Spot vs In reach vs ?

What's the current best deal on satellite emergency beacons and communicators based on upfront price, service contract, features, and usability? Be specific in discussing sub models as each brand has various sub models with various features.

Use case:
Family member taking a multi week solo bike tour in Spain, what emergency beacon, satellite communicator is best for a luddite?

Additionally....
When they are done, I will take it over for Backcountry ski and moto trips I take all over the West Coast. I should have had one a long time ago considering how often I moto solo.

Importance for my use:
- family can track location
- sos
- send custom (normal) text either direct or via phone to device, 2 ways
- simple interface and decent sat coverage

I’ve been pretty happy with my inReach mini - it does all that stuff - I like how small it it - several plans to choose from

we sell em at the shop I work at - retail is $400 - at one point this summer Garmin had them on sale for $300 but only for a short time - you can find them used / refurbed for cheaper on Amazon

I haven’t compared the Spot v InReach - Spot has $50 off all their units on their website

I’ll second the InReach platform. Also have the original mini. Easy to change the plans, but do check with Garmin and/or the jurisdiction you will be travelling to in order to understand the nuances of local SAR response.
Only thing I can complain about is their Explore website for tracking the units. The map interface sucks IMO, but I work in professional GIS applications so I am a bit biased.

Copy. Thx.

Keep the feedback coming.

I am familiar with garmins clunky software as I have an older c60 handheld and a Montana 600 for the moto.

Mikey B, you're at the BC in Truckee, correct?

yes sir

we also carry Zoleo and honestly I’m unfamiliar with it

https://www.thebackcountry.com/camp-...llite-devices/

Garmin has been kinda the gold standard for awhile now and I truthfully don't know if the competitors have caught up.

The two main complaints I have about InReach are:
1) typing on the device is clunky at best (I have the original Mini) and virtually mandates being paired to a phone.
2) there are too many different Garmin apps and none of them are quite as user friendly as they should be.
That said the satellite network seems to be incredibly reliable and it's also worth noting that, at least in my area, pretty much all the SAR teams are using InReach internally so getting in direct contact with rescuers (InReach to InReach communication) is a real possibility.

My past experiences with Spot (5+ years ago) was that the satellite network wasn't nearly as reliable. That may have changed.

Zoleo is the new kid on the block and I don't know anything about them other than their name sounds like some sort of prescription medication.

Good stuff. Thx

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Originally Posted by heckacali

Importance for my use:
- family can track location
- sos
- send custom (normal) text either direct or via phone to device, 2 ways
- simple interface and decent sat coverage

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This pretty much defines the InReach and why I use it for backcountry, off-trail backpacking. I have had both the Mini and the Mini 2*, and while I agree with a few of the complaints (too many apps, clunky to use as a standalone unit for messaging, expensive plans), it does what I need it to do and just works. More than anything I want it -- as does my wife -- as a lifeline since most of the time I am traveling solo. Being able to see where I'm at or even a simple "hello" message at the end of the day goes a long way.

*I have just started using the Mini 2, but so far have found that the coverage is improved with v2 and the new apps are better than what I was using with the first gen model. I will add that I don't use it for navigation as I'm still a map/compass guy and I use CalTopo for all my mapping needs.

While stand alone operation on the inreach mini is super annoying, I think it is still the only platform that has that option if your phone should break or run out of battery. That redundancy is worth something, I think.

I have the original mini but I think the upgrades on v2 are pretty minimal (longer battery life, maybe usbc?) so if you can fund a deal on a v1 I don't think you are sacrificing much.

World wide coverage is good, just don't try to bring one to India...

Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using Tapatalk

If you already have an iPhone 14 or later you can use the Emergency SOS satellite feature for real emergencies. You can also use the Find My feature to keep track when there is cell coverage. My son was hiking solo in the Swiss alps last summer and I was able to track him.

I have the first generation inReach Mini that I got on sale from REI for $200 a couple of years ago. I use the $14.95/month basic coverage as needed. I don’t remember if there is a small yearly fee on top of that.

FWIW, Garmin/InReach is on the iridium satellite network. Better all round coverage, especially in northern latitudes. Satellites can communicate to each other in order to reach a ground station.

Spot was on the globalstar satellite network. Satellite to ground relay not as good as iridium, and at least up to a few years ago, fewer satellites in the north latitudes (this also affected you on steep northern aspects). Been awhile since I played with Spot or used the globalstar sat system, so this might have been improved now.

I've used Zoleo for 3 or so years now.
- Same satellite network as Garmin (ie, Iridium I think)
- Decent bit cheaper for the device than Garmin I think (I think I saw for sale for like $150 recently)
- Plan is $20/month for basic which includes like 25 texts I think; you can also suspend service for $4/month (which I do offseason)
- You can send SOS and also an "I'm ok" msg to your contacts, directly via the device (ie, not needing your phone)
- Other communications (like texting, weather) are via your phone interface (via bluetooth)
- This works fine, as long as you keep your phone charged
- Device battery goes for days and days
- Overall has worked great for communications out in wild, or in extended hut, etc
- Fortunately haven't had to use the SOS

Love my inreach mini. Super portable and has all those features you're looking for. I've found it easy to send messages via the earthmate app so you don't have to fumble around on the device itself and the satellite connectivity is good in the CO mountains where I primarily use it. My plan is $11.95/mo and I add on SAR 50 insurance for $30/yr

The mini is great since it'll fit in little stash pockets in smaller running vests and/or biking hip packs. For me personally the size is the difference maker between bringing it vs not bringing it in a lot of cases, and it's a pretty useless tool if you're leaving it at home because it's too bulky. If just using it for backcountry skiing then you'll have more pack space so maybe not as big a concern, but in the summer I'm always either on a bike with a small pack or trying to move fast and light on foot with a running pack since hiking is boring, so I appreciate the size more than I initially thought I would

Another vote for the InReach mini. Not additional downsides to the ones already listed, I have occasionally had to type messages directly on the unit (no phone to pair with) and it's a major PITA but that's a bit of an edge case.
The weight/size is so negligible I basically take it anytime I go out to hike/bike/ski. No reason not to have it in case something hits the fan.
I had a super basic Spot before and it was always a bit of question mark looking at the blinking lights to figure out if a ping had been sent. I'm sure the fancier ones are much better but I don't have any experience with them.

Mini2 if you want to use the navigation, Messenger otherwise.

Probably unnecessary with cell coverage en Espana.

As with all things comms. Educate and train. They are fairly intuitive but have some idiosyncrasies.

Sent from my Turbo 850 Flatbrimed Highhorse

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Originally Posted by rainy512day

If you already have an iPhone 14 or later you can use the Emergency SOS satellite feature for real emergencies. You can also use the Find My feature to keep track when there is cell coverage. My son was hiking solo in the Swiss alps last summer and I was able to track him.

I have the first generation inReach Mini that I got on sale from REI for $200 a couple of years ago. I use the $14.95/month basic coverage as needed. I don’t remember if there is a small yearly fee on top of that.

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You can also manually share your location by satellite when out of cell service via the FindMy app. You can update it once every 15 minutes, but you have to manually do it each time. Wouldn't rely on it though, as I had an issue over the weekend where my phone somehow thought I didn't have anyone to share my location with, so it wouldn't allow me to send out my location info (still had the emergency SOS feature available though).

I'm a big fan of the inreach explorer+

If you don't need the space savings of the mini, the explorer+ is awesome for maps and texting easier.

I use an inReach mini for my own personal use, but I am forced to use a Spot at work, so pretty familiar with both. Note I used the term "forced". That kind of sums it up.

There is no comparison on the reliability of getting a signal. I've never not gotten one very quickly with the inReach. Constantly struggle with the Spot. And even when there is signal on both, the Spot takes MUCH longer to actually get a message through.

There is no doubt in my mind the inReach is more reliable.

Seems the inreach family is the almost unanimous vote by the mag collective.
Thank you.
I will be shopping for likely the mini v2.


On another random Garmin note, getting ready to do some BDR action this fall and decided to update my c60 and 600 Montana to make sure they had the latest software, and I wanted to just clean up their memory and update the maps.

I had to use my kid's windows 11 gaming PC to load and run Garmin Basecamp and express as I have a Chromebook And they don't work on a Chromebook.
Grrrrrr #1

Gaming PC does not have a CD / DVD drive, only USB etc. So my 24K topo maps that I have purchased years ago on DVD and also on SD card I can't access and load into Basecamp or the devices.
Grrrr#2

Also through Basecamp and Express, i can't seem to access the maps (and other data) that are already on the devices to delete them. I want to free up space and have a clean install of the West Coast 24K topos.
Ideally I would like to strip them both clean, reinstall their operating systems with the latest OS and just install the West Coast 24K topo map, and maybe whatever the basic street map is. It's been awhile since I spent time messing around with Garmin software interfaces, but good Lord they seem old and clunky. Any Garmin gurus in Truckee I want to help a Luddite out for a bottle of something tasty?
Grrrr #3

Should go in things that annoy you thread

my coworker who is going on a bike tour trip in Finland has spent way too much time fucking with his new Garmin gps map unit and software

seems like a common problem

vibes…

see ya soon

Inreach mini v2 in hand.

Props to Mikey B, nice meeting you and walking me through the options.

fkna

cheers

Your local SAR/MRA team thanks you for using an inreach. 2 way communication really helps with getting the right resources into the field quickly.

Won't these all be obsolete soon or at least redundant, once all phones have SAT capabilities?

I dropped my Garmin subscription.

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Originally Posted by Shredhead

Won't these all be obsolete soon or at least redundant, once all phones have SAT capabilities?

I dropped my Garmin subscription.

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Redundant; maybe. But redundancy is a useful characteristic when it comes to life saving equipment.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by doebedoe

Redundant; maybe. But redundancy is a useful characteristic when it comes to life saving equipment.

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I sense the market will adjust if satellite texting becomes a thing. I'd consider a lower-cost InReach as the bomb proof back-up to my now-satellite capable texting phone.

Did a bit of searching and found this:

“Until recently, Apple hasn’t said too much about the satellite network it’s using; in September, an Apple spokesperson told Reuters that it had partnered with Globalstar to deploy the satellite infrastructure and investing a whopping $450 million to cover 95% of the costs involved in building and launching new satellites to power its futuristic emergency SOS network.”
https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile...668108457-2-2/

So maybe globalstar will get a very much needed upgrade? Until proven though, my reservations on using any emergency coms via the globalstar system remains.

Kind of annoyed by the inreach billing policy on the flex plan...seems like it is designed to capitalize on forgetfullness...

Looks like if you say start a month of service on September 1st, you have to set it to renew and manually cancel if you don't want service starting October 1st. Even though the flex plan is designed to be turned on and off, there's no way to just pay a month.

If you go to cancel it on September 15th, it will immediately cancel your service rather than letting your service continue to work through September 30th (even though you paid the full month rate).

Most subscription services let you keep the full period you paid for if you cancel renewal...kinda scummy.

I saw that Garmin recently changed the available inReach plans.

The existing tiers are tweaked slightly at an increased cost (of course...)
But they added an "enabled" plan which is $8/mo and basically keeps your device on the network, and check in messages and texts are both pay-per while SOS is free.
I think you would still have to pay an activation fee if your device was inactive.

This seems like an improvement over the old yearly fee and $15/mo (?) of the old plan where you could activate it for only a few months at a time.
I currently do the $12/mo plan and carry it with me fairly frequently but have have only used it to send a message or check in a handful of times.
I imagine that most people are in the same basic use case as me where the new plan might be worth swapping to.

https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?fa...1v3zNcPXlBnlI8

I have and use a zoleo. Probably have it on 50? days a year. Messaging can be slightly delayed sometimes, but reliable, and inexpensive compared to garmin.

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Originally Posted by MottN

I saw that Garmin recently changed the available inReach plans.

The existing tiers are tweaked slightly at an increased cost (of course...)
But they added an "enabled" plan which is $8/mo and basically keeps your device on the network, and check in messages and texts are both pay-per while SOS is free.
I think you would still have to pay an activation fee if your device was inactive.

This seems like an improvement over the old yearly fee and $15/mo (?) of the old plan where you could activate it for only a few months at a time.
I currently do the $12/mo plan and carry it with me fairly frequently but have have only used it to send a message or check in a handful of times.
I imagine that most people are in the same basic use case as me where the new plan might be worth swapping to.

https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?fa...1v3zNcPXlBnlI8

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Might also be a response to the new IOS and Android satellite texting? I guess a lot of folks would drop their plans completely once that rolls out.

I'll be dropping down to the $8 plan myself. Paying per message is a lot easier than shutting it down for the months I do not need it.

I just dropped to the $8 plan since it’s primarily an emergency device, and I might send a message once or twice a year with it. If I suddenly need to send a lot of messages in an emergency situation, I’m happy to pay for it at that time.

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Originally Posted by Phall

I have and use a zoleo. Probably have it on 50? days a year. Messaging can be slightly delayed sometimes, but reliable, and inexpensive compared to garmin.

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When I was comparing these a couple years ago the zoleo was a little less expensive for the device and the activation, but the plans were more expensive. Of course depends on your use case. I ended up with an inReach mini, and just decided it was simpler to leave active all the time on the lowest plan.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ASmileyFace

Might also be a response to the new IOS and Android satellite texting? I guess a lot of folks would drop their plans completely once that rolls out.

I'll be dropping down to the $8 plan myself. Paying per message is a lot easier than shutting it down for the months I do not need it.

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Yeah same. Not ready to drop the inReach with the just the SOS and occasional location updates on IOS, but will be more tempted when messaging rolls out if reliability is good. Its only a matter of time till PLBs are a thing of the past.
They also have only said that it will be free for two years after phone activation and not how much it will cost after...and I'm more of a new phone every 4 years kinda guy, so we'll see.

I too dropped to $8 plan. I get redundancy and burliness of an inReach, along with Garmin Rescue answering SOS instead of whoever picks it up at Apple.

I did use text messages and preset relatively frequently -- often near my allocated 10 a month. But (for now) I can do that on my iPhone easier for free or pay the $.10/$.50 cost if iphone isn't working for some reason.

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Originally Posted by doebedoe

Garmin Rescue answering SOS instead of whoever picks it up at Apple

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To me this is still a big selling point for Garmin for now. Their dispatch is pretty proven at this point at getting relevant information to actual rescuers quickly and efficiently. Apple may do just as good a job or even better, but they're unproven so far.