Backcountry Internet Options

[Randy Nelson]

No, you are right. I forgot about the lack of direct SMS messaging to the inReach. Sorry about that.

[Bean]

"No, you are right. I forgot about the lack of direct SMS messaging to the inReach. Sorry about that"

If somebody was tricky (higher end of computer literate), they could set the option on their Delorme MapShare page to allow viewers to send unsolicited messages, and then create an automated process to interact with the webpage on certain triggers, like a specific email being received.

Although, probably easier to have Outlook forward the notification to another person, and have them login to MapShare and send a message that the email showed up.

[Daniel G]

Thanks to everyone for their comments. I did not expect this to become an argument about work obligations, but glad original issue is being addressed. For what it's worth, I work at a small firm of 4 people investing in international public stocks on behalf of endowments and foundations where we each have near exclusive responsibility for the select companies we invest in. Since the public markets basically never close for more than 3 days, it's impossible to be out for longer and not be negligent in the case that a corporate event or other action impacts my investments.

I spent quite a while looking into people suggestions and also e-mailing sales reps at various places. I thought I'd share my findings for benefit of the group and anyone looking into same issue.

Here's my findings:

* Delorme InReach: I actually own one of these already, love it, but definitely not able to handle e-mail and files in a sufficient manner. Great unit though and I might bring it anyways to do tracking onto a map for my family.
* Irridium GO!: Has such a tiny bandwidth and has such restrictive apps that all the e-mail must go through that I don't trust it will work for my purposes.
* Other satellite phone based systems with wifi gateways might work slightly better (e.g. Globastar claims a 9.6kbps speed vs Irridium 2.4), but sub 10kbps could be painfully slow in the event I actually have work to do (hoping I won't, but otherwise whats the point of bringing anything).

After much searching, I'm pretty settled on the iSavi device for the ISatHub service from Immarsat. It claims speeds of 384 down / 240 up (kbps), creates a wifi hotspot, and works with 3 geostationary satellites from Immarsat, which should work well in the Sierras but would be a non-starter probably in Alaska. The unit weighs ~900 grams which makes it the lightest BGAN terminal I could find and sales people agreed. SatPhoneStore in Anchorage rents it for $90/week and charges $250 for 50MB data and $6.99/MB overage. That's actually pretty reasonable data charges relative to the phone bills we rack up at my job doing tethering internationally while travelling.

What I haven't figured out yet is how power hungry it is – it's 3Ah battery (estimating ~50Wh) is said to last "2 hours at 100% transmit power" but I don't know what that means in real world applications of doing just sporadic e-mail checks. It also requires 19V DC power to recharge, which means needing something like a Goal Zero batter pack (gettng recs for the Sherpa 50 or 100) which could do 1-2 recharges of the battery. A solar panel to recharge the battery might also be necessary in off case need to use it a lot or it turns out to be much more power hungry than I'm hoping.

The resulting weight is ~1.9lbs for the iSavi + 1.2lbs for Sherpa 50 (1 recharge) + 1.7lbs for a Nomad 13W solar panel to recharge = ~5.5lbs with cables. Switching out Sherpa 50 for the 100 and eliminating the solar panel would enable 2 recharges and save a net 0.9lbs. Finally, I thought about if I instead of a smartphone needed to bring a laptop I could buy a $<200 netbook from asus with a 12 hour battery life for and additional 2.2lbs. Whatever way I go would taking pack weight with food and bear cannister for this trip from ~25lbs to 30+lbs. Sucks when I spend a lot of time and money thinking about an oz here or there, but I'd rather be out there at 30 lbs than not at all.

Curious if anyone has experience or suggestions with this or another BGAN option and any thoughts on batteries/solar panel configurations.

Thanks a lot!

[Paul Magnanti]

Thanks for sharing.

As mentioned, I probably would not use this type of set up myself for various reasons, but this is a real world scenario you are about to do and not some marketing example of dubious value.

I think many of us, myself included, would love to hear what the results were at the end of the trip. Would make an interesting article!

Who knows..at some point in the future I may want/have to do a similar set up so I can get out more… :)

[NJ Drew]

My concern for you is still connecting to those 3 geostationary satellites. Making sure your trip has you up high and out of any valleys every couple of days, might be something worth thinking about. In any case let us know how it goes.

[Yak Attack]

My experience dates back to before cellular data existed. I went on a fishing trip with my Dad in rural central Canada. At the time we had competent staff at work. The company sent me with a satellite phone. I'd call in and walk an operator or coworker through fixing issues.

If you've got reasonable competent staff, maybe you could get by with only a phone and a friend? Even with the gear available today, I'd hate to lug it all around and have to take the cycles to set it all up and work if there were alternatives…

[Rex Sanders]

Daniel,

Seems like you've found a good device, but your major concern is power. A few follow-up suggestions.

– Might be worth getting the iSavi early and performing some battery run-down tests using your expected usage pattern.

– Then try recharging the iSavi under conditions close to what you expect. Specs can be misleading.

– I wonder if you can ditch the battery pack and solar-charge the iSavi battery directly through a 12V DC car adapter?

– Some popular solar panels perform very poorly for backpackers constantly on the move. The intermittent power of a solar panel can cause recharging problems going direct to an iPhone, for example. You might want to check reviews of your solar panel by backpackers.

– Every time I've run the numbers, recharging devices using a pile of single-use Lithium AA batteries (much lighter than alkaline) weighs and costs less than any solar/rechargeable system, unless you are out for a very long time. And you can ship or buy AAs at resupply points to lower your weight even more.

– Probably need to use a brick that holds 8 AAs plus a 12V DC car adapter. Then run a recharging test.

– Smartphones and laptops can be unexpectedly data hungry. You should disable all the automatic updates, downloads, and uploads for the OS and apps. You probably don't want to sync dozens of 5 MB photos or update virus definitions at $7/MB.

– The iSavi is fairly new, hope you can find good real-life reviews. If your risk tolerance is low, you might investigate a heavier BGAN terminal that's been around for a while, like the Hughes 9202.

Good luck, and please tell us how it works out!

— Rex

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