necessity of satellite phone and gps?

Thank you for that. My partner seems to think we should be fine with just mobile phone and UHF. We are planning on travelling alot of the well publicised tracks by ourselves, but not having been there before I don't know how often you come across other travellers. Me, being female, want to be well prepared in case of emergency but not have to buy thing that are not necessity.

A mobile phone at its best will cover 98% of populated Australia....that in real terms relate to about 4% of Australia as a whole.

So if you are going to travel only 4% of Australia it should be OK!

We have HF radio, satellite phone (with a reliable carrier), CDMA, GSM and UHF...

There is not one form of communications that is better then the rest.

As for a GPS, we use City Nav 7 and Ozi Explorer with a heap of maps on a laptop.

Now what was that old boy scouts saying again.

Regards Richard

I use a GPS but paper maps are fine. As for using a Laptop for maps - only a gimmick. Just get a state map for all states from your local motoring organisation. If you're travelling in populated areas on main highways a mobile gives reasonable coverage. UHF or 27meg is OK if you want to pretend to be a truckie. I have UHF but rarely find anyone on channel. Even those oldies who insist on naming their caravan something like Rosies Love Machine and advertise that they are on Channel 18 UHF are rarely actually on. The only way of being reliably able to get help from anywhere in an emergency is a sat phone.

Thanks heaps. You have eased my mind. As far as GPS is concerned I don't really care where we are for 12-18 months as long as we are healthy and I have a cold Bundy in the car fridge!! LOL. I was only really worried about the 'last line of defence', not knowing how long it would take to come across another traveller in an emergency.

Could of not said it better myself.......now was your sons life worth the $1500 or there abouts it cost you for the sat phone and GPS.

Just think how much beer you could of got for $1500.....TO DROWN YOU SORROWS if you didn't make the right choose.

Regards Richard

Jen here, have to say that my husband can not only NOT read or work the GPS at all, but he can not navigate with a map either. He is the one that turns it around to face the way that we are going, I find turning it around confusing. He keeps telling me that he will drive where ever I direct him to. Go figure

Hey thanks Jen,

It's good to know both sexes have the Can and Cannot's amongst them.

I really knew that, I was just being naughty:-))

Females turn maps because they don't have the mental spacial dexterity which males do.

Females multi task far better than males.

There are good reasons for these different skill developments which go back to the hunter/gather days thousands of years ago.

Mike Harding

Next G , pray tell us Doug how your next g phone will help when your stuck in the simpson , methinks you believe the telstra blurbs too much , yes they may cover 97% of the population but they fall far short of rural and outback areas.

Doug recently in Dwellingup my work Next G phone had zero coverage. Another person in our group with a vehicle mounted Sat phone had zero coverage but my old GSM phone had full coverage. Go figure.

And yes they were all turned on.

Duncan
You sure you had it turned on , I just checked Dwellingup and it has service for Next G, and Bigpond wireless , is it one of them new el-cheapo Chinese nokia's with MATTEL brand on it .

Doug ,you can look at the coverage maps till the cows come home ,they dont tell the real story , just look at Moreton island as an example , lovely red dots showing coverage all over ??? then go there and try to call from blue lagoon ,what ?? no signal ?? but the map said I could !!!

Spoke to a guy at Telstra about it and he said that Dwellingup should of been covered. Don't have a problem with that phone anymore as my work car got broken into and they snatched the phone and car kit. Good luck to them as it was a piece of bleep e.
New Nokia ordered will be fun as I've never used Blue Tooth before.

"is it one of them new el-cheapo Chinese nokia's with MATTEL brand on it "

LOL naughty, naughty Doug

Axel
Noo problems mate , If you really serious about thing I would believe that phone service is available in the SD then you better go stick you head .....in the sand, I'm just so sick and tired of the crap on here about how when and why on bloody phones , next thing you lot will want is a Big Mac at the base of Big Red, NO more comments from me about phones, if you cant sort it out then too bad

Hi Jen,
I have a 1001 questions I could ask you!!!!
We are definately taking a car fridge - a must for those cold cans!!!LOL
We are only in early stages of planning so won't be leaving for about 12 months. Not exactly sure where we will head first - so much to see. Will be doing distance education as best we can.
How long have you gone for? Any major hiccups?
I think we will settle on UHF and mobile for communication and EPIRB for emergency.

G'day there,
we are currently in Emerald QLD working to get a bit of money in the bank before heading out again during September.
We have been on the road now since November and have mainly done NSW and QLD but this is as far up we have gone so far - so much to see and do.
We will head back through Sydney to visit family and then possibly keep going through to Victoria and Tasmania.
My eldest daughter is booked into distance education with NSW however as we have been here in Emerald since the end of June I decided to book her into the local school to have some peers. We still do the distance ed after school and when we leave here we will continue the distance education every day.
We were also looking at the EPIRB but in the end we decided not to get one until we hit the top end.
My email address is swanstravelling@bigpond.com if you have any other questions. Once you bite the bullet and decide to get out of the every day rut it is great - the people that you meet and the places that youget to see is great. Can't wait to get moving again next month.
We just recently bought an evakool 12v esky fridge and it is brilliant. Obviously I have the laptop and a great camera and CDMA phone. I have most things able to be charged from 12V and we have a dual battery in the car for the extra lights and fridge in the car. We have a long range fuel tank and carry an extra 40 litres in jerry cans on the camper trailer.
Talk soon
Jen

Go along with that. We had sat phone as safety and EPrb around paddock last year didnt need them out back but it didnt stop me braking my ankle in suburban Darwin Navman around cities was great, useless in bush. Mobile phones were useless on most of Savanagh way. My new Telstra 3 G is also not much chop.

We don't have a Sat Phone plan. The old 9500 sits on the top shelf of the bookcase until we hit the track. When we need to use it, just take the Telstra SIM card from our mobile and we're on the air. The call costs are high, but who cares in an emergency? We only pay if we use the phone.
2 requirements:
1 - You need to have International Roam enabled
2 - The 9500 - and perhaps the 9505 - need the full size SIM card. Your regular mobile uses the small card that you press out leaving a large blank with the hole in it. You should be able to get one of those from a mobile phone shop.

We've used ours all over and it's never failed us.

The Motorola 9505 uses the small SIM card.

EPIRBs are great as a last resort, the biggest issue is you can't get advice from anyone in an emergency and help may still be 2 to 5 hours away.

You also don't know when help is comming or what help.

They are great for hiking or roll overs if you brake all you antennas off.

The biggest thing is you don't have to be fare away from the city to be in trouble.

Just imagin how you would feel if you could of saved a life or injury of a close one all because you didn't want to spend $1500 on something you thought you may not need.

I have the gear not for other people I travel with to use, but for number ONE...Me.

We have a simple law.......if we find you bogged or broken down and you don't have any recovery gear or tools with you..we will help you, but it will cost you money and not just $20.00, I don't see the point of why I have to suport people who don't do it correctly.

Now if you had recovery gear and tools onboard and you got bogged or broke down, thats a differant story Ill stay there aslong as it takes to get you mobile and would even offer you a beer or two.

The same goes for communications.

I call it a IDIOT TAX.

I am really hard on people who think "Oh I don't need that because it wont happen to me..or the better one "someone else will help us"....guess what, out in the middle of nowhere your on your own.

Just think how much money it costs the tax payer to go and rescue someone or find someone who is lost, broken down or MAYBE INJURIED, not to mention the resources and the stress on other close friends or family.

Your life is in your own hands.

Live in reality not a dream.

Geeeeee's I could go one for days.

Regards Richard

Opps!

Sorry Richard W (what a great fantastice meanigful first name) I read my follow up on the end of your post and it sounded like I was having a dig at you.....I wasn't so sorry if it seemed that way.....I just get excited (have to wipe the spit off of my monitor now!)

Regards Richard....there's that name again

>I call it a IDIOT TAX.

Everyone has to learn - inexperience or naivety doesn't make people idiots. Just like the driver with "L plates" on the car we were all like that once.

Mike Harding

Some people use there own brains and think, some people get told something and act on it and then you get the people who are told and told again and they do nothing....They are IDIOTS and there is a lot out there in this big world.

People know right and wrong and how to be sensible, the ones who don't know right from wrong or aren't sensiable are IDIOTS.

Poeple get done for drunk driving, excesive speeding, using drugs and overdosing, rob banks, break into houses, driving cars with bald tyre, forget to put water and oil in the engine even with the rattles,smell, smoke, hissing and the red light on the dash has been on for the best part of a week.....they are IDIOTS......not inexperienced or naive.

But then again the number of people who say "I didn't know that" with a blank look on their faces is increasing at an alarming rate.

It's the same as signs that says "Slippery when wet apply caution"
WHY...are we turning into a culture where people can't make there own desicion and judgement and use common sense or do we need a higher race to tell us what to do, why and when.

I don't think the drink driving ad "Drink and Drive, Your A Bloody Idiot" would have the same impact if it was "Drink and Drive, Your Inexperenced" or "Drink and Drive, Your naive".

When you are playing with lives your ether sensable or and idiot.

You sound so forgiving, much like Ned Flanders on the Simpsons.


Regards Richard


Not again more spit on my monitor.....and the wall..dam.