Hello everyone,

Quick question. I'm looking into getting an emergency communication device for a wide spread power outage.

Which service would you recommend? Spot, Delorme inReach, or a true satellite phone.

It will only be for very rare usage (unless comms go out here).

And are there small ham radios capable of Dxing yet?
I haven't kept up to date with current tech!


I apologize that this post is likely opening a can of worms.

Yours truly,
James

In recent power outages here (SoCal) the good ol' land line phone has continued to function...and its cheap!

Amateur radio is very flexible, and there are plenty of radios that can perform communication at a distance, some smaller than others. Depending on where you live, you may find that a five watt handheld can get you quite a bit of useful communication

I think I would need more information about your requirements, threats and budget to know which direction to recommend.

Location and geography would help too.

Threats: Mostly large scale / geological area power failures. The more independent the better.

Budget: $600 Max.

Multipurpose: Hope to be able to send txt messages when I'm out hiking in remote locations as an added useful bonus.

Location: Sudbury Ontario with camping trips to fly in locations throughout North/Ontario.

Hikermor Landlines did work during the massive power failure of ten years ago, but I'd like an additional layer of comms.

Ham would be ideal, but to Dx you always needed a car-size setup.

I think a satphone is out for you based on budget. They're expensive to buy and even more expensive to use.

If you're a licensed ham, then you should at least have a ham HT. There's a very inexpensive dual-bander from Baofeng (the UV-5R, about $30 shipped in the USA) that I've added to all of my kits for the use of the three hams in my household. If you are not a licensed ham, it's easy to become one, let me know here or via PM if you would like advice on getting started.

There are places on your list, though, where a ham HT is unlikely to work for your needs. You could put together a backpack ham rig that would, but that may be beyond your interest level/budget/weight limits. Based on what you've told us I think I would suggest the InReach. It might be good, though, if someone who owned an InReach would chime in.

(no affiliation with any companies mentioned here)

I need more to do more research, but at a glance, the DeLorme InReach - Goal Zero package is compelling. Not necessarily buying the package from DeLorme, but the capability of that package. I already have a Goal Zero Solar panel with USB output for charging.

http://www.mec.ca/product/5035-992/spot-global-phone/?q=satellite%2Bphone

MEC has a satellite phone for $499 $25 per month.

My concern is that all of these option require a base station somewhere on earth. No power at the base station means no relayed messages.

Thoughts?

Sounds like ham still isn't portable enough for my needs.

Not much in the way of options beyond ham radio and systems that rely on terrestrial phone or data switches.

As far as Globalstar's (SPOT) gateway earth stations are concerned, I would be very surprised if there was not triple redundancy involving keeping them powered. I never had any issues during the widespread outages caused by Florida hurricanes.