Landout survival - parachute or otherwise

"Eric Greenwell" wrote in message
news:gfmGh.2459$4u5.556@trndny09...

These prices are a huge improvement over the last time I checked. What
companies offer these prices? These phones would also be a good way to
keep in touch with your crew while flying and out of radio range, and
might be at least as effective as a PLB.


I just Googled "globalstar rental" and got this:
http://www.allroadcommunications.com...r-rentals.aspx

$20/week +$1.39/min

Actually, I think it beats the hell out of a PLB. Get two and give one to
the crew.

Bill Daniels

Not sure on those exact prices but I suspect the one to get seems to
be the new Globalstar/Qualcomm GSP-1700 handset, smaller than the
Iridium/Motorola 9805. Globalstar annual retail prices start at $300
with zero minutes and you buy minutes at $1.50 each. Does not seem
outrageous. Voicemail extra (I suspect voicemail would be handy of
your playing phone tag with people during a retrieve).

See http://www.globalstarusa.com/en/gsp1700. Still a brick compared to
consumer cell phones but with the antenna folded it is almost the
exact same size as the McMurdo 406 MHz PLB that I have in the larger
size Alan Silver SMAK pack holder on my parachute harness today. (Just
a size comparison, no I don't see a sat phone replacing a PLB).

Get one for the crew/retrieve car as well.

Cheers


Darryl Ramm

On Mar 3, 2:01 pm, Eric Greenwell wrote:
Bill Daniels wrote:
To this end there are two almost magical devices, Globalstar/Iridium
sat-phones and GPS. We already have GPS so we need phones. Reasonably small
sat-phones cost around $500 and a service contract with zero minutes is
trivial. If you actually need to call from the wild, $2/min is also
trivial. The phones can be rented for $30/week for use at contests and
camps.

These prices are a huge improvement over the last time I checked. What
companies offer these prices? These phones would also be a good way to
keep in touch with your crew while flying and out of radio range, and
might be at least as effective as a PLB.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
* Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly
* "Transponders in Sailplanes"http://tinyurl.com/y739x4
* "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" atwww.motorglider.org

On Mar 3, 2:01 pm, Eric Greenwell wrote:
Bill Daniels wrote:
To this end there are two almost magical devices, Globalstar/Iridium
sat-phones and GPS. We already have GPS so we need phones. Reasonably small
sat-phones cost around $500 and a service contract with zero minutes is
trivial. If you actually need to call from the wild, $2/min is also
trivial. The phones can be rented for $30/week for use at contests and
camps.

These prices are a huge improvement over the last time I checked. What
companies offer these prices? These phones would also be a good way to
keep in touch with your crew while flying and out of radio range, and
might be at least as effective as a PLB.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
* Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly
* "Transponders in Sailplanes"http://tinyurl.com/y739x4
* "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" atwww.motorglider.org

We use Globalstar sat phones at work. We found that they don't always
get a signal when driving in the mountains. However, probably would be
fairly easy to move into a more open area to get a signal. Just don't
expect it to work in every possible location. When we purchased the
phones several years ago, Globalstar was better for U.S. use and
Iridium was better for international use. Don't know if they still do,
but at that time, they used different call routing methods that made a
big difference in cost per call.
Steve

Mountains? Indian Reservation?

How far west of Galveston was he? 1000 miles?

That sounds about right. Of course it was a bit north of due west.

~tuno