I don’t go anywhere in the back country without my InReach…
Anyone Else Use Ham Radio? You might want to.
- Thread starter Jake Watrous
- Start date
I also take it with me on vehicle trips (auto and motorcycle)...there are plenty of places on normal paved roads in western America where there's no cell coverage. You could have an accident, come across somebody who's been in one and injured, or need a tow truck for a breakdown, and you can use the InReach to call for help.
My most common use is to let my wife know I'm staying longer because the fish are hitting, or I'm heading to a different lake than originally intended. It's an incredibly useful communication device!
Regarding satellite communication....I suspect we'll hear some tough guy malarkey from people who'll say if they get hurt or have a heart attack and die in the wild that's where they want it to be. Well it ain't all about you...your survivors and S&R could be saved a lot of heartache and effort if they knew exactly to where to find your carcass.
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I do the same with my inreach. Years ago before these devices were available I got in an accident on Hwy 12. Having to flag down a ride to an emergency phone, having the first emergency phone be out of order and having to travel another 40 miles to the next emergency phone then wait 2 hours for the Idaho State Police to show up made me feel lucky that there were no injuries. Would have been great to just press the SOS button on my inreach. Unrelated, but it blows my mind how many people will just drive past without slowing down with 2 damaged cars on the side of the road and one person waving their arms trying to flag down help.
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In another case a friend of ours was seriously injured in a MC crash in the SW desert. It took hours (60 minutes just for an ambulance accompanied by a HW trooper at high speed and another hour for a helicopter) to finally get her to an ER where she died. Time is everything in trauma care.
On a ride to Sturgis in 2002 my bike started having serious electrical issues and finally broke down in the sticks. Had to ride my wife's bike 40 miles to cell phone coverage to call for a tow. A very helpful group of bikers stayed with her until I got back. I've found motorcycle riders (even 'one-percenter' MC riders)to be among the most helpful bunch to stranded riders.
In another case a friend of ours was seriously injured in a MC crash in the SW desert. It took hours (60 minutes just for an ambulance accompanied by a HW trooper at high speed and another hour for a helicopter) to finally get her to an ER where she died. Time is everything in trauma care.
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I got my ham technician license a few months ago primary because I'm going up the Dempster this summer in a convoy with 2 other vehicles and want to be able to communicate with the others. Cell service is extremely limited to non-existent up there, and Canada's version of GMRS is very crippled and can't really even be compared to ours (2w max vs 50w and limited to only handhelds w/ fixed antennas - no proper mobile rigs or repeaters like in the US).
The InReach is nice and I use it a lot, but it's painfully slow for 2-way messaging. 10 minutes to send a message and receive a reply is pretty typical. In my opinion, it beats APRS for location tracking and weather because it works everywhere, not just where there happens to be an APRS repeater in range. I have a charging cradle mount for the InReach in both my truck and Jeep and use the auto-on/auto-off features to make sure it's on whenever the ignition is on. That being said, I'll be using APRS on this trip too. Less is more, but more is morer.
I went to a ham "swap meet" a while back to see if there was any decent used equipment to be had (spoiler: there wasn't). If you think fly fishing events bring out a lot of socially awkward old dudes with poor personal hygiene, the ham radio crowd takes it to another level...
The InReach is nice and I use it a lot, but it's painfully slow for 2-way messaging. 10 minutes to send a message and receive a reply is pretty typical. In my opinion, it beats APRS for location tracking and weather because it works everywhere, not just where there happens to be an APRS repeater in range. I have a charging cradle mount for the InReach in both my truck and Jeep and use the auto-on/auto-off features to make sure it's on whenever the ignition is on. That being said, I'll be using APRS on this trip too. Less is more, but more is morer.
I went to a ham "swap meet" a while back to see if there was any decent used equipment to be had (spoiler: there wasn't). If you think fly fishing events bring out a lot of socially awkward old dudes with poor personal hygiene, the ham radio crowd takes it to another level...
