Inreach Explorer+ Question

[joshemc]

I borrowed a friends inReach last year and almost immediately went out and got myself one. Too useful and practical to carry around. I use the Explorer+ mainly for the extra battery, but also as a backup GPS were something to happen to my phone while out in the back country. I actually keep my subscription year round as it is nice to have for snow sports as well. 100% have and will recommend to anyone I know - working on helping a friend get there's used right now.

 

[Dos Perros]

I’m heading into the wilderness on Thursday and won’t be back until Monday. Has anyone heard if they are back up and running after the cyber attack on their network? Taking my 66i out for the first time.

I just activated my Mini for the season yesterday. It took a few days of trying but finally got it to work. I believe the outage meant you couldn't activate or deactivate, but if it was already turned on it worked without issue.

 

[jbrownlow]

I just picked up an inReach mini for my elk hunt in september. haven't set anything up yet, but based on talking with Garmin and reading some threads out here, it will be the perfect solution. I can't wait to put it to use.

 

[btplass]

I rented a delorme unit and after figuring out a couple bugs it worked great. In a heavily wooded area in the bottom of a drainage it'd take about 15 minutes to send a message, but if you could see the sky, you were good.

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[btplass]

I ended up buying an inreach se+ (non explorer). I'm excited to try it out myself.

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[Next Ridge]

You should identify the main reason why you want one. The most common reasons to get a device like this are 1) safety, real sos 2) text with other people/family check in 3) gps. If it is 1 or 3 there are better options out there - lighter, simpler, cheaper. If it is 2 not sure...I go hunting to stop talking to people frequently. Once a day checkin from cell phone on mountaintop is fine

 

[bloominonion]

You should identify the main reason why you want one. The most common reasons to get a device like this are 1) safety, real sos 2) text with other people/family check in 3) gps. If it is 1 or 3 there are better options out there - lighter, simpler, cheaper. If it is 2 not sure...I go hunting to stop talking to people frequently. Once a day checkin from cell phone on mountaintop is fine

That I think is the #1 thing... people need to know why they want it. If you want pure safety, save me from dying, a PLB is a good option and has no subscription. The safety point goes a lot farther than just a PLB, depending on what you want out of it though.

I can't add anything for having one, but I can add my reasoning why I got one last week when I have one of the old SPOT devices sitting on a shelf. Non-emergency safety communication. The other things like one-way SPOT communicators or PLBs can't help convey anything as to what sort of help you actually need. I had some truck issues out in the middle of nowhere, no cell service for miles with the wife and kids in the car. Luckily I made it out in the truck, but if it was dead, the wife and kids would be waiting at the car for me to go out and find help.
The texting communication allows me to text someone in my family and ask them to call for a tow truck, etc pretty easily.
The texting also makes the SOS part better. I've read some stories of people going out and using the SOS communication to get out of a burn area safely. No helicopter dispatched, etc but they were on standby in case the situation changed. A one-way communicator would just send people out, possibly risking SAR resources.

For the lighter comment, the inReach mini is TINY, so you can still get the two way if you want other options for GPS, etc. Again...depends on what you want out of it.

If you want to stay out of touch, buy the 10 txts a month plan, then you make whoever texts you pay for each one lol .