InReach tracking interval preference?

Joined
Aug 17, 2015
Messages
2,264
Location
Iowa
Looking through Garmin's new inReach plans and comparing the "Essential" and the "Standard" plans.. Essential gets you 50 texts, which is plenty for my upcoming trip, but I noticed that each tracking point costs 10 cents. Standard plan gets unlimited 10-min tracking.

Does it send tracking points all throughout the night if I don't shut it off? If I have my tracking interval set to 1 hour, will it send 24 per day ($2.40/day)? There's only a $15 price difference between the two, so it wouldn't take many days to cancel out the savings..

What tracking interval do you guys like to set yours to, or what do you consider necessary?
 
I’ve switched the the Enabled plan for $8/month when not suspended. I send a check in msg nightly with location. I don’t have tracking on. I give my contacts a link to my Garmin page, password protected, and if they need to locate me they can request it via the web page.
 
I’ve switched the the Enabled plan for $8/month when not suspended. I send a check in msg nightly with location. I don’t have tracking on. I give my contacts a link to my Garmin page, password protected, and if they need to locate me they can request it via the web page.
I highly recommend using the 10-minute tracking, from when you leave camp until you are back for the night. As the recent case in southern Colorado shows, a few text a day still leaves a massive search area that could take a week, if ever, for you to be found. There are plenty of situations where you coikd be seriously hurt or killed and unable to use the SOS.

In this recent case as an example where the device is suddenly destroyed, at ten minute intervals, that makes the search radius something like 600 acres assuming a 2mph walking speed. Taking into account terrain and direction of travel, that search area goes down to probably only 10-20% of that area. What could be an impossible recovery could be something that a drone and/or dog team can cover in a couple hours.
 
Tracking depends on what you are doing. I usually do not track, I turn it on when things get sketchy. How sketchy defines the interval. Places like avalanche terrain and glaciers get much closer intervals to make body recovery easier if I miss judged. Open alpine with exposure gets longer intervals as the splat should be visible.

The other reason is if someone needs to know my location to coordinate a meeting (my wife picking me up at the end of a race), 10 minutes is fine for that.

I use the cheapest plan and keep it active year round, this ends up being pretty cheap when averaged out over the year.
 
You can turn tracking on and off, so it doesn't track continuously unless you have it turned on. Turn tracking off when you're not in motion. This will help you conserve battery life too. It doesn't sound like you're interested in tracking your mileage or route so, if it's a question of finances, you're better off sending a text with your coordinate every once in a while. I look at tracking totally differently, finding it most useful when traveling off trail and wanting to retrace my steps or track miles covered. I guess if I'm in a situation where I can't hit the SOS button, by the time someone figures out I'm in trouble and actually gets to me its probably too late.
 
Looking through Garmin's new inReach plans and comparing the "Essential" and the "Standard" plans.. Essential gets you 50 texts, which is plenty for my upcoming trip, but I noticed that each tracking point costs 10 cents. Standard plan gets unlimited 10-min tracking.

Does it send tracking points all throughout the night if I don't shut it off? If I have my tracking interval set to 1 hour, will it send 24 per day ($2.40/day)? There's only a $15 price difference between the two, so it wouldn't take many days to cancel out the savings..

What tracking interval do you guys like to set yours to, or what do you consider necessary?
The default tracking setting of 10 minutes is suitable, but if you will be mostly moving by walking, you can adjust the tracking interval to 30-60 minutes and turn it off at night to save money if you don't have an unlimited tracking plan. If you are traveling by boat, ATV, etc., keep the 10-minute interval and change it once you return to foot travel.

From a SAR perspective, if the last location is 60 minutes old, we would establish a range ring of possible distances traveled based on the travel method and terrain, which helps reduce the search area and speed up rescue times. Obviously, with shorter tracking times, it reduces the area even further and provides the best possible outcome if you cannot press the SOS button.
 
if you have a wife or GF or Kids... just buy the unlimited plan. YOu'll blow through text faster than you realize. 50 text is NOTHING. Over a 7 day trip thats 3 text out and 4 in per day....
 
I never use the tracking. I also just buy the minimum plan and keep it on most of the year. If you buy the Unlimited you'll use it, which will take away from the hunt, which sort of negates the entire point of doing it in the first place.
 
If you’re not going to use the tracking, at least send a free preset message every hour or so and make sure you’re settings include location with those. It takes literally less than ten seconds to do this on my Explorer+.

I get if your inreach isn’t with you to do SOS, you’re probably dead or will be dead before rescue finds you, however, a lot of resources are deployed to find your body and people are putting themselves in danger to do so. Not to mention the stress on your family waiting to find you (if they ever find you). Let’s give them as much help as we can. A few messages or tracking points per day is better than nothing but is far from what the best we can do.
 
If you’re not going to use the tracking, at least send a free preset message every hour or so and make sure you’re settings include location with those

Never thought about that. Couple follow up questions regarding that since I only use the thing once every year or two and can't remember, and Garmin seems to have 10 different websites/apps in order to accomplish everything..

1) If I send a preset message to my wife - if she replies to it, that goes against my total messages, correct?

2) When it includes the location with the text, does the message have a link attached to the end of it that she can click on, which then takes her to a map with a pin where that message was sent from?

3) I can give her access to the MapShare page, but if I don''t have tracking turned on at all, does anything show up on that page? Waypoints that I save maybe?
 
Never thought about that. Couple follow up questions regarding that since I only use the thing once every year or two and can't remember, and Garmin seems to have 10 different websites/apps in order to accomplish everything..

1) If I send a preset message to my wife - if she replies to it, that goes against my total messages, correct?

2) When it includes the location with the text, does the message have a link attached to the end of it that she can click on, which then takes her to a map with a pin where that message was sent from?

3) I can give her access to the MapShare page, but if I don''t have tracking turned on at all, does anything show up on that page? Waypoints that I save maybe?
1. It does count against your messages. That is why one of my presets basically says “Just checking in. We are fine. No need to respond.”

2. I just checked this the other day, and damn I can’t remember for sure because I was also checking the tracking invitation message. It for sure had GPS coordinates in the message body. I will have to check tonight if the link is there.

3. Again I’ll have to check tonight, but I think the map shows a pin anywhere you send a message or tracking point from.
 
Had her forward me the messages:
2. It does have a link to take the recipient to the map. It only shows that one message’s location and nothing else.

3. I had her send me the tracking map as well. I’m not sure if that is the same thing your asking about or not. Mine came from the link where I was sharing my tracks. It obviously shows the tracks, but it also shows the locations of all the individual preset messages I sent. It also showed waypoints set, including waypoints I had saved in previous areas and in different states.

It did NOT show any other tracking points except that one cycle and it did NOT show any message locations from any other time so that was kind of interesting.
 
An extra 50 cents/day to turn ON your device and go hunt, knowing it's keeping track of your location for your family. Or save 50 cents/day and have to think about babysitting your safety device. Oh shoot, it's been 2 hrs, I need to stop, dig out my InReach, scroll thru the menu and send a message because I'm trying to save 50 cents today.

Regarding text messages, the preset messages are free and can easily cover the nightly check-ins to let your family know you're ok. A little discipline can easily make the texts last.

People will justify spending $3K on binos or a rifle, then find $35/mo - for 1 or 2 months - to be too expensive for their safety and their family's peace of mind.
 
3. I had her send me the tracking map as well. I’m not sure if that is the same thing your asking about or not. Mine came from the link where I was sharing my tracks. It obviously shows the tracks, but it also shows the locations of all the individual preset messages I sent. It also showed waypoints set, including waypoints I had saved in previous areas and in different states.

It did NOT show any other tracking points except that one cycle and it did NOT show any message locations from any other time so that was kind of interesting.

So that was generated via you sharing a track? You made a track with the device, then shared it to her which sent her a link, and when she clicked the link, it opened a (garmin) webpage with a map that showed the track - as well as locations of messages you sent (while it was tracking?)

Your second paragraph- do you mean it didnt show any other tracks other than the individual one you shared with her? And no messages other than once that were sent while on that track?


When I referred to MapShare earlier, there's a tab in your garmin account that takes you to it, and there you can password protect it and send the link to whoever you want, and they can open it and have access. I was unsure what all showed up on there, but I watched a youtube video and it looks like possibly only your tracks show up as long as you have tracking on? It maybe shows waypoints and message locations as well, but the video never specified. I believe someone with access to it can also ping your device and get your location any time they want - which someone mentioned earlier.
 
Back
Top