DeLorme InReach SE vs. SpareOne Plus Emergency Phone

[Bob Gross]

"I was pretty frustrated last night, Bob, so my apologies. I felt like I was being patronized."

If somebody makes a technology recommendation to you, and if it is something that you don't know much about, then why not study up on it for a while before pitching the whole idea out?

By the same token, when some new technology is promoted on the Internet by some company that we've never heard of, and it is supposed to be the latest thing since sliced bread, why not study up on it for a while to determine whether it is just vaporware? If it can actually be purchased today from Amazon.com then that starts to mean something. There are too many scams today.

Here at BPL, there are a few of us who have been down this road before.

–B.G.–

[Jeremy and Angela]

Hi Ryan,

Yep, I'm pretty sure. The specs page lists GSM/GPRS/GPS/APRS, and the frequencies they list are GSM numbers. As mentioned, GPS is one-way to the device only. GPRS uses the cell network, but APRS uses amateur radio. I'm not too familiar with APRS but I believe it's generally line-of-sight: good for ballooning, not so good for hiking.

[Ryan Friend]

Still sounds patronizing, Bob. I am sure you are an intelligent and nice guy, so I will ignore those bits that rub me wrong and focus on the overall message (which is legitimate). I am not looking to impress anyone, just figure out a problem. Maybe I don't know everything, but that doesn't mean that I haven't studied anything. We can't all live in Silicon Valley, you know? If I threw out something someone said right off, I had my reasons. As a person, I get to have those. The idea was to give parameters and see what solutions might come out.

As for the rest. I guess I am back to the drawing board. Any ideas are welcome. That is the whole reason I am even here. I think I have pretty much clarified what I am looking for.

When I started out, I thought that the Delorme was a real option. I have come to realize that I don't want it at all. Since the other two things I threw out seem to work on Cell towers and Rex and Bob explained how those are pretty much worthless, I have no options and need some.

[Bob Gross]

"Rex and Bob explained how those are pretty much worthless"

Worthless would not be completely fair.

Unpredictable would be a fair description.

Let's summarize here. You threw out the suggestions that you didn't like, and you found your own suggestions to be impractical or unavailable.

Your next shot would be to travel to some big consumer electronics show and watch demonstrations of all of the various technologies. That way, you can let your own eyes be the judge.

OBTW, most big consumer electronics shows are held in large convention centers, and they can't get a GPS signal in cleanly to the exhibit floor, so most products that use GPS normally must be artificially hacked up to make them appear to work. Been there, done that.

–B.G.–

[Greg Mihalik]

Ryan –

"Life is gray, bro, not black and white."

"Though I do think that there is still a lot of gray there."

Life has many shades of gray.

A safety net that you are counting on does not. Ask a climber.

However, if you are just trying reassure someone at home, and they understand how to interpret a loss of communications over some period of time, then something "gray" is just fine.

Me, I expect 100% functionality all of the time, acknowledging that it "could, possibly" fail, versus hoping it might work "some" of the time. YMMV.

[Ryan Friend]

Greg, I hear you. I only had to take a rappelling class to realize that I do not want to climb. The physical toll is much more endurable with hiking vs. climbing, at least that is what I came out with. Maybe the instructor was shoddy. Either way, there is no room for gray with something as potentially dangerous as climbing.
My gear is typically set up for redundancy, but this is something that I don't feel is very important. Sure, I want it to work, but 'good enough' is all I am looking for.

Bob, I recently read an article about the release of the first generation iPhone and how they couldn't get cell reception in the auditorium, so Jobs had a portable cell tower brought in back stage so that reception would be available for the demo. Apparently, there was a "golden path" he had to follow as well or the phone would crash. For that reason, he also had to have multiple iPhones which he secretly swapped out during the presentation, so that he could show all the features and make it look seamless and perfectly functional when in reality it was far from. I hear you on that aspect.
Article here for those interested:
http://www.techspot.com/news/54246-former-apple-engineer-reveals-secrets-behind-jobs-first-iphone-presentation.html

[Bob Gross]

"I only had to take a rappelling class to realize that I do not want to climb."

That's good. For some of the rest of us, it takes one thirty-foot fall.

As to Jobs, that is one reason why I don't own any Apple stock.

–B.G.–

[Jennifer Mitol]

That (mostly) sends out pings of your location to be followed on a computer screen at home, doesn't it?

[Author]

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