Satellite messengers: Spot, Inreach, Zoleo, Defy

[Jammer]

Planning some cruising in remote areas and have concerned family who want to stay in constant contact. I took a look at the major brands of cheap satellite messengers and find that the reviews are uniformly poor. What works?

[Statistical]

Originally Posted by Jammer

Planning some cruising in remote areas and have concerned family who want to stay in constant contact. I took a look at the major brands of cheap satellite messengers and find that the reviews are uniformly poor. What works?

Most of them work roughly the same because they all just buy airtime from the same satellite network (Irridium). Defy and a few others use Imarsat which has significantly worse coverage because it is geosync sats so low on the horizon. That likely won't matter when in the deep ocean but in sheltered bays and if taken onshore it might.


I have used inreach (specifically inreach mini) for years when backpacking. The inrech mini is nice because you don't need a cellphone. Understand you absolutely will want to use a cellphone because trying to send any custom message on it is tedious. In an emergency though it can be used by itself. Most of the other devices have no direct communication capability beyond sending a one way SOS. All other communication is through cellphone. They are however smaller and cheaper as a result.

I used inreach when they were the only option and before garmin being garmin bought them and have no complaints. I think poor reviews are the result of unrealistic expectations or people not understanding the service plans/costs.

[sv_pelagia]

Zoleo has advantage of:


-Dedicated email and SMS... doesn't change (and user sets email, and can change it)

-app-to-app messages can be ~950 characters (app is free for anyone to use)

-"check in" messages are free/unlimited

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by Statistical

Most of them work roughly the same because they all just buy airtime from the same satellite network (Irridium). Defy and a few others use Imarsat which has significantly worse coverage because it is geosync sats so low on the horizon. That likely won't matter when in the deep ocean but in sheltered bays and if taken onshore it might.

I have used inreach for years when backpacking. I used them when they were the only option and before garmin being garmin bought them.

I think poor reviews are the result of unrealistic expectations or people not understanding the service plans/costs.

Spot uses Globalstar, and has no coverage in much of the South Pacific and Indian Oceans. So, I would rule out spot as viable for a world cruiser.

For those that use Iridium, the technology is the same. But customer support and the customer experience might not be. I had an inreach when they were Delorme. The transition to Garmin was horrible and so I canceled it in 2018. I used an Iridium go after that. Pricey, especially compared to what Starlink offers. But if you want to be in constant contact, you can carry it in a backpack or liferaft and use it's internal battery.

[Mike OReilly]

Have been a long-time user of inReach — long before it was gobbled by Garmin. This is the one thing they haven’t screwed up (yet). Works as advertised. Can text/email people from anywhere, and reliably keeps track of where I go. Can put it into low-cost hiatus when not in use, and can ramp up to bigger plans as needed. Pair it to a device unless you want to go squirrelly key-typing, but otherwise is good.

That said, I’d definitely look at other Iridium-based options like Zoleo. How about Yellow Brick? Isn’t that another option out there?

[Jammer]

Some reviews indicate that the Inreach Mini 2 is not as good as the Inreach Mini (discontinued). Has anyone tried the 2?

[Statistical]

Originally Posted by wholybee

Spot uses Globalstar, and has no coverage in much of the South Pacific and Indian Oceans. So, I would rule out spot as viable for a world cruiser.

For those that use Iridium, the technology is the same. But customer support and the customer experience might not be. I had an inreach when they were Delorme. The transition to Garmin was horrible and so I canceled it in 2018. I used an Iridium go after that. Pricey, especially compared to what Starlink offers. But if you want to be in constant contact, you can carry it in a backpack or liferaft and use it's internal battery.

I had pretty good luck with InReach even after Garmin gobbled them up. Then again haven't ever really needed customer support it just works and significantly cheaper than Iridium Go.

For the boat I would consider a satphone over Iridium Go as backup comms.

[Capt.Don]

I've used our SSB, InReach and Iridium Go! for 5 1/2 years cruising in Mexico. The SSB was fine; however we had issues with Winlink.org's use policy (another thread). The InReach works well for basis SMS text messages and tracking at a fair monthly cost (I think we were paying $45/month for unlimited tracking and 40 SMS text messages). InReach does not provide voice or email; we wanted for email and weather GRIBs. For email and SMS text messages, we moved to the Iridum Go! at an unlimited plan for $150/month (other usage based plans for less).

We've completed our Mexico cruising (5 1/2 years) and have our Iridium Go! listed here for-sale, and I'm thinking about selling our InReach. We won't need either.

Don

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by Statistical

I had pretty good luck with InReach even after Garmin gobbled them up. Then again haven't ever really needed customer support it just works and significantly cheaper than Iridium Go.

For the boat I would consider a satphone over Iridium Go as backup comms.

I once carried an Iridium Go, with the Satphone as a backup. The problem was that the Satphone plans are all sold as minutes, whether data or voice, and more expensive that the Iridium go plans if you are using it. Like, you will burn through 60 minutes of data really fast, and there is no unlimited minutes plan. To top it off, the minutes didn't "roll-over" unless you paid a monthly service charge to keep them. (maybe these plans are better now)

It was so close to being a good backup, if I could only buy 500 minutes upfront, and then just keep that SIM card and not pay anything else while I didn't use it. But the plans don't work that way. Ultimately I stopped paying the service fee.

Anyway, I vote the other way. The Iridium go is a better device for our needs. Complete with the SOS button that you can push as you take it with you in a liferaft.

I have both an Iridium Extreme 9575, with the cables to connect to a PC, and an Iridium Go, if anyone wants to make an offer. Both well used but in good condition. Both probably need the battery replaced.

[Statistical]

Originally Posted by wholybee

I once carried an Iridium Go, with the Satphone as a backup. The problem was that the Satphone plans are all sold as minutes, whether data or voice, and more expensive that the Iridium go plans if you are using it. Like, you will burn through 60 minutes of data really fast, and there is no unlimited minutes plan. To top it off, the minutes didn't "roll-over" unless you paid a monthly service charge to keep them. (maybe these plans are better now)

It was so close to being a good backup, if I could only buy 500 minutes upfront, and then just keep that SIM card and not pay anything else while I didn't use it. But the plans don't work that way. Ultimately I stopped paying the service fee.

Anyway, I vote the other way. The Iridium go is a better device for our needs. Complete with the SOS button that you can push as you take it with you in a liferaft.

I have both an Iridium Extreme 9575, with the cables to connect to a PC, and an Iridium Go, if anyone wants to make an offer. Both well used but in good condition. Both probably need the battery replaced.

Well that is why I said backup. If this is your primary comms well yeah a smartphone is a terrible option. However these days many people are using mostly starlink and/or 5G services. If you just need a backup only communication device for emergencies or rare urgent can't wait long distance voice communication smartphones aren't too bad.

Yes there are no plans which are pay once last forever but there are annual plans. Immarsat isatphone2 annual plans with 180 minutes start at $550 or 800 minutes for $750).

Of course the next shoe to drop is likely direct to cellphone service from starlink which will further kill the smartphone market. One would think the satphone companies would be trying to get ahead of that. Sell a 3 year prepaid emergency 100 minute plan for $800 or something. Instead they are like deer in the headlights.