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Nitrox's recent post about GPS got me thinking about SAT Phones. I, like I think most of us, dont have a huge need for a SAT Phone until I need a SAT Phone. Its been a few years since I looked at the various options.

When I last looked, there were a couple options. First the "standard" type that works everywhere, from Pole to Pole; but costs the most and costs the most to use (air minutes). Second was a cheaper phone and cheaper to use but used low earth satellites which did not cover as much. The lack of coverage included southern Afrika. That lack of coverage made it useless to me. We were planning a honeymoon/Lion hunt in RSA and wanted to be able to stay in touch with family.

The Third option is/was a Satellite Text device by Garmin. As I recall they had two versions, both reasonably priced. I dont remember the specific differences except, I think, the better unit allowed family to track your location. the "plans" allowed constant ON for a reasonable price or a pay as you go, for service only when you wanted it.

I ended up choosing the The SAT TEXT device, not as nice as hearing a real voice but since we were mainly concerned with staying in touch with teenagers texting seemed OK. The device also has an emergency button for a one touch "SEND HELP" call.

The SAT TEXT uses a keyboard with the letters displayed ABCD, instead of the typical keyboard typing arrangement (ASDF JKL;). The ABCD arrangement is a bit cumbersome when youre used to typing on a standard keyboard. As I recall there was/is a way to interface a smartphone to use the standard keyboard, (but that "app" eluded my computer training which stopped with punch cards). Garmin came to my stone and chisel knowledge with the ability to pre-load messages like "we're ok" "having fun its beautiful here" and "sell the house we're not coming home" (sadly we never sent that one), for one touch use. I changed the emergency text to "Send lawyers guns and money the shit has hit the fan"....

I stopped the yearly plan after the first year; but with all the shite going on now Im thinking about starting it again.

Do any of you guys use SAT COMMS?

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