Telstra Coverage WA Coast

Thank you Gerard. Answers all of my questions.
PS - how was the Gibb 'traffic wise'?

The Great Northern Highway boasts a few Telstra mobile phone towers out in the sticks, to serve the miners at a guess. One of the rest areas has even had wifi installed by the local council.

Here's an Android app to show what mobile services are there: click

Apart from that there's a heap of traffic on that highway, the Gibb and the other tourist accesses out there. It's only when you get onto back roads that you'll usually find yourself alone. In July eg. I drove the Borefield and Muccan Rds in the Pilbara and saw all of about two other vehicles on the move - and half a dozen at Muccanoo Pool.Kintore to Telfer Rd in June - less than ten.

And as a sideline thought, Pivotel do offer a casual monthly registration for the Thuraya Satsleeve which is IMHO quite reasonable. My Satsleeve appears to work well (by watching the signal strength bars on the smart phone) although I have not had to use it. The sleeve can also be left in the vehicle and the phone will still connect within a 20m or so range.
b1b

Hi Neil and Pauline,

What satphone setup do you use?
Gary

We have a Thuraya stand alone one. From memory it was around the $300 to buy then $15 a month and no contract. We did have a Irridium setup bu expensive to buy and fees
Thought about emergency beacons but decided that most of the time it was to ring RAC or home and not a real emergency.

neil

It's worth seeking out a mobile that has been tagged as a 'blue tick' by Telstra. That just means it has a better internal antenna. Makes a difference.

Sigmund,

Partially correct its true that Telstra has a Blue tick for country reception. Which I concede I omitted -not like me to forget that

However when you read their own blurb on mobile phone performance they stipulate that for best performance a external antenna must be attached.

You could argue that this is due to fact when driving your sitting inside a faraday shield and performance will be downgraded compared to standing outside of vehicle (and ideally on top of a big hill)

I do recall once attending a single vehicle accident scene (not first on scene) nobody-else had reception despite being in outer Perth metro area.

I tried using phone normally outside of vehicle no luck. went inside vehicle loss all strength naturally to be expected

Attached antenna which gave bit of gain by 1 bar (signal strength indicator) but still not enough power to make a emergency call.

Ended up using UHF 40 to pass message onto passing heavy haulage who then relayed info to WAPOL when he was back in phone reception another 30 mins away

Yeah, I used to opt for phones with a jack for an external antenna but as you say they're hard to find now.

A couple of huts in the Vic high country have induction antennas. In comparisons with mate's phones they added one bar to their unticked phones and nothing to my ticked unit.

It should also be said that some phones may still have strong reception and have not been submitted to Telstra for testing. iPhones used to be in this category but no longer? I've seen an iPhone get a signal in a corner of the Bogong High Plains where nothing else ever did.

With a standard phone I think the max reception distance is around 50kms line of sight.

Overall, IMO if you're taking back roads to any significant extent you should take a PLB or satphone. Both can be hired.

I've done a lot of outback travel and knock on wood so far have only needed the satphone once, to help out a crashed motorcyclist.

If you're going to stump up for sat comms think carefully about your needs. There are keyboard-based devices that look like elegant solutions - but how will you go if you need a conversation about a mechanical fix or providing first aid? Hunt and peck typing under stress isn't everyone's strength.