Satellite text gizmos

[Benno von Humpback]

Hi, everyone. Sorry for the long absence, but I have not been very social, mediawise, lately. I hope everyone is doing well.

I wanted to ask if anyone has experience with the current crop of little satellite text communicators and might have a recommendation for marine use. For instance, whether to get a stand alone device or a phone-dependent one.

My daughter just accepted a job as a scientist on the NOAA Bering Sea ground fish survey team. She will be at sea on a chartered trawler some 40-60 days/yr and I thought she might like one. Fortunately, she gets to stay in Seattle the rest of the year!

[TheOffice]

Welcome back!!

I did the SaS course last week, and these were discussed. What I learned is that they all operate on Iridium - good for where she will be.
The Zoleo was recommended as having the most affordable/flexible plans. ACR and Garmin also make them. They all connect to your phone.
Please let me know which one you end up with, as I'm thinking of getting one so I can keep to Go plan to a minimum.

Joel

[Slick470]

No clue on your question, but good to see ya Eric!

[Benno von Humpback]

Thanks for the info, Joel. I think a phone-connected one makes the most sense, since it's not a safety item and I hear the software will choose cellular when it's available.

Nice to talk to you too, Andy!

[BeauV]

Eric, welcome back. A number of my friends have bought Starlink (availability map here:https://www.starlink.com/map). It seems to work well even though the company says it should work on a boat or car, it seem to. It might be worth a look as they cover Iceland, Norway, and Alaska. The current coverage area looks weird, EG: Nigeria works and almost nothing else in Africa. But, it might be worth a try. Then she could read Scantlings and watch TV on her phone/computer.

[Jamie]

Most of my cruising buddies have starlink. Very fast connections underway and at anchor. Often anchored nearby I can connect to the wireless station for household like speeds. However, it's not fully marinized, not particularly well designed (one spun around tracking as the boat moved at anchor until the internal cable parted) and a bit of a 110v power hog.

I have an Iridium Go and a YB3i. Both can text and do email, are somewhat portable, and have internal batteries, but are useless for internet. Subscriptions for the Go and YB3i are not value for money.

[Benno von Humpback]

I have heard good things about Starlink too, but I don’t think there are any little pocket text communicators that work on it. I’m sure whatever vessels Sophia is on will have robust satellite comms. I just want to be able to pester her directly.

[randolphdavidn]

I had a SpotX on my way to Puerto Rico in 2020, it struggled to get signal and the charging port proved to be a weak point and it was dead for about a week after a wave hit it. I got a Garmin inReach Explorer+ for the trip back and it worked much better.
The SpotX had it's own tiny keyboard but it was very slow to use. The Garmin can use bluetooth to connect to a phone and you can use your phone to read/type messages.

I greatly prefer the Garmin inReach Explorer+

[Benno von Humpback]

Leaning toward the inReach at this point.