Do we need to take a Sat Phone?

No Andrew your UHF and Telstra phone should do fine , it sounds like you won't be going where no other cars will be for days - just carry common sense things like plenty of water etc.

Personally I wouldn't bother.

No doubt some thought has been put into a first aid kit and that should do you. The only two places where it may be helpful, the GRR and Tanami, will have plenty of traffic on them.

If you really feel like it then hire one.

Phil

The Stathams
The short answer is yes, you do need some form of long range communication (sat phone or HF radio).
Even though your wife is a doctor how would you be if it was your wife that was in dire need of medical assistance, or there was some other form of emergency where you needed emergency assistance.
We have carried a sat phone for the past 3 years, and for 10 years prior to that carried a HF radio, and never had the need to call for assistance, but it is still an essential part of our travel kit. We carry an Iridium phone with a normal Telstra SIM card that is International Roaming enabled on the minimum monthly post paid plan, and this allows the use of all normal Australian phone numbers. The only down side of this arrangement is that Telstra charge double the normal Sat phone call costs (sat phone =$2.00 per minute/Telstra sim=$4.00 per minute)

Should you have any contact with the Police for any reason in some of the areas that you intend travelling, and you do not have some form of long distance communications then you can expect a very stern talking to from them (Police) (been there, done that)

Enjoy your travels, with your sat phone

Athol

I pondered the same question a few years back and the only reason I could justify not carrying one is the $$$$ to buy one, If they only cost $100 to buy no one would ask this question LOL

If you carry one you may never need it but it is peace of mind knowing you are better prepared for whatever situations arise

No I don't think you need a Sat Phone, you are not going anywhere remote. I do suggest that you should definitely carry and EPIRB just in case something goes pear shaped.
And make sure everyone knows how to set it off in case of emergency.

I agree with Athol use the telstra sim with international roaming and only use the phone for emergencies, instead of buying new do a search on the net there is a fair few places that sell second hand units mostly ex mining ones you can pick up one with all the kit and waterproof case minus the sim card of course for around the 900 bucks.There have been a few times when we have assisted others when we didn't have it, that would saved a lot of time (important bit) and effort. Even with a EPIRB it still takes time for the signal to be received and acted upon. 000 is pretty much instantaneous contact if not response.

Yes. On the route you have indicated, it makes good sense and demonstrates preparedness in my view. The Tanami can be very harsh on vehicles, the Plenty less so it seems and taken steadily, the Gibb is mainly good, but the potential for breakdown is significant on any of them (and not being able to communicate directly with vehicle recovery services can be a real hassle). Once 'out there', seemingly in the middle of nowhere at times, its easy to envisage situations where contact with authorities and support services takes on huge value. I know lots of people have great holidays out there keeping their fingers crossed, but its not for me.... not for a lot of others either. And hey.... I like your idea of having an 'expeditionary physician'..... the very early explorers did a lot of that :-o).

Hi All

Agree with taking a Sat Phone - we did the Qld bit of that trip last year. Coverage outside of towns is woeful (we have Telstra) and it's woeful within a couple of km's outside of town. We bought a new sat phone, and used the casual Telstra plan, so it can be cancelled at any time. For our $1000 investment, we now have a phone that we take whenever we go away, have peace of mind, and is relatively cost effective for emergencies. We did use ours once last time when we came across a stranded vehicle with a caravan and no spare tyres. Alternatively, if you have an iPhone - I think there is now something called a "sat sleeve" that turns an iPhone into a satphone. Dunno if it works though!

Check with the accountant to see if your wife can get one as a tax deduction/work tool?

Cheers

Chris

Where you are going the answer is NO you don't have to have one, make sure that your Telstra phone has the 'rural' tick , as an aside just in the last 2 days a nurse got bogged between Jundah & Blackhall ,even with a sat phone it took 23hrs before she could be reached , she was however able to be in constant communication to the nearest property via UHF…...

I have a sat phone for work ( I spend a lot of time remote) I also take it on holidays, I have it on a $35 plan and use it quite often.

The phone sits in a box beside the first aid kit and the eprib, the only reason I have the epirb is I have a boat that requirers me to have one, so when the boat is at home and we are on holiday we take it with us.

The phone has been used 6 times for emergencies and probable over a hundred times just to keep in contact while away, apart from the $35 pm plan, I have not received a bill for calls.

By the way lives would have been lost without the phone being handy, Your wife may be a doctor, but unless she spends most of her time in accident and emergency, I would strongly suggest that she also does a first aid course, you should do one too.

Just my thoughts

Phill

G'day Andrew,
I've done a fair bit of travelling, even way before such things were readily available as they are now. I have a HF setup which I rarely take with me. I would not bother nor worry about it I would go out and enjoy the trip. I doubt you will be very alone on this trip.

Have a good time

Rgds

Hi Andrew,

It is true that along the routes you have nominated there are many other travellers, however, if it is a medical emergency will any of these other travellers be able to provide the timely assistance you need? It all comes down to the importance you personally place on support in an emergency and how much you are prepared to pay for that support. I'm sure you would appreciate that having a medical practitioner on-board does not cover all bases. We carry an Iridium 9555 as well as HF radio but then we do go into isolate locations alone. But it is a good feeling to be covered at all times.

An article here on ExplorOz deals with remote communications and is well worth reading.

I would suggest that if the phone was to assist with dire emergencies then it is worth purchasing the most reliable which is Iridium and recommend the 9555 model which can be found new for little over $1000. Second-hand phones can be had cheaper but bear in mind that they will not have full warranty support. More to the point, they will have aged batteries that possibly have not received good charge maintenance and replacement batteries are expensive. The last thing you need in an emergency is a flat battery.

The carrier for Iridium is Telstra and the cheapest plan is currently $35 per month. An alternative is as Athol has said above..... Just transfer your Telstra International Roaming SIM card from your mobile phone and use that. The downside is higher call costs but in a dire emergency that is unlikely to be of concern. Also, if you have been experiencing high numbers of casual incoming calls on that SIM, they may continue in the Satphone incurring significant call costs to you. You can of course leave the Satphone off until you need to make a call. Any SMS messages will be queued for you to view.

Some people put their faith in EPIRB's which certainly can elicit support in an extreme emergency. Their shortcoming is that you receive no assurance that your call has been received and is being acted upon and you are not able to talk to support services to receive advice on action to be taken whilst in wait such as where to travel to in order for RFDS to rendezvous or medical advice. Depending on your location and circumstances the EPIRB support may be as little as the local police driving out to you when what you need is urgent paramedic care. Furthermore, it will not be looked upon favourably if you have used an EPIRB when your problem was with the vehicle and life was not threatened. A phone will allow arrangement for vehicle support without calling out the Cavalry.

There is no "right" or "wrong" way in this. It is what suits your needs and the price you are prepared to pay.

PS. If you do go with the satellite phone option, there is a downloadable list of useful/essential phone numbers available here on ExplorOz. Go to Members/ File Swap/ Radio & Communications and look for "Outback Phone Numbers".

Thank you all for your valuable contributions. I'll chat with wife Cath (and yep, I wasn't suggesting she could fix whatever medical emergency arose) plus also a couple of communications engineers here at my work. Not sure which way we'll go yet on the sat phone but I do like the idea of the EPIRB, with or without a sat phone. (My watch has a GPS which at any point in time can give me co-ordinates.)

OK, it seems the most important issue here is a medical emergency. Breakdowns will be an inconvenience, but we won't starve. So, my question for the 'pro-sat-phone' group then becomes ... do we need a sat phone or would a HF radio suffice given that (I understand) it'll get us the flying doctor?

Thank you all again for your contributions. There certainly is a lot of knowledge amongst you. (I also didn't realise how expensive HA radios were - ha, you pay less for 'Ultra' :)) I've come to the conclusion now that if I choose not to get a sat phone then it's my own stupidity. I don't yet understand how to go about that (whether I just visit a Telstra store and ask for the iridian sat phone?) but I suspect that's the way we'll go. Buy or rent, not sure yet (a friend said he rented one for a week and it cost him 60% of the purchase price).

I posted this not long ago. I hope it helps.

After a fair bit of research I just purchased an Iridium Extreme on a Pivotel Classic Casual plan and am very happy so far. I'll do a quick write up for anyone who is interested. I have no affiliations etc. Just a consumer.

We are caravaners who sometimes travel to remote areas and do side trips with our tent. Sometimes I go on my own beach fishing (Coorong or Robe area) or looking for more difficult 4x4 tracks in the Victorian High Country or Flinders Ranges etc.

Thus, we need some ability to let our family know where we are, or when I am broken down, hopelessly bogged or in serious trouble. I may also take up shooting again so a device that can come with me is a consideration.

As a yachtie, I am familiar with EPIRBs and Personal Locator Beacons and decided they were good for life threading emergencies but not the less serious incidents like a breakdown. I also considered the Spot system which gets good reviews in Australia but attracts some scathing comments from users in the US. The inReach system looked good to me but when I saw the unit itself, I didn't like the size, shape and plastic feel of them.

I had previously looked at sat phones, but was put off by the price of the hand sets (I'm not eligible for the government subsidy) and in particular, the cost of calls.

Here's what I finally decided. The Iridium Extreme seems to get good reviews and is ruggedised (supposedly mil spec). It still feels a little "plastic" but is the sturdiest hand set I have seen. I managed to pick one up for the old price ($1,499). They now seem to fetch $1,699.

I went for the Pivotel Classic Casual plan. This gets me a normal Australian mobile number and it can make sat phone calls within Aus without having to add the international prefixes. Emergency 000 also works just like it does from a normal mobile. It can send SMS messages and although call costs are expensive, in-coming calls are at normal mobile rates to the caller and free to me. This means that if I want to call home, I just sent send my wife an SMS asking her to call me and it cost the same as calling my mobile.

The hand set has an SOS button just like an EPIRB. What you do is remove a rubber cap on the top of the phone and press a little red button. It gives you 30 seconds to cancel it before going into emergency mode. I have mine registered with Geos Alliance and programmed to call them and at the same time, send a SMS to a short list of family and friends. Both the phone call and text message contains my lat, long, alt, age of fix, number of satellites and how much battery the hand set has. It doesn't cost anything to register with Geos Alliance and they pass on your details to the Emergency response centre in Canberra, so its just like activating an EPIRB (I will be corrected on this if others have actual experience). I have requested an actual test so I will post an update if I have anything wrong.

The SOS button is also programmable. You can set it to call 000 or home or simply to send a SMS with your location.

When my short listed friends receive a text with my location, there is also a hyperlink that when pressed, shows my location on a map.

Here are the costs of the plan. Monthly payment $22. One-off connection fee $110. Calls included $0. Flagfall $0. Calls to Australian numbers, inc' mobiles, 13/1300, 1800 and voicemail $3.30 per 30 seconds. SMS messages $0.55. Calls to other satellite services are even more expensive ranging from $4.40 per 30 sec (Thuraya) to $19.80 per 30 sec (BGAN). Calls to 000/112 are free.

The reason this suites me is that I don't need to make sat phone calls to anyone. In a real emergency if one arose, I don't really care what the call rates are. So, once the initial costs are paid, it only costs me $22 per month and $0.55 for SMSs. The rest is at normal mobile rates if you accept my "text and phone me back" approach.

Set-up out of the box was easy and the phone registered itself with the Iridium sat system while standing on my back porch. Just be aware that the instructions that came in the box contained one wrong number (set up number for SMS) and I had to ring Pivotel to get the right one.

I have heard that some mobile carriers do charge more to call sat phones. I have only tested this with Telstra and the charges are exactly as Pivotel said they were.

I'm in a 12 month plan so if forumites know any better ones, I'm stuck for now.

Also no criticism is intended at other systems. This is just what seems to suite me.

Skulldug





Cheers
Member: My Profile

I picked up an old Iridium 9505A on E-Bay for about $400......stick a Telstra SIM card in if needed and away you go.

The Telstra card comes out of an existing phone so I don't count that at as extra cost.

Just sits in the glovebox of my 4WD, and before each trip I charge it up.....had to buy a car charger which was about $50.

Calls are expensive ($4.00 a minute) BUT never use it for "idle chat".

In fact in 4 years of ownership only time I have used it was to send my family a few SMS messages along the Canning Stock Route to let them know I was ok.....total expenditure to date .........$7.30......one 1 minute call to make sure it worked, and 3 text messages.

Bloody handy to have if the bleep e hits the fan, and then cost isn't an issue

This question falls into the “risk management” category, and perhaps everyone will have a different approach to how they manage risks.

But let me break it down like this. Many of us (most) will have our vehicles insured and we pay a premium for that, but for many of us, we go years without the need to make any claim, some possibly never. So why continue to pay for something you don’t use?

The same could be said for home and contents, and health insurance that many of us have.

Put simply, the cost and risk of not having it when it is needed far outweighs the alternative of not having it and saving a few dollars. So think of a sat-phone in the same way.

Take a look at the risk/reward equation of a sat-phone. The reward is you save a $1,000 by not having one; the risk is not having it could be the difference between life and death on a worst-case-basis.

People will have strong opinions on whether it is needed based on the roads and routes you will be travelling, but that advice is cheap and far too easy to dispense without any real regard for your requirements.

Remember you don’t need to be far from home to be remote, and remote means not being able to contact someone when you most need to, and that could be within less than 50-kilometres of one of Australia’s major cities.

And to put it in perspective the cost of a sat-phone will be less than 1% of the value of your vehicle, and yet the value of it will be priceless if you find yourself in a life-threatening situation.

We travel with an EPIRB, sat-phone, and HF radio – they all have a role and place in our “risk management” kit and we view the cost as just another insurance premium.

Robin

I’m not offering any facts on the subject, but for sure I’m offering an opinion based on my experience as a professional risk manager and in context of the original question…

A vehicle that is well prepared prior to any trip will go a long way to ensuring there are less problems whilst touring, whether that means a new set of tyres, or a sat-phone for use when you’ve shredded two of your new tyres…

Though, I’m not sure it can be said that tyres save lives; at best they may reduce the risk of an accident vs. a set that has been used. In contrast, having access to effective communications when most needed may well be the difference between a good or bad outcome, possibly life or death.

Besides, the two can’t be compared side-by-side. One is proactive, and the other is reactive.

It would be like suggesting that if a vehicle has ABS braking then there is no need for an airbag in the vehicle. Is one aspect that much better than the other that it should exclude the other? Of course not, one is proactive, the other reactive…

And on prescription medicines?

I’m sure there is an appropriate forum that would enable you to have a lively discussion on the cost of prescription medicine in Australia, but it is outside my scope, besides I have no idea if you are quoting facts that are fair, honest, and balanced, nor the inclination to check… ;)

So having read all the posts and follow-ups what does it tell you.
You don't really need a satphone for where you are going. Your UHF and mobiles will suffice.
If the idea of doing your trip without one seems too risky, then buy or hire one.

Take an epirb anyway.

Most important of all..........Enjoy your trip.

Disco.

A lot of comment's here about emergency devices, which one is better than the other, costs etc. Sounds to me like we should also be talking about some driver training in the first instance.
Too many people retiring, buying up 4WD / Caravans and going bush but not upskilling themselves on the hazards ahead and, the old experienced hands sound like they getting a bit complacent.
Develop a risk matrix with your family /friends, identify all potential scenarios and then identify the controls you feel will help eliminate the risk identified.
Refer to this and go out and buy the emergency equipment you need to mitigate the risk identified.
Safe travel, always drive to the conditions, manage your tyres properly,dont drive fatigued, look where your driving and not where your talking.
Happy days

Your travels are within communication, just make sure you have charged all nec. phones.
I agree with disco traveller...
Enjoy your holiday break and keep a diary, especially on fuel consumption on your vehicle.
sounds like you are semi organised. Good travelling to all
Marg & Nev