Satellite Phone Question
 

Is it possible to rent one of these for my hunt, or would I have to buy one?

My boys are 4 to 12 years old, & they expressed disappointment/umbridge last Fall about my being completely out of touch while in camp. I'm not looking to chat it up while on a stalk, but rather to minimize the trauma I'm causing my boys by chasing these selfish pursuits.

I thought maybe someone around here might have some experience with such things.

Thanks!

FC

RE: Satellite Phone Question
 

I looked in to them ,for an alaska hunt,found them for rent on the web in tenn. I didn't order it in time to leave.They were $5 a minute plus a couple hundred to rent.But that could be priceless when you really need it.


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RE: Satellite Phone Question
 

We rented one for a Newfoundland trip and they work great. It is a little pricey but worth it if you need to stay in touch.

RE: Satellite Phone Question
 

It is a lot more economical than people think. In the US, all you need is a Globalstar system that can be found for around $20.00 per week with air time running about $1/minute. Some companies will even do pre-paid minutes that will allow you to lower the rate. Here is one I found with a quick search.

http://www.satellitephonestore.com/satellite-phone-rental.php?OVRAW=satellite%20phone%20rental&OV KEY=satellite%20phone%20rental&OVMTC=standard& amp;OVADID=5519666511&OVKWID=27642500011

RE: Satellite Phone Question
 

Things have changed or I was nearly robbed.That was about5 years ago.


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RE: Satellite Phone Question
 

Forget Globalstar right now, just about useless. Go with Iridium if you can find one. Global star is having problems and said they were gonna fix them last month but no better yet.
Up north here you can usually find them most places, about 100. bucks a week plus air time. Ya 1 or 2 bucks a minute but not meant to be a gissip system its for savin your butt. Normally an Iridium is easy to find but due to globalstars problems they seem to be a bit scarce.
good luck
tz

RE: Satellite Phone Question
 

I rented a Globalstar satellite phone for a week last year for a solo elk hunt in the the mountains of SW Colorado. It cost me about $50 to rent for a week and also $50 return shipping. So . . . about $100 for a week's use. There was also an about $1.50/minute fee leveled on top of the rental fee, so you may not want to have long winded conversations, but it sure is handy for an emergency or to provide notification of changes of plans. My Globalstar satellite phone worked OK for me, so long as I was out in the open and not under tree canopy. There were occasions, infrequent, when a gap in the satellite pattern left me without coverage for about 5-10 minutes. I was pretty pleased with the peace of mind this gave my wife and family when I went on this high mountain solo hunt. I have heard that Iridium works better, but I also think the Iridium costs more. Given the experience I had, I would use the Globalstar again. If you can distribute the cost across several people, for example an elk hunting camp of 4 to 8 people, it makes the cost very reasonable.

RE: Satellite Phone Question
 

I have been looking into these for a couple months now as I will need one come October. Globalstar is cheaper but they dont work as good as the Iridium.

This is probably the company im going to go with.

http://www.mobalrental.com/satellite.asp

Just make sure you read all the details on rental. Some places charge extra for this and that.


Don

RE: Satellite Phone Question
 

Many Thanks, Don.

I just ordered from them this morning. On the one hand, it's very pricey. On the other, more important hand, it's priceless. I'm far more concerned about my boys than being stranded in the wilderness. Maybe I'll change my mind about that when a grizz has me by the a$$, but that's how I feel for the time being!

Good luck on your hunt. Where are you headed?

FC

RE: Satellite Phone Question
 

FC,

Glad you got it worked out. I really dont think its that bad. I will be ordering mine this week. Headed to New Mexico on a youth Elk hunt. My 13 year old son was lucky enough to draw one of the few either sex tags given out to NR in Unit 17. Muzzleloader hunt for him and the time we spend together will be remembered forever.


Don

RE: Satellite Phone Question
 

Myson had one while withthe 101st Airborne in Mosul and Kandahar. It worked very well... at 21.00 a minute.

RE: Satellite Phone Question
 

We had one two weeks back in Alaska. When you call another Sat phone it is like $1.00 per minute. When you call a cell phone it runs like $11.00. I am sure that increases with the location of the cell phone.

Might want to get that information from the place you rent from.


Goatslayer........

RE: Satellite Phone Question
 

YOu can also buy minutes on a plan that reduces the total cost per min down. I rented an iridium when I went to Alaska. I ordered two extra batteries so that if I needed to do some work (self employed) I could. Didn't really care about the cost of the minutes (no prepaid fees were $2.00 a minute). As it turned out I was stuck in a small town without a phone for 4 days (bad fires about 100 miles away completely covered the area and small planes wouldn't fly. I would check voice mail every 4 hrs. In doing so I found that the 3 batteries combined wouldn't last vut about 5 mins without charging. I was ticked off to say the least. Over all I think I spent about $115,$70 for the phone for two weeks (free shipping) and 45 for calls. I was able to get some work done (my billing rate easily covered the phone charges). A win, win for me.

That was about 3 years ago. I have since checked and the rates are even better. In hind site I would get it in advance (buy an extra week) testing out the batteries and replacing them if needed. They are rated like cell phone batteries, with x amount of talk time.

RE: Satellite Phone Question
 

Iridiums are awesome phones. I've used mine offshore fishing all over the US and South America, and all over SE africa.

They really do the job.

It's a lot better than it was 15 years ago when you got on a Sat phone in Africa and it was $9 a minute.

RE: Satellite Phone Question
 

I agree with the previous globalstar comments, I rented one last year on a solo selway elk hunt, thing didnt work worth a damn, I was at the very top a couple of times, had all the bars, as far as single is concerned and the dang thing would cut out after 20 seconds of conversation. The price was right, somewhere 100 bucks total for the phone and a 30 minute air time package, but what good is that if it doesnt work.

RE: Satellite Phone Question
 

The Iridium worked pretty well. It came w/ 2 batteries, but I turned it off when not in use, so I only used about 5/8 of 1. A few cutouts, but mostly pretty good.

After all that, however, the boys didn't want to talk most of the times I called them!

RE: Satellite Phone Question
 

FC -- How was the phone there? I am looking to rent one for a Utah hunt in November and see you rented one from mobilerental there? Was it as written on there web site How was the service?

thanks
Paul

RE: Satellite Phone Question
 

Paul,

I just rented one myself it will be here Monday. I ordered it for Tuesday (im leaving Wend) but they sent it to get here a day early to look it over. I called and talked with them and was very impressed. They send me some great information via email so if your interested shoot me your email address and I will sent it to you.

As far as the service I can let you know when I get back around Oct 12th or so.


Don

RE: Satellite Phone Question
 

Paul,

It worked out really slick. I ordered through their web site, & they sent it by FedEx overnight, even though I'd spec'd 2-day. Everything arrived fine in the kit, & there was a return airway bill enclosed that was already filled-out. When I got back, I went to my local FedEx joint, stuck it in a box, & slapped-on their sticker. I never had to talk to the folx.

There was a large instruction manual included, but I just used the starter instructions on the small laminated card they included. Also, you can get incoming text messages for free, sent either from a cell or from the web. When you reply, they nick you $1.50/min., but they send pretty quickly. I used that function to keep my minutes down.

I'll use 'em again!

FC

RE: Satellite Phone Question
 

FC....

Thanks for the helpfull info there that def helped me on decisions for first timer here..

Paul

RE: Satellite Phone Question
 

Well I thought I would let those interested in this the feedback on our phone.

The phone was delivered a day ahead of time and they didnt charge us. We used it up in the mountains of New Mexico and it worked just fine. They charged 2 bucks a minutes just like it was quoted. Also we used the text message function every day for hunt updates and this worked great. You can send text messages to a cell phone or to a email address for 1.99 You can recieve text messages or emails to you sat phone for free. When we where done with the hunt I tossed the phone back in the case, boxed it up in the Fed-ex box, put the pre-paid return label on the box and placed in a drop off box in Soccoro New Mexico before the drive home. This company did everything as promised, wasnt very expensive to have and worked as said. I would use them again in a heartbeat.


One quick story on the phone. We had a bear hunter drop off dogs in our unit on Saturday to hunt bear. On monday we ran across him and he still was looking for his dogs. The unit was very rugged and he couldnt locate them and left for home. On tuesday we found his 3 dogs sitting by a water tank and they could not even walk anymore due to being wore out. We tossed them in my truck, dorve them back to camp and fed and watered them. I called the number on their collers with the Sat phone and left the guy a message on his machine. At 3 am he showed up and picked up his dogs. We where very happy to help save them and my son was proud.


Don