Satellite communicators worth the cost?

[MikeDeltaFoxtrot]

I have an inReach I bought in 2020, and I am very pleased with it. I would be carrying a GPS receiver anyway, so it does not really add weight. I used it even when deer hunting on the East coast. Plenty of guys get hurt falling out of deer stands. In the mountains out west, it is a no brainer as far as I am concerned.

I have a pouch for it mounted on my Hill People Gear Kit bag which I uses as a bono harness and to carry my pistol. Even if I take off my pack, the inReach is always on me.

 

[7mm-08]

A Garmin inreach saved my life this fall. We were packing our elk hunting camp into the Lee Metcalf Wilderness area the day before bow season opened. I was riding a green broke mule. The mule bolted, I fell off and went over a steep bank into a creek. I ended up knocked out face down in the creek. My son rolled me over and gave me a couple chest compressions. I threw up the water in my lungs and started breathing. A friend had an inreach and Sent a SOS. Search and rescue airlifted me out on a hillicipoter. I had a head injury, broke 10 ribs and punctured my lung. I was in ICU for 5 days and the hospital for another 4 days. I don't remember the incident but am told I was going down hill before search and rescue got there. It is unlikely I would have made it without the Garmin. I won't go into the backcountry without one from here on.

Glad to hear you survived and lived to tell the tale. Good on you for being a tough and fit man because that type of thoracic injury should have killed you. My inReach mini is on my person every time I venture offroad.

 

[hikenhunt]

Been a while since my SOS use of Inreach. I only had to pay $100 insurance deductible for ambulance. All hospital and associated costs were covered 100%. This was all covered by my health insurance. Not suggesting anyone not carry Garmin insurance, just reporting my costs.

From what I remember hearing, I believe its highly dependent on who's helicopter it is. Maybe someone with more knowledge will jump in though.

 

[kk11]

From: 98XJRC : I've tried the Apple messaging and like it, but it's not as smooth or consistent as a Zoleo (which I have) or Garmin

I agree, and I hope Apple will get it worked out better, but it works good enough that I didn't want to pay for the Garmin any longer.

 

[Treeratslayer]

From: 98XJRC : I've tried the Apple messaging and like it, but it's not as smooth or consistent as a Zoleo (which I have) or Garmin

I agree, and I hope Apple will get it worked out better, but it works good enough that I didn't want to pay for the Garmin any longer.

That’s interesting. I was in Co this year. 3 of us had Zoleo. I had Zoleo and Apple. Apple was consistently faster.

Examples. At one point I shot a buck, text my buddy(Zoleo) to come meet me. He by dumb luck walked up on me. We had my deer processed and in our packs before he got my message. I’d already sent 15 messages back and forth with my wife in that time via Apple.

Another time we told a guy where to pick us up. Ended up having to walk like 2 miles of road to get to him. He never got our message till we were clear back to camp eating.

Sure it’s annoying having to keep it open, but I just made it a habit to check it every so often, especially around lunch or dark when we often check in. When I was maintaining conversations, I’d just tuck it in my bino harness. Worked great.

We all actually completely deactivated our Zoleos once the trip was over and decided we’d just run Apple during the rest of the year and next year in Montana because none of us felt Zoleo would be reliable in an emergency given the weeks experiences.


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