Delorme inReach SE

[cjhfield]

Also they are waiving the connection fee of $30 for the rest of the year. Not sure how often specials like that come along.

Chris

[2shoes]

Has anyone successfully signed up for a US plan? I'd like to access the Freedom plan, and haven't bought my inReach (yet).

..so I'm trying to work out if I should buy locally or overseas (will it affect my choices?), and if I can register in the US without living there?

Very confused!

[photohiker]

I have a US plan, but I signed up before there was any Delorme distribution in Australia. Maybe if you have a US address, friend or relative it would help?

[cjhfield]

There is a comment on one of the 4WD sites that They had "good info" that Pivotel,are going to introduce a freedom plan early next year. Of course the devil is in the detail of the plan even if it eventuates. I don't remember where I read that . It was recent and there was no other detail in the post.

I bought one for a trip in SW Tas in Jan where I really need to have a way of being contacted by my kids in an emergency while they are overseas. I will expect I will only switch it on for 2 or 3 months per year.

I dislike these pricing models which are mobile phone plans - designed to confuse. The Yellow Brick device costs more up front but has a strong reputation from offshore sailors and has a very transparent cost structure - you buy credit which never expires and each message costs a unit price whenever you choose. But it is twice the price and is heavier ( though very impressive battery life) and is not linked to an emergency response group ( though if you carry a PLB that is perhaps irrelevant). I did some calcualtions of total cost of ownership over 3 and 5 years and the Yellow Brick was a little cheaper for my predicted usage. But I would be out of pocket more up front and the plans are changing a lot so you don't know what the costs would be in say 2 years. I liked that with the Yellow Brick I could take it away for a weekend even if I didn't think I would need it but with the Inreach the switch on cost would probably mean I would not use it so would actually get less value out of the hardware. The new plans might change that. Ultimately my wife, who is a weight weenie, said get the lighter one. So I did.

I have used the Inreach for 2 weeks and am happy with it. Build quality is good. It does need a reasonable view of the sky but it sends and receives messages and tracking points as expected. It did not send a message under tree cover at the Barrington Tops. It got a GPS lock in the forrest but the tracking points were not transmitted until I reached a more open area. A limitation is that you cannot just give out an email address to people who may need to contact you. You have to actually send them a message and then they can reply to it. This saves you from the dire costs of spam email arriving on your Inreach. However there is a nice guy in Montreal who has a free service setting up a Gmail address that gets forwarded to your Inreach so there is a work around if you need that functionality. He says spam is not a problem but if you are paranoid you can restrict messages to only those on your white list or even require a keyword in the subject line to be allowed to be forwarded. I don't have the link here but I could find it if you need it.

HTH

Chris

[cjhfield]

As far as setting up a US account it can be done as per JJ58's post in this thread. But when you add the extra costs of maintaining a US address credit card and the weaker dollar and the now better plans in Aus I didn't think it worth the complexity. If you buy a US Inreach and try and sign up with Pivotel they hit you with a huge fee - $170 I think - I don't know how they can justify that and I think they are subject to the Telecommunications Ombudsman - it sounds like an anticompetitive practice to me, but they have a monopoly of sorts I guess and can do what they like. Telecommunications is still the Wild West. All the telcos get away with outrageous practices that would be illegal in any other area of retailing. But apart from that fee I am not criticising Pivotel who seem to have an OK reputation. Telcos in general sell handsets at or below cost and make up the difference with plans that sound better than they are and deliver less than you expect. Yellow Brick show that it doesn't have to be that way.

Chris