Emergency communications

You say "emergency" communication.....
1. PLB (Epirb). Buy one, it is good for the 7 year battery life with no further expense.
2. Sat. phone. Will only work outside the vehicle unless you have an antennae.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 Motorhome.

We chose a satellite phone, but if you are going to be doing long or risky walks, take a PLB with you Craig.

Very easy, PLB and Satphone. Best deal I have found is with ExplorOz member http://www.satphonesales.com.au

A satphone is probably the communications option that ticks the most boxes. We use hf radio and a satphone but if I had to pick one it would be the phone.
Globalstar is probably the cheapest satphone deal....$500 for the phone, $20 a month service and $1/min for calls. Thats what we have and it seems excellent overall (though minimal use to date)....their supplied Qualcomm phone is a bit big and clunky but you get sparkling clear voice quality.

Hi Craig

The cheapest life insurance policy you can buy will be a PLB, at around the $300 mark with GPS enabled.

The next best thing that you can use while away from your vehicle will be a satellite phone.

When travelling solo, as we do quite often, safety for you should paramount and with today's cheap prices, there are no excuses for anyone being caught out.

Today on the news here in South Australia, 4 men were rescued when there yacht struck a reef in the Southeast, off of Beachport. Within 5 minutes of the skipper activating his own PLB, two of his family members back in Adelaide received phone call from the search and rescue mob, asking there where there husband and father was. They then spent the night cold and wet on a very remote beach before police found them this morning. Without that PLB, the situation could have ended very different.



Cheers



Stephen

Hi Craig,
I bought an Iridium satellite phone in the days when you could get a 50% government subsidy. Along with the phone I have a Telstra satellite sim. I purchased the Iridium phone because they have satellites in low orbit which means there is no delay with respect to voice communication. Also supposedly their coverage of Australia is better. The plan I am on is with Telstra at $30 per month with $10 of included calls. Unfortunately it is not a casual plan so it costs $360 per year just to keep the number. However, I have heard that the Iridium phones will take a Telstra full size mobile sim and operate as a satellite phone. The phone came with a waterproof/dustproof case, external aerial, 240v and 12v chargers. I bought it from the Satphone Shop in Melbourne. Very happy with their service.

This will get some very devisive answers.

A EPIRB is for life threatening events. Not because you have a puncture and your spare is flat. Or something else that you could/should have provided for.

A satellite phone is for getting help to fix the puncture etc.

The cheapest way to run a satfone is to buy a s/hand Motorola 9505 or a later model and get a you TELSTRA sim that is on a plan and has roaming enabled.

Costs nothing if you are at home and not using it. When travelling remote put the sim from your cellphone in it and initialize it.

Calls will cost approx $4 a minute both IN and OUT.

I believe that if you ask nicely you can still get a $10 a month plan to run it on,

Do a search on here for satfones or go back 10 or so pages as has been discussed quite a bit in recent past.

Hi Craig

Our choice follows;

HF Radio – Covers a lot of communication needs. Generally second hand units can be purchased relatively easily and at reasonable prices versus brand new.

Sat phone – Useful to remain in contact and enables direct contact with others. We are connected via Globalstar (Pivotel) and pay $20.00 per month to remain connected and $1.00 per minute calls. It sits in the vehicle ready for use.

Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) – If you have an emergency that is or could become life-threatening this is what you need. The ability of these units to communicate very specifically to authorities that you need urgent assistance at the location is invaluable and makes the cost of them look cheap. Everyone should have one…

None of these items are mutually exclusive, if finances permit have them all…

Why?

My theory is that when it all goes “pear-shaped” Murphy’s Law stands at the ready to intrude, so always have some form of back-up communication option available, don’t rely on one form alone.

So by default the best combination should include a minimum of either HF Radio or Sat phone and a PLB.

But also noting, these discussions mostly revolve around emergency communications, but in favour of HF Radio is that they provide the ability to listen to weather reports, news, etc. Now that may not be for all, but they do provide more than just a form of emergency communication.

Good luck out there,

Baz – The Landy

Hi Craig,

I was going to give you a thumb up "Thanks"

Fortunately my "old fashioned-ness" overrode this.

Hence.......

Craig, Thanks for posting a very interesting question and I was a little concerned that you were going to get beaten up with the replies, simply because - everyone has differing views on an "Emergency"

We teach people to be as well prepared as they can be, and as indicated further up - Murph gets involved.

I guess that this is where the variables come into play and a person needs to assess "just how bad IS this emergency??"

We have taught people to have a higher level of awareness and to keep this in mind.
If you think that you think that you should have done something (insert whatever here) then you should have done it!!

Don't wait until you are left with no water, before you activate the EPIRB or SPOT Messenger as it may take a considerable amount of time for the rescue crew to arrive.

One rescue that I am aware of was carried out in record time, simply because the rescue services were on a training run in the local area.

Again, thank you for the question.

We have an old HF radio at this point in time, as finances allow, we will up grade and your post with its replies, is a sound starting point.

Safe travels.

Cheers,
Wayne & Sally.

Go for a Sat phone. We purchased an iridium 9555 second hand. We got a $10 pm Telstra casual plan, and use it to send and receive texts mainly as they are cheap. HF is a bit fiddly for other family members to use, and in a roll over your antenna will be out of action. Our sat phone sits cradled on the dash (troopy) and has signal always.

When doing a trip, make up a quick list of emergency no.s for that area. eg Cape York, rangers, police and health clinics along your route.

Was invaluable 2 years ago when first on scene to a head on up the Cape on the PDR. Had police in contact within minutes, they then had our Sat. number to coordinate rescue etc.

We take it every camp also, and carry it on daypacks etc.

Cheers
Craig & EJ

If you roll the vehicle, are injured and trapped inside, the sat. 'phone probably won't work, but you might be able to chuck the PLB out the window.
Chucking the sat. 'phone out the window won't achieve much :(

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 Motorhome

Always been HF radio for us and I would recommend a Barret 950 (mine was around $700 second hand).

There can be several answers as per above which really reflect the different situations people might perceive themselves in - hence no one right answer.

I presume you would have a good UHF setup before any of the other 3 options.
We have seen a situation where they have made contact when satellite phone systems would not - (and probably an eprib would not have worked either).

Of the 3 systems the HF radio can be proactive as well (by listening to daily skeds and being aware of whats going on ) and help prevent getting into a problem whereas the other 2 systems are re-active.

My neighbour for instance had nothing but an Eprib and triggered it when hoplessly bogged just off the Canning - helicopters dropped 2 sat phones to assist but in the gloom and water both were lost and his rescue meant the complete loss of a new 200 series he never saw again.

Would he have been there if he listened to the skeds on HF radio , good question , but hard to get an honest answer !

Some good thoughts here but the question for Craig to answer is what scenario is he attempting to guard against and then for him to make a choice that best aligns with his potential circumstances? For the risk averse I'd suggest you consider any two of the available options remembering some are available through hire companies or friends.

G'day Craig, most travellers I talk to say hiring a sat phone is overall the cheapest if you only going to use it once a year, regards