the cheapest option for non-telstra people (depending on sat phone usage - a proper sat plan may be cheaper if you use the sat phone a lot)... If I was with Telstra I would just use the sim out of my normal phone as suggested by Jo.

Cheers
Greg

I don't think "justifying the cost" should come into it...... some think life is cheap and take a cheap option and so don't put a price on life!

For me, if I need urgent help I would be happy to pay whatever it is.