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[screaminCVO]

Anyone use a satellite communication device?? Which ones are good.....In Reach or Spot? Travel with just my wife and I a lot and get on some back roads where you have no cell service. Any recommendations helpful.....thanks!

[ATGuinness]

Anyone use a satellite communication device?? Which ones are good.....In Reach or Spot? Travel with just my wife and I a lot and get on some back roads where you have no cell service. Any recommendations helpful.....thanks!

I've been using the old generation SPOT (Gen 2, I think.) for the last 5 years.  I do a lot of long distance riding (two trips to Alaska from Michigan in the last three years.) and wouldn't leave home without it.  While I've never had to use it in an emergency, I have used it to send a pre-programmed message home at the end of the day where there's been no phone or internet service.  An added bonus , at least for me, is the tracking feature.  My unit sends out my location every 10 minutes and my wife, who doesn't travel with me, uses it to be sure I'm still alive and moving.

The only downside is that these use a non-rechargeable lithium battery which may not always be available.  Take spares.  Not that they discharge quickly, I can get almost 2 weeks of 12 hour days from fresh batteries.

Questions?

[Road Dad]

I use a Spot Gen 3. Works perfect almost all around the world. (Not India for some resason). Batteries last a long time and it takes only a minute to change to fresh ones if you have to.

[ultrafxr]

Spot Gen 3.   

[Twolanerider]

Spot Gen 3.   

ditto, no complaints

[SDCVO]

You might want to check out this thread I started couple months back. I have been using the In Reach I talked about getting since and it really does work terrific for not just the emergency feature. Just today I went out way past any cell coverage and when I stopped I saw that my son had texted me a very time sensitive question. With the In Reach app that connects to my IPhone it was easy for me to text him through the device (though you are using your phone, it uses the device to send/receive text messages through their system anywhere in the world) and have a couple of back and forth texts that solved the issue. I was almost an hour away from having cell coverage and that would have caused another issue if I hadn't been able to do this. I do the "safety plan" which is $15 a month and gives you 10 texts free. I think it is 50 cents a text after that but this issue only took 5 or 6. Obviously you can pay more (just like a cell plan) and get cheaper per text pricing but not sure why you would need that unless you had unusual circumstances.. here is original thread:
http://www.cvoharley.com/smf/index.php?topic=105947.msg1362515#msg1362515

[screaminCVO]

That's great - thanks for all the replies.

[screaminCVO]

You might want to check out this thread I started couple months back. I have been using the In Reach I talked about getting since and it really does work terrific for not just the emergency feature. Just today I went out way past any cell coverage and when I stopped I saw that my son had texted me a very time sensitive question. With the In Reach app that connects to my IPhone it was easy for me to text him through the device (though you are using your phone, it uses the device to send/receive text messages through their system anywhere in the world) and have a couple of back and forth texts that solved the issue. I was almost an hour away from having cell coverage and that would have caused another issue if I hadn't been able to do this. I do the "safety plan" which is $15 a month and gives you 10 texts free. I think it is 50 cents a text after that but this issue only took 5 or 6. Obviously you can pay more (just like a cell plan) and get cheaper per text pricing but not sure why you would need that unless you had unusual circumstances.. here is original thread:
http://www.cvoharley.com/smf/index.php?topic=105947.msg1362515#msg1362515


That's great info - I was looking at the In Reach. Cheers!

[Road Dad]

for serious off the grid ADV riding bring a Sat Phone