Never assume

Never assume as it will make an ass out of you and me, so the old saying goes, and oh so true.

Back in April did an Anzac Day trip away and tried to use my Inmarsat sat phone a couple of times and it wouldn't connect. Wife took it into Sat Phone sales for me and problem was the pre paid sim had expired. Der.

As I was going away on a 3wk Simpson Desert trip the sim card wouldn't be activated until 2 days before my scheduled departure. Get an email on the Thursday before we departed to say card now activated. Beauty can now blow the pre paid on talking to my wife each night, etc etc.

So 2 nights into the trip try phoning and can't get a satellite fix, message comes up see my provider. This happens every time I try to use it over the 3wks we were away.

Wife takes phone back in to Sat Phone Sales, phone is working perfectly except it won't pick up satellites or connect. They think that when the card was activated the person doing the activation has typed in the wrong phone number and thus the satellites don't recognise my phone. Still doesn't work so back to the shop it goes!

So the lesson from all this don't assume it will work just because it did last time you used it. Check before you leave home, as in my case the lack of a sat phone could have been the difference between life and death. Fortunately though we had a back up in the form of an Iridium phone in the other vehicle which worked all the time.

Cheers

Dunc