Delorme Inreach Se Satellite Tracker

DeLorme inReach SE Satellite Tracker

• Trigger an SOS and interact back and forth with GEOS, our 24/7 search and rescue monitoring center
• Send and receive 160 character free-form text messages with GPS coordinates to emails or cell numbers anywhere in the world.
• Adjustable tracking intervals from 10 minutes to 4 hours allow you to track your trip and share your location including GPS coordinates, elevation and speed
• Provides 100% global coverage through the Iridium satellite network. Delivery confirmation for all text messages and SOS signals., Color screen with predictive, virtual keyboard for standalone two-way messaging

Buy Now : DeLorme inReach SE Satellite Tracker

Brand : Garmin
Category : Electronics,GPS, Finders & Accessories,GPS Trackers
Rating : 4.3
Review Count : 426

DeLorme inReach SE Satellite Tracker

• I\'m into my third month of personal ownership on the standard plan after using one of our work units that is on an enterprise account.My purpose for ownership is primarily for communication with home when I\'m on personal time in the backcountry. As most of my remote travel is in areas where we have VHF repeater access to call for help, a device like an inReach or SPOT means you can wait an extra hour for the proximal visitor safety team to become mobilized because you have to wait to have your distress call routed through numerous agencies until it reaches your local authorities. Therefore, do not use this device instead of a VHF radio in situations where the latter can function to get help mobilized for you within a window that can make an important difference to patient well-being.About two weeks ago (early Sept 2016), a professionally guided group who had ascended Mt Olive in Banff National Park, were surprised to have a helicopter land, in response to an SOS that they did not know their inReach had sent out. Turned out the problem was the flimsy SOS button had received an insult when the pack was laid on rocky ground, causing an SOS activation which the guide did not know about. There apparently was an article written recently in the ACMG newsletter that there have been a number of such known accidental activations associated with inReach devices. It\'s a pity this sort of information is also not covered in the cheerleading sections of the DeLorme website so that users are made aware of this, and can therefore apply mitigations that are appropriate to their way of carrying the device when it is operational.In my own case, I recently had to turn to technical support to get answers to some of my questions. My first support ticket contained about 3 or 4 questions. That was a mistake, as I learned the support person would only answer one at a time, and ignore the others. So I resubmitted the remaining ones one by one. The last question was:< I get an error message:\" check your Facebook settings under My Info > Social Media Setup\"- However, I do not see any \"My Info\". Where would that be? >But the support rep would simply not address this question with an answer until I had asked it 4 times. He then did so with an answer that was incorrect twice (EG: \"Thank you for the e-mail. Social Media Setup is under the Social Tab within the account the device is assigned to.\"), and then finally said, \" (Thank you for the e-mail. Yes, Social Media Setup is not within My info, I believe that is referencing Enterprise accounts as they have that setup that way exactly. ). Boy, it sure took a lot of work and time to get that little matter sorted out!I went on one trip and sent a number of messages to my spouse. I came home, and she told me all she saw when she clicked the link for every message I sent was: \"You have received a message from an inReach customer before that message is available on the map. Refresh this page in a few minutes.\"I in fact tried refreshing the link for a day after I got home, and it remained the same. When I inquired, I got, \"Thank you for the e-mail. There was an issue with the website that was not loading the links within the e-mail correctly. We have resolved the issue and you should not experience any issue currently. Please let me know if you are still having issues with messages from the sender. \" They did not have any issues with billing me for all the messages that did not go through however.Some of the other issues I had were: 1) with sync not working consistently, forcing numerous retrys, 2) the device powering on every time it was plugged in to charge (fixed with a factory reset), 3) sometimes a message would take hours to go through (or not at all as noted above), 4) the device telling me it could not find enough satellites to send my location even though it had an unobstructed view of the sky for 2 hours (I assumed this device used a SiRFIII chip, so I was surprised by this), 5) and constant Bluetooth dropouts even though the (Android) phone running the companion Earthmate App was less than 2 meters away, and the only way to reconnect was to reboot the phone or even re-pair the devices. 6) Deleting old messages. If you delete old messages in Earthmate, and then you sync the phone to the device, the messages are still on the inReach. To get rid of them, you have to go through the painful process of deleting each message one by one. 7) Support. I had some major issues that I wanted to resolve that I discovered on a Saturday before I left on a trip on Sunday. However, you can abandon any hope of getting any sort of support on a weekend.Now here\'s the rub, what (if unlike me, someone may actually want to keep in touch with you while you\'re away) are your alternatives? We have lots of satellite phones at work and they are great if someone else is paying the bill, and a helicopter, quad, porter, or horse is carrying it. But a SPOT is not good for interactive messaging. So for the moment, if you want to keep in touch your only option for a more or less affordable personal communicator is to pay for some hardware who\'s design is straight out of the 80\'s, pay for a contract that is exorbitant for the amount of data it transfers, and has a spotty reputation for reliability and customer support to match, then getting an inReach until something better arrives on the landscape is perhaps your only option. Hopefully that time will come soon, because this device has done little to endear itself to my tender sensibilities.After the recent events on Mt. Olive, you should also note it would be best to carry your device in a hard shell case of some sort and protect it against bumps and scrapes. There is also some talk amongst professionals who use these devices that there is hope that the new owners of inReach (Garmin) will address some of these issues in a way that DeLorme did not seem to be undertaking.
• I\'ve had about a month to test out my new inReach SE. So far I am quite impressed!Coverage: This has been stated many times before but coverage is global. I have yet to use it outside of North America, but I have had no problems getting coverage even in very remote areas. I was skeptical that it would be reliable on the Salmon River in Idaho with such a deep canyon and limited view of the sky but sure enough it worked nearly every time. Messages would easily send within a minute or two, same with receiving. Occasionally messages would take up to 15 minutes to send but they would always go through. I had a similar result with the tracking feature. Data points would usually send every 10 minutes as specified but occasionally would wait another 10 minutes then catch up.GUI/Earthmate: Using the SE as a stand alone device works quite well. My only complaint as a stand alone is the uber slow typing. Maybe we could see a better predicative text keyboard. Regardless I still became quite proficient at it and its hardly a complaint. I was very happy to use it as a stand alone and actually know what was going on vs the non screen model which leaves users clueless. Earthmate app is OK. I wish that it would mirror what the SE showed and allow you to force check messages, ect. I liked being able to leave the SE out in a good spot and sit in my tent and text on my phone. Maps with Earthmate is OK. Not as good as USGS topos but decent enough to get around. I wish the SE could share the GPS location with other apps on my phone. Personally I prefer Backcountry Navigator for maps.Durability: I am pleased to say that the SE had no issues hanging out in my life jacket for a week. It went through rapids and a couple swims. No problems with water or durability thus far. I fear I may break the USB cover but I am careful and so far so good.Problems: I had one minor problem with the SE being paired to my smart phone and requiring a reboot of both devices. I was hiking and navigating on my phone and it failed to update my location no matter what I did. I had to manually stop the tracking and reboot both devices. Worked fine after that though. I have had a couple occasions where messages and tracking could not send due to limited view of the sky. This is hardly a complaint because the device requires a decent view of the sky. Mostly what I found is that large tall old growth trees would limit the performance. On the other hand I can use it just fine indoors at my work. Go figure :)Billing/Website: I haven\'t had any issues changing my plan or getting charged crazy amounts. It is worth noting that the taxes on the device are more than I expected but not an issue with DeLorme, its a federal tax. You MUST update the inReach via sync (either USB or OTA) when you change the billing. I\'ve read other reviews that claim this isn\'t clear but to me its very clear on the website. I still think the device is expensive to subscribe too but with the freedom plans and ability to suspend the device it helps a lot.Battery: I could get 2-3 days with 10 minute tracking enable and the device turned off at night. I also had no issues charging it with a Goal Zero Nomad 7 solar panel and Goal Zero Guide 10 Plus.

Location:

Share :