"B A R R Y" wrote in message
et...
RomeoMike wrote:
Is it possible that Les was dramatizing his situation for the show?

Possibly. However, he rarely talks about the backup plan during the show,
except when it seems to be not as usable as he expected. G In another
episode (Adrift), he was pointing out how the radio he expected to use to
communicate with his "babysitter" boat failed, and they were unable to
make contact on the open seas. His solid backup plans are described on
his web site.

The episode where he mentioned the sat phone issues took plane in the
Costa Rican jungle, with high, heavy foliage coverage. He pointed out the
the phone was plenty usable on the coast and in rare clearings. The issue
came up when he was in an area with solid square miles of canopy, pointing
out the lack of signal on the phone and the inability of an airborne
rescue crew to find him if he was injured. He didn't mention having any
kind of ELT, and he doesn't normally hide such things.

Part of the show's purpose is to demonstrate survival techniques available
when you've got very little. It's less of "Isn't Les great and amazing"
and more of "You could do this if you had to", and "You will die if you
DON'T do THIS." He usually carries only a few very basic and likely to be
carried items, like a Leatherman tool, and is allowed to use whatever the
situation might normally include. One of the episodes was an Arctic plane
crash, where he used broken airplane parts, wiring, and small quantities
of fuel to survive in winter Arctic wilderness.

Shades of the old McGiver television series (or the current commercial
with the tube sock).
The dense foliage may well be a concern in the frequency spectrum of the
Sat-Phones. I have a chitalpa tree that occasional stretches out a branch of
leaves that occludes the downlink to my Direct-TV antenna. When the wind
blows the signal drops in and out reminding me to go whack off the branch.