GPS trackers – education and recommendations needed

The short version is pretty much everyone agrees that InReach is the way to go. Good places to start include Skurka’s blog and reviews here. BPL’s master class is excellent once you decide to buy an InReach.

I went for the Zoleo because it was $200 as opposed to the $350 for the inreach mini, plus the monthly subscription for Zoleo is about $15/mo cheaper for an equivalent service tier until you get to the unlimited plan.

It does not have a screen like the mini, so if you do not bring your phone the only 2 functions are the preset message of “Im ok and my location is xx.xxxx xx.xxxx” to a designated contact or send an “SOS” to the emergency center.

If you have your phone you can connect to the Zoleo and 2 way text anyone in your contacts. Also if you have your phone you can text with emergency services after you send out the SOS.

Zoleo is the only ePLB I have used, but only have good things to say about it so far.

For decades I’ve been using satellite phones and handheld communicators, and watching the industry. Good background information in these BPL articles, and though many specific products have come and gone, the satellite systems targeting backpackers have barely changed in functionality:

Introduction – Two-Way Satellite Communications for Backpacking
https://backpackinglight.com/satellite_communications_sotmr_part1/

Satellite Phones
https://backpackinglight.com/satellite_communications_sotmr_part2/

Satellite Texting
https://backpackinglight.com/satellite_communications_sotmr_part3/

What Matthew said is true. And the inReach Mini is the way to go if you carry a smartphone while backpacking. It’s the lightest, it’s not too hard to use, and both Garmin and Iridium have earned good reputations over many years. You can use the Mini without a smartphone (or if your phone croaks), but sometimes requires extreme patience.

The inReach Mini goes on sale for $50 to $100 off once or twice a year. The last sale was around Thanksgiving, so the next might be spring 2021. It’s still a pretty good deal at list price.

Some newer, sleeker, but usually heavier devices also using Iridium satellites are starting to get good reviews, like the Zoleo – but the inReach Mini is still the one to beat IMHO.

Beware some devices with odd service plans – charges by the message and track point can add up quickly. But the inReach service plans are a little confusing and priced right at many people’s pain thresholds. I find their Freedom plans pretty handy because I can activate just for the months I need, but they just announced yearly fee increases. Sigh.

Features to consider: Reliable SOS is important, and so is a well-protected SOS button to prevent false alarms. Tracking can be important to keep others happy, and help rescuers find you if you are incapacitated. Lots of canned messages (way more than two or three) is very handy. Sending free-form text is impossible or painful from almost all devices unless you carry a smartphone. Mapping features on all satellite communicators are mediocre at best, use Gaia on a smartphone instead. Long-enough battery life is very desirable for shorter trips, but recharging from a USB battery bank works fine. Light weight is desirable, but a couple of ounces shouldn’t drive your decision.

Don’t be tempted by the cheaper but far less reliable and functional SPOT devices. And satellite phones are great for large group trips, guided trips, or especially risky trips, but are too heavy with too few features for most small trips.

Some interesting new satellite systems like Starlink are coming along, but so far they need much bigger antennas and a lot more power than practical for backpacking.

Hope this helps.

— Rex

The beauty of the inreach is that it is an active tracker.  it will send your position to a web page anyone you allow can see at the time interval you set.  This helps if I become incapacitated, like a fall, and cannot actively send a message or SOS.  No ok message that night to my wife, she sends the posse to the last location.  At least she can collect the insurance with a body!  Be sure you practice before you go.

I haven’t bought one yet, but the Somewear satellite communicator gets some good reviews.

I also think the inreach-to-inreach communications can be a big plus if you’re traveling with others who also have an inreach.

Forgot to add: Some devices, including the inReach Mini, let you easily update popular social media accounts from the backcountry.

A critical capability for many people; but for me and others, that’s a bug, not a feature.

— Rex

So it looks like InReach and Zoleo  are the best choices.

The biggest difference is inReach offers position tracking,  Zoleo doesn’t.  Zoleo offers more text messages than inReach. Zoleo  also allows sending messages through wifi and cell towers. Both SOS go through same service.  InReach doesn’t change for suspension of service,  Zoleo is $4 a month.

Basically let’s say you only need 3 months of coverage. For inReach your paying $140 for the entire year, that’s $35 for each of the 3 months of recreational plan and $35 for yearly subscription.

For Zoleo for 3 months of use for an entire year your paying $141

But if you go to the lower plans, inReach is a little cheaper. Yes I did a little rounding on the costs.

Guess the biggest thing is do you want position tracking or sending messages more than just a preset message. At the cheapest on both inReach only gives you 10 vs Zoleo gives 25.

Only thing I’m not sure about is for Zoleo sending messages over cell phone if it’s through your carrier or anyone’s.  I’m assuming it’s your since someone has to pay for it… but if it’s yours then if you have an unlimited plan it should be free from cell service.

Why doesn’t someone offer something for a weekend warrior who can only get out every couple months but doesn’t want to pay $140 a year!  Yes i know bivy stick is an option but for every text,  every position sent its a credit. So basically you pay $18 for 20 credits or $40 for 100 or $50 for unlimited that are good for 30 days.  They offer different SOS coverage as well which you have to pay for a membership that starts at $119.  So yeah not any cheaper.

I guess it’s all a matter of perspective, and maybe if you’re young enough, you think that these things should all just be available for a pittance. Everything is a $0.99 app … or free with ads. But for me, it’s incredible to have this reliable technology available in such a small footprint for a very reasonable price.

And another feature to consider …

Weather forecasts
The inReach can get localized weather forecasts built-in, or by using wx2inreach (my favorite) with a little more effort and flexibility. If you are backpacking and the skies and temperatures are changing fast, this can be very handy.

But if you use another two-way device that doesn’t support forecast delivery, you could ask a trusted home contact to check for you and send the abbreviated version.

— Rex

Costs

Satellite systems like these are incredibly expensive to build, launch, and operate. And rockets still blow up or fail to reach orbit regularly. And satellites only last 10-20 years, then you build and launch a new generation. See the Introduction article for some of the details.

For backpacker texting, there are essentially only two satellite systems in the running, and one (Iridium) is much better than the other. So almost a monopoly. And ads don’t work well in a couple hundred characters, and operating costs aren’t going down very fast.

Even portable satellite phones, which have a handful of competing systems, aren’t cheap or getting much cheaper.

And these are small markets getting smaller, with cell systems covering something like 90% of the world’s population, and expanding coverage deeper into rural areas.

Bottom line – backpacking satellite communications has been expensive for many years, and could stay that way for a while longer. The companies like Starlink planning to launch thousands of Internet satellites are targeting markets where power consumption isn’t a big issue.

— Rex

“InReach doesn’t change for suspension of service,  Zoleo is $4 a month.”

This is true for inReach plans in the USA, but not necessarily the case in other countries.  My inReach plan (in Canada), costs $4.15 per month when suspended (used to cost $3.10).

I also only pay for the data I use, so if I sign up for one of the monthly plans, and only use it for a week, I only pay for 25% of the monthly plan and then slide back on the suspended plan price.

I understand all that goes into it and why the cost is there. It’s an extremely comforting thing for peace of mind when not in civilization but for a budget conscience family especially when its one income it just adds pause to the purchase. It’s an added expense like a cellphone (ok cellphone almost not in today’s world when they are almost if not cheaper than a land line), let’s say cable TV instead of cellphone  that could easily be cut for financial purposes

@dan-s, im not young just very financially conscious on right now a single income family with 2 young kids in school

Josh – You have any hiking buddies with whom you could share the cost?  If you regularly hike with them it’s not an issue and they could take the inReach on a trip that you couldn’t make.

Like you, I’ll probably activate my inReach just 3-4 months a year at most and will probably only take 1 trip each of those months.  If you had friends who could use it, when you had activated it anyway, and gave you $20 per use it would drop your annual cost considerably.

@dan-s, im not young just very financially conscious on right now a single income family with 2 young kids in school

Respectfully, your budget and priorities, doesn’t change the fact that this is an expensive technology. As Rex explained, there are ongoing costs for these companies. Frankly, I’m pleasantly surprised that Garmin is able to offer something like the Freedom Plan.

Many of us hiked for decades without one, and that is still a viable option. Kevin’s idea is also a good one, perhaps you can piggyback on a friend, until a satellite plan fits into your budget.

I never said it did, in fact I said I understood why the cost.  For me personally it puts a pause in buying one because of my situation,  it would be nice if it was cheaper but I understand why its not.

I was saying I’m not a young person who expects everything to be cheap. I get why things cost what they do. Before being unemployed I was an engineer in a manufacturing industry for over 15 years so I get the cost of manufacturing,  up keep and all the stuff that goes into technology.

I’ve been going out with out on for a long time,  I was looking at them for piece of mind for my wife more than mine.

And yes the idea of sharing one is great one, unfortunately I don’t have friends who enjoy my backpacking hobbies like I do so majority of the time I’m solo

Josh – Where do you hike?  I found a number of hiking partners on BPL that I hike with (including Bob Moulder for those of you who remember him).  You might be surprised to learn that there are BPL members or aren’t too far away from you or who hike where you do.

I live in Northern IN, so I have to travel 3+ hrs to hike any where that is of distance longer than 4 miles.  With that being said so far the only places I’ve to are in Michigan in the Manistee National Forrest or in Southern Indiana.

Gotcha – Some of my hiking buddies live in Cleveland but do almost all of their backpacking in PA (where I live).  It works well, but they almost always have the 3+ hour drive to the trailhead.  Depending on where we’re hiking I do too.

I realize I’m a little late to the party, just wanted to add my pick, based on my own experience. Like you, my spouse (husband) feels much better when I’m on a trip if I can at least send SOME signal that I’m ok, so I feel our circumstances are pretty similar. Most of the places I go in AR I’ll lose service, and I didn’t have the $ to shell out on an expensive unit. I bought a preowned 1st generation Spot on eBay for $20, and the monthly service wasn’t bad – maybe $12/month. It would only send the preset messages, but that was all we really needed it to do. The problem was that I wouldn’t know if it would actually go through until I returned to civilization, and there were several times it didn’t go through when I felt it should have. For example, I was at the Buffalo River for one night a few weeks ago, sent 3 “I’m okay” messages, and only the last one (when I was packing up to leave) went through. I always make sure I have a clear view of the sky when I send messages, and I wasn’t in a canyon, valley, etc. It’s not the first time this has happened, but it’s definitely the first time I’ve experienced a 2 out of 3 failure rate. My brother decided to buy me the GPS unit of my choosing for Christmas, up to $400-$500, and I chose the InReach mini. The lighter weight (my Spot is around 7oz) and additional features are nice, but what’s important to me is knowing that my ping goes through, and I’ve read that the InReach uses a more reliable network. Not much good in carrying one if it’s not reliable.

Adventure Alan did a review of satellite testers several months ago, and pointed out that the overall cost of ownership depends more on the data plan than the cost of the device. But the data plan you need depends on how you’ll be using the device, so it’s hard to compare overall costs between devices.

You might take a look at the BivyStick blue. It’s light, no maintenance fees, and the cheapest plan is $18 for 20 messages good for 30 days. But preset check-in messages are free. Only one preset, though, compared to three with the inReach.

The SatPaq is another possibility if you don’t mind aiming it at a geostationary satellite. The cheapest plan is $55 fo 150 messages that are good for one year. No free presets, though.

I will likely get the full size In-Reach to replace my old Garmin Colorado AND my SPOT gen. 3 beacon. Not item for both functions.

Sounds like a good deal because I do NOT want to carry my iPhone as well, with its short battery life and extra weight.