--- Quote from: Pinstriper on March 19, 2023, 06:28:21 PM ---I don't fool with pre-written messages. I just use it from my phone and text away. When I am adventuring, IDGAF about per message charges. I care about the message and I won't miss the extra $3 that month.
I have yet to use it from the water - in that setting it is really just an SOS or not situation, for me.
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here's where the very simple Mini and pre-loaded are so useful- Mini has 5 buttons- Action and Back (right side) and Up and Down (left side) plus Power (top).
you can see mine hanging there on my PFD, it's tiny and to send pre-loaded #1 takes a few seconds, goes like this:
that's it, not like I stop pedaling or fishing or spend time looking at the screen. Push the Action button 5 or 6 times and message #1 is sent.
I can use the Arrow buttons to change to a different Present and at 'Wait for GPS' the down arrow changes it to 'Send Now' (which is what I normally do since I'm just sending update messages).
Then, to do normal texting, bluetooth to my phone, open Earthmate app and it is absolutely the normal phone text interface that we all use all the time, it accesses all your contacts, shows the message threads, normal texting. The Mini just lets you do it where the phone isn't getting a signal.
cheers, roger
Pinstriper:
--- Quote from: Matt M on March 20, 2023, 07:19:04 AM ---Thanks for the insight on the Garmin IRM I too got one, actually for Christmas in 2019 and didn't realize how much I would use it, of course early 2020 it didn't get a ton of usage but since I have used it quite a bit to communicate with family and even some friends as well. I will say that while my experience has been mostly good you can't count on it for extremely **Timely** messages, in that I had tried to communicate with a buddy who also has an inreach and it took way too long to communicate back and forth the extent that it wasn't useful in that case. I will say that simply informing my wife of my whereabouts and safety it is fantastic and invaluable. Fortunately I haven't needed the SOS functionality but I am confident that it would work well in the event I needed it.
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Yeah, roundtrip isn't seconds/instant like we are used to with SMS, but I was getting responses in under 2 minutes, which in my situation was perfectly cromulent.
I will also say that when I had a Spot 3, I also had their roadside assistance, and my truck went into limp mode. I wanted to use the program, but had no way to know if they were coming, what the ETA was, or any way to tell them what help I needed. I finally got to where I had signal, and was able to look up the hotline number and called THAT. And found it would be about 4-6 hours before a tow truck got to me.
Not a knock on the service, but rather a commentary on the need for 2-way communication with any of these assistance programs, including - and perhaps especially - in an SOS situation.
Spot:
Great report/review Roger!
-Mark-
Captain Redbeard:
Wow, great information and report! I'll be really curious to hear what Garmin has to say about the wrong message sending - that is obviously hugely concerning.
I just got the Garmin InReach Mini 2 for Christmas and have been acclimating to it. I have, so far, only used it to send my track to my wife or friends when I'm off grid or on the water. Folks seem to enjoy watching my track live throughout the day. I haven't used the messaging yet. My primary use cases/needs are: SOS capability (the core reason for it), live tracking (fun), and lastly, messaging.
I had freshly charged it Saturday, turned it on when I started fishing and turned on tracking mode, put it in my PFD, forgot about it for 6 hours, and then turned it off - and it said it was at 97% battery. I don't know if that's accurate or not, but if so that is pretty amazing battery life considering that it is talking to satellites every 10 minutes (the interval for my live tracking).
When I haven't had any signal strength issues so far. It takes about 60 seconds for the tracking webpage to update after my new position is sent each time.
My brother has one of the older InReach units and has been similarly happy with it.
snopro:
--- Quote from: jed on March 19, 2023, 05:36:36 PM --- --- Quote from: snopro on March 19, 2023, 05:04:19 PM ---Thanks for the run down. I've been thinking about buying one.
I'm interested in your report on Garmin's analysis of the logs.
--- End quote --- I just got in an ACR Bivy Stick for the BCS this year ;)
--- End quote --- Now if I could just convince myself to launch out of Hewitt I might have a shot at that great prize. ;D