When I took up solo motorbike adventure riding, I bought the Garmin Explorer Plus. I never leave home without it. It saved an injured rider on the Canning Stock Route. Easy to use & an essential piece of kit.
I do dirt bike riding and 4WD. Carry both (PLB in 4WD or in my backpack when moto riding) and Garmin always on my harness close at hand - for the reasons you outlined. Great videos, love your attention to detail, factual analysis and presentation style.
Good video and info thank you. I had an Inreach explorer plus. Great for mapping, but bit clunky for others to reply to your messages. Sold it and got Garmin Messenger. My contacts have the messenger app on their phones...much easier.
We race in the AORC (Australian Offroad Racing Championship) We carry an Inreach mini 2 in the race car so we have comms all along the 220km course from Alice to Finke. Other races also drop in and out of 4G, So much easier to communicate with our recovery team if needed. (Our personal safety and location for the race is taken care of by RallySafe)
Loving your well researched and informative videos Stephan. Solid objective information. You have an Engineers way about you (I mean that in a nice way).
Great video as always. Ironic that the Thuraya network is currently down. Been this way for a week and will be for a while longer. Was in Coward Springs and could not figure out why no connection. Of course had the PLB for emergency.
Same here I was in the New England Tablelands and made a call one day with no problem, but the next day, he could not connect to the Network anymore has been down since; I also always have a PLB in the Centre console.
I've always carried an EPIRB in the 4wd as I like the greater transmission time and the dedicated strobe. Also, carry a PLB + Garmin i66 for hiking and in the 4wd (as a backup and in case there is some improptu hiking on a trip). Also have the 5W radios (mounted & handheld). Never bothered with a Satphone as the Garmin does what I need and it's cheaper. Good comparison though.
That is really great info to share, thanks very much. I actually reactiveated my defunct Amazon account to by a Garmin mini from your store. I only go locally in Canberra but even just 30 Km away in the Brindabella ranges there is no phone coverage.
I have travelled extensively with the Garmin InReach Mini 2. I've dropped it, been tossed off my motorcycle while wearing it. It's always worked after that. It interfaces nicely with the phone and my Garmin Zumo, but I really like that I can do everything on the device itself without the phone. I've never needed to trigger an SOS with it, but I use the preset messages (which are free) all the time when travelling. I set up 3 presets. Preset one, I use for check in / check out at the start and end of the day. This is sort of a proof of life for my family when I'm off grid. When I get to a camp site in the evening, I do the same check in message so they know where I'm staying. If I fail to check in, they will know something happened to me. My second preset is a "I'm having a minor problem" type message. Maybe this is some sort of mechanical issue I might be able to fix in the field. Once I get things fixed, I'll send another first preset message to sort of "clear" the concern. Third preset is a "I"m having a serious problem that requires mechanical assistance." This means I'll probably need a tow or recovery. I'll end up having to coordinate with them via the other messages so they can dispatch a tow or recovery service to me, but they will have my GPS location on a map. I especially like the weather forecast. The free weather is okay, but I will occasionally grab the premium weather which costs maybe $1 to grab if I am going some place where rain could be dangerous to make the track impassable. Always been happy with the device. I only pay for a month of service when I travel, and use the $35 (USD) yearly maintenance plan for the remaining 10 months of the year. My yearly cost on this is about $75USD give or take. There is some significant value in being able to communicate the nature of the injury, the age of the person, and provide additional information to help guide rescue resources to you. For instance, if rescue required high angle or rope rescue, extrication services etc, that might not be dispatched immediately depending on your local emergency services. While I suspect rescue services tries to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach, this might not be feasible for all hazards and thus the two way communication would be of huge value.
Having set off a PLB twice while on remote motorbike rides I thought I'd chip in with some more info. First incident a government plane (not sure what service) was diverted and overflew us back and forth for some time. I'm guessing it may have been coast watch (even though we were around 300km from the coast) as I was told that they had fairly high definition imagery of the incident scene. They left when fuel ran low. 2nd incident a Robinson helicopter that was mustering on a local station was the first on scene, they left not long after as there was no assistance they could provide, but it shows that even in a pretty remote area anybody and everybody will be mobilised. Not long after a twin engine light plane started overflying us. It was then that the first traffic on the road appeared, a convoy of rail workers trucks. The foreman pulled over and told me that the plane was trying to contact me on UHF40, so I was able to use his radio to communicate with emergency services (it was a medical transfer plane that had been diverted). This then allowed them to tailor their response to our situation. I would presume that if I'd had a radio at the first incident I would have been able to speak to the plane to let them know what had happened. UHF doesn't have a huge range normally but from ground up to a plane would be pretty good unless you were in heavy tree cover. So I now tell motorcyclists to consider carrying a small UHF as well as their PLB because it may just give you two way comms direct with your rescuers. Radios are not often carried by motorcyclists as they are close to impossible to use, even with helmet mounted speakers and mics.
What are your thoughts on the new Garmin Tread GPS with the inbuilt In-reach functions? Should be easier to send messages with the larger screen and seems to have nice mapping all in the one unit. Only downside seems to be the price.... Thanks
Keen to hear what your setup will be the if Thuraya outage is exteed/indefinite. We’ve enjoyed coverage from Thuraya for last 2.5 years while living and exploring in the Pilbara. We have a Kimberley trip planned for June and feeling uncomfortable without the sat phone available. Iridium and Inmarsat don’t present the same value and as a replacement we are wondering if we are better off with a Garmin in reach device or iridium sat phone.
Yes good question, I hope they will get a satellite back up for the time being will just do without a Sat phone but still have PLB and Garmin Inreach Mini 2
@@AlloffroadAu Yes well it is permanent and the other 2 solutions are ludicrously expensive. I think Inreach plus a PLB for serious emergencies and a starlink for not serious emergency 2 way coms might be the only viable option.
So if you had a PLB and a Garmin/zoleo could you set off both? If the PLB goes direct to Aussie emergency services. And then you can text the problem to your messenger service and also explain you have also set off a PLB.
UHF Repeaters need a mention. It is what the local station people use so you can be speaking to the nearby station workers. All UHF radios have this feature - just need to know how to use it. I carry a map of UHF repeaters in the outback areas I travel.
@@AlloffroadAu It just takes a little googling to find repeaters. This is the paper map I take in South Australia but given there are only 9 repeater channels then you can also try them one by one. southaustralia.com/media/tetlvg10/5505_4wd_tart_new-brochure.pdf
@@AlloffroadAu I feel a lot of our methods and knowledge from the past is ignored these days. 20-30 years ago, we got on fine with HF Radio and UHF repeaters - those modalities are still alive and well. But these days we have many more options which can be confusing. Have to admit though I like to play extra safe and take a satphone and PLB in case I roll the car and wipe out my aerials. Just lucky my satphone is Inmarsat and not Thuraya or Globalstar!
@RD11RT Thuraya was great while it lasted, cheap and worked every time I used it without an issue (4 1/2 yeas). Its now Defunct though ruclips.net/video/V1m3T08nEoI/видео.htmlsi=QFYRUm2FAhdrqKsI
@@AlloffroadAu thanks for the update, only recently sold mine but mainly because it was horrible coverage. I work with a government organisation and found thuraya to be the worst satellite company in terms of reliability. The only positive was price. Looks like you had good luck (until now). If you looked at their coverage and how their satellites worked it was pretty average. Not surprised they’ve pulled the pin.
Good question. I don’t think we do have to pay in Australia but I could be wrong. Here in Queensland, we pay a surcharge on our electricity bills for this.
A great feature of PLB is the helicopter can ping your PLB - you know it has pinged as the beep increases. Satellite phone is good as emergency services, including the helicopter, can call you direct for expedient communication. And you can tell them ‘hey, we can hear /see you’. We had an incident, waiting for helicopter, the pilot / crew rang our satellite phone, asked if we were the group below them - No, we could not hear them - I deduced they were in different creek to the south, so advised them head north to next creek. And yes, we had activated PLB and provided lat/lon to 000. So the satellite phone was very handy.
When I took up solo motorbike adventure riding, I bought the Garmin Explorer Plus. I never leave home without it. It saved an injured rider on the Canning Stock Route. Easy to use & an essential piece of kit.
I do dirt bike riding and 4WD. Carry both (PLB in 4WD or in my backpack when moto riding) and Garmin always on my harness close at hand - for the reasons you outlined. Great videos, love your attention to detail, factual analysis and presentation style.
Thanks for sharing!
I had reason to use the garmin inreach text feature whilst off-road, I also carry it when i am hiking. Don’t leave home it.
Good video and info thank you. I had an Inreach explorer plus. Great for mapping, but bit clunky for others to reply to your messages. Sold it and got Garmin Messenger. My contacts have the messenger app on their phones...much easier.
Thanks for the info!
We race in the AORC (Australian Offroad Racing Championship) We carry an Inreach mini 2 in the race car so we have comms all along the 220km course from Alice to Finke. Other races also drop in and out of 4G, So much easier to communicate with our recovery team if needed. (Our personal safety and location for the race is taken care of by RallySafe)
Yep, it's also my Favourite, but I use it next to a Gramin PLB, which is always in my centre console.
Loving your well researched and informative videos Stephan. Solid objective information. You have an Engineers way about you (I mean that in a nice way).
Great video as always. Ironic that the Thuraya network is currently down. Been this way for a week and will be for a while longer. Was in Coward Springs and could not figure out why no connection. Of course had the PLB for emergency.
Same here I was in the New England Tablelands and made a call one day with no problem, but the next day, he could not connect to the Network anymore has been down since; I also always have a PLB in the Centre console.
Great info,i will get a plb to back up my sat phone
yes, definitely good example is that at the moment the Thuraya Network in Australia is down so the satellite phones do not work.
Great video. Heaps of useful information.
Glad it was helpful!
Just an hi from Brazil to support you.
I've always carried an EPIRB in the 4wd as I like the greater transmission time and the dedicated strobe. Also, carry a PLB + Garmin i66 for hiking and in the 4wd (as a backup and in case there is some improptu hiking on a trip). Also have the 5W radios (mounted & handheld). Never bothered with a Satphone as the Garmin does what I need and it's cheaper. Good comparison though.
That is really great info to share, thanks very much. I actually reactiveated my defunct Amazon account to by a Garmin mini from your store. I only go locally in Canberra but even just 30 Km away in the Brindabella ranges there is no phone coverage.
Fantastic!
I have travelled extensively with the Garmin InReach Mini 2. I've dropped it, been tossed off my motorcycle while wearing it. It's always worked after that. It interfaces nicely with the phone and my Garmin Zumo, but I really like that I can do everything on the device itself without the phone. I've never needed to trigger an SOS with it, but I use the preset messages (which are free) all the time when travelling. I set up 3 presets. Preset one, I use for check in / check out at the start and end of the day. This is sort of a proof of life for my family when I'm off grid. When I get to a camp site in the evening, I do the same check in message so they know where I'm staying. If I fail to check in, they will know something happened to me.
My second preset is a "I'm having a minor problem" type message. Maybe this is some sort of mechanical issue I might be able to fix in the field. Once I get things fixed, I'll send another first preset message to sort of "clear" the concern.
Third preset is a "I"m having a serious problem that requires mechanical assistance." This means I'll probably need a tow or recovery. I'll end up having to coordinate with them via the other messages so they can dispatch a tow or recovery service to me, but they will have my GPS location on a map.
I especially like the weather forecast. The free weather is okay, but I will occasionally grab the premium weather which costs maybe $1 to grab if I am going some place where rain could be dangerous to make the track impassable.
Always been happy with the device. I only pay for a month of service when I travel, and use the $35 (USD) yearly maintenance plan for the remaining 10 months of the year. My yearly cost on this is about $75USD give or take.
There is some significant value in being able to communicate the nature of the injury, the age of the person, and provide additional information to help guide rescue resources to you. For instance, if rescue required high angle or rope rescue, extrication services etc, that might not be dispatched immediately depending on your local emergency services. While I suspect rescue services tries to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach, this might not be feasible for all hazards and thus the two way communication would be of huge value.
Having set off a PLB twice while on remote motorbike rides I thought I'd chip in with some more info. First incident a government plane (not sure what service) was diverted and overflew us back and forth for some time. I'm guessing it may have been coast watch (even though we were around 300km from the coast) as I was told that they had fairly high definition imagery of the incident scene. They left when fuel ran low.
2nd incident a Robinson helicopter that was mustering on a local station was the first on scene, they left not long after as there was no assistance they could provide, but it shows that even in a pretty remote area anybody and everybody will be mobilised. Not long after a twin engine light plane started overflying us. It was then that the first traffic on the road appeared, a convoy of rail workers trucks. The foreman pulled over and told me that the plane was trying to contact me on UHF40, so I was able to use his radio to communicate with emergency services (it was a medical transfer plane that had been diverted). This then allowed them to tailor their response to our situation.
I would presume that if I'd had a radio at the first incident I would have been able to speak to the plane to let them know what had happened. UHF doesn't have a huge range normally but from ground up to a plane would be pretty good unless you were in heavy tree cover. So I now tell motorcyclists to consider carrying a small UHF as well as their PLB because it may just give you two way comms direct with your rescuers. Radios are not often carried by motorcyclists as they are close to impossible to use, even with helmet mounted speakers and mics.
What are your thoughts on the new Garmin Tread GPS with the inbuilt In-reach functions? Should be easier to send messages with the larger screen and seems to have nice mapping all in the one unit. Only downside seems to be the price.... Thanks
The price would be forgotten when you need to use it.......
yea haven’t tried it, given a PLB or in-reach is so much cheaper and smaller rather uses my iPad and PLB and SatPhone
This would be a great device for Africa, using Tracks4Africa maps. Not so much for Australia
Keen to hear what your setup will be the if Thuraya outage is exteed/indefinite. We’ve enjoyed coverage from Thuraya for last 2.5 years while living and exploring in the Pilbara. We have a Kimberley trip planned for June and feeling uncomfortable without the sat phone available. Iridium and Inmarsat don’t present the same value and as a replacement we are wondering if we are better off with a Garmin in reach device or iridium sat phone.
Yes good question, I hope they will get a satellite back up for the time being will just do without a Sat phone but still have PLB and Garmin Inreach Mini 2
@@AlloffroadAu Yes well it is permanent and the other 2 solutions are ludicrously expensive. I think Inreach plus a PLB for serious emergencies and a starlink for not serious emergency 2 way coms might be the only viable option.
Very educational thanks
You're welcome
So if you had a PLB and a Garmin/zoleo could you set off both? If the PLB goes direct to Aussie emergency services. And then you can text the problem to your messenger service and also explain you have also set off a PLB.
you probably could but having both I first go Garmin second PLB if garmin does not work for wherever reason
UHF Repeaters need a mention. It is what the local station people use so you can be speaking to the nearby station workers. All UHF radios have this feature - just need to know how to use it. I carry a map of UHF repeaters in the outback areas I travel.
Good point didn't know there was a repeater map that sure would be handy to carry but there are many areas without repeaters
@@AlloffroadAu It just takes a little googling to find repeaters. This is the paper map I take in South Australia but given there are only 9 repeater channels then you can also try them one by one. southaustralia.com/media/tetlvg10/5505_4wd_tart_new-brochure.pdf
@@AlloffroadAu Yes, no repeaters through the middle of any deserts, but plenty in the station country adjacent.
@@AlloffroadAu I feel a lot of our methods and knowledge from the past is ignored these days. 20-30 years ago, we got on fine with HF Radio and UHF repeaters - those modalities are still alive and well. But these days we have many more options which can be confusing. Have to admit though I like to play extra safe and take a satphone and PLB in case I roll the car and wipe out my aerials. Just lucky my satphone is Inmarsat and not Thuraya or Globalstar!
Search and rescue craft and vehicles have citizen band UHF. Incoming/searching craft will attempt comms on UHF 5/35, ao worth having on in case of SOS
yep 👍 would say most 4wd have I guess for hiking depends how much you can carry
Thuraya is currently down in Australia. Pivotel have no idea when it will be back up.
yep just shows never rely on a Sat phone for emergency
Thuraya is rubbish do not recommend!
@RD11RT Thuraya was great while it lasted, cheap and worked every time I used it without an issue (4 1/2 yeas). Its now Defunct though ruclips.net/video/V1m3T08nEoI/видео.htmlsi=QFYRUm2FAhdrqKsI
@@AlloffroadAu thanks for the update, only recently sold mine but mainly because it was horrible coverage. I work with a government organisation and found thuraya to be the worst satellite company in terms of reliability. The only positive was price. Looks like you had good luck (until now).
If you looked at their coverage and how their satellites worked it was pretty average. Not surprised they’ve pulled the pin.
Hi, has anyone seen or used the “what 3 words” app??
you would only use it if you need to provide exact coordinates
If you have to be rescued do you have to pay for the rescue ?
no usually not
Good question. I don’t think we do have to pay in Australia but I could be wrong. Here in Queensland, we pay a surcharge on our electricity bills for this.
Other states may be different.
If it’s a genuine emergency…no 😁👍
No
A great feature of PLB is the helicopter can ping your PLB - you know it has pinged as the beep increases.
Satellite phone is good as emergency services, including the helicopter, can call you direct for expedient communication. And you can tell them ‘hey, we can hear /see you’. We had an incident, waiting for helicopter, the pilot / crew rang our satellite phone, asked if we were the group below them - No, we could not hear them - I deduced they were in different creek to the south, so advised them head north to next creek. And yes, we had activated PLB and provided lat/lon to 000. So the satellite phone was very handy.
yep Sat phone is great if it works but for instance Thuraya is down and no satellite phone is working at present, I also carry one as back up though