# Just bought one of these....



## goanywhere (Feb 22, 2011)

Hi all. After spending the last few months looking at all sorts of options for a gadget that will give me the option of calling for help in an emergency as well as being able to communicate basic information when out of mobile range, I finally bit the bullet and bought a DeLorme inReach SE. http://www.inreachdelorme.com/product-info/inreachse.php. I will be taking this with me on my next Murray River trip in August. This leg is very remote and I will be out of mobile range almost the whole time I am away.

This is a pretty good piece of kit. It's not a complete GPS unit with full navigation (although the latest model, the Explorer, does have these features), but I've got that aspect covered, so that's not so important. But what it does do is provide a way of sending a range of messages, both pre-set and if paired to a smartphone, a custom message to anyone in the world with an SMS capable phone or email address. People who receive a message can also log in to the DeLorme website and view your location on Google Earth. It also has a capability to sent 'pings' at pre-set intervals which can be tracked by friends or emergency services. And lastly but definitely not least - it has an SOS function which sends a 'come get me' message via the Iridium satellite network to a fully monitored control centre, who will arrange an emergency rescue.

It is waterproof and very rugged. The batteries are reported to last up to 4 days from one charge. For me it is an ideal piece of kit because it allows me to send a non-emergency message to my wife and friends that I am ok but just reporting in, and they can respond, which most of these types of gadgets don't feature. An EPIRB is great but it's bulky and only has one function, an emergency SOS. A satellite phone is very expensive and costly to run. Thes units sell for around $475 in Australia, and cost a minimum of $20 a month to subscribe to the iridium network. (I was able to buy mine from the US for $340 AU, and register it on the US network, but only because I have a credit card that is issued from Citibank which is a US bank. The US website rejects Aussie payments and forces most to register in Australia, which is much more expensive.) Sometimes you want to be able to communicate to significant others messages other than an all-or-nothing distress call. As an example, using this device I can advise my wife that I am safe and well, but that bad weather has delayed my return, or that I want to be picked up early at my end destination, or that my pick-up spot has changed.

I am testing it out for real this weekend on a camp at Kuitpo forest here in SA, so more on my experiences later.


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## skorgard (Oct 6, 2007)

Looks excellent will be interested to see how it performs. I think I know what you bought this - something to do with TOW story...


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## goanywhere (Feb 22, 2011)

Well, I've had a chance to test out the inReach over the last week, and I'm happy to report I'm rapped! I went away last weekend on a camping trip to Kuitpo forest near Adelaide, and before I left I sent a message to both my wife's and a friend's phones. The message was a preset phone sent from the unit itself, just saying 'Im starting my trip'. The area is very marginal for my mobile phone which is on the Vodafone network.

I then traveled to the campsite and when I arrived I sent a message from my smartphone which was paired to the device and typed a text message which was sent from the phone via the inReach to both phones. I sent another message that night to just my wife's phone. Then, when I was about to leave to come home, I set the inReach to send tracking 'pings' every 20min as I travelled home.

When I got home I checked how it performed. I discovered that the initial message was received by both phones. However the next message was received only on my friend's phone. I logged into the DeLorme website and looked on the map, to see that all messages and the tracking points were mapped accurately. Each message I sent was shown on the map as a 'text bubble'.

I was a little concerned that not all messages I sent to my wife were received by her. I checked and found that when I typed the text messages from my smartphone I typed her mobile number in as +6104xx xxx xxx (with the leading '0'). I later found out that this syntax doesn't work. As the network uses international communication protocols, mobile numbers need to have the leading '0' removed, and be typed as +614xx xxx xxx. So I tried sending another message to her in the correct format, and she received the message ok.

Then I tried the sharing to facebook feature, which worked flawlessly. Then I sent another message to my wife and asked her to reply exactly as she would with a normal text from her phone. She didn't reply until today, when the unit was inside at home. But when I looked at the unit just a few minutes ago I noticed that the green message light was flashing. I checked and and it was my wife's reply message. That's amazing as the unit is not supposed to work without a clear view of the sky. It was inside all the time, but it was near a window. I am leaving the unit switched on to see how long the batteries last, and so far it has used 20% battery in 24 hours, including being paired with my mobile phone, and sending and receiving texts. I intend to keep the unit switched off over night when I am away to maximise battery life, so I think there's every chance I might get through the trip on one charge.

So, I think I have tested all of the features except for the SOS feature, which I will have to just trust works, but based on the tests I have done I am confident that the unit will do exactly as it claims. I am also confident now that it will serve it's purpose when I am away on my next kayak trip on the Murray, which will be mostly off the mobile network grid.

This model is the SE which was has just been superseded by the inReach Explore, which has added features of a full GPS unit. I didn't know about that one until after I ordered mine. I'm not worried because I have GPS both on my smartphone and a handheld Garmin etrex 10.

Hope this is enough of a review for those thinking of buying one of these.


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## anselmo (Aug 26, 2008)

Very cool

Thanks for the detailed update


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## goanywhere (Feb 22, 2011)

skorgard said:


> Looks excellent will be interested to see how it performs. I think I know what you bought this - something to do with TOW story...


Needed a good excuse to get the wife's approval to buy one of these. I plan well in advance :lol:.


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