Just wanted to drop a huge thanks for inspiring me to go out and get an RTL-SDR for weather satellites. It came in the mail today and now I''m just waiting for NOAA 15 to get close. Keep up the great content!
Happy to throw a few bucks on Patreon to pay for a small portion of the monthly bill for the spot! Seeing the results of you trying it out is a good value to me!
You can hack device just look into the chip firmware and swap the test message (of course you need to write some program that can send this swapped message on device and device will send it through the sat network) with a custom message, somehow. Free messages no charge.
I had a Spot for years. We traveled a lot from the Midwest to the West coast and back, and parts of Montana and Idaho had no cell service back then. So, we used it to keep our family informed. Never used it for an emergency, but it did work, and came in handy. But, needs changed, and I cancelled it. My iPhone does work on satellite. Oregon gets very rural🤣🤣
@@saveitforparts question? Are you going to do a “year recap” video? The one you did last year was amazing and super nostalgic. If you are please do it in the same style, it felt like a lost gem from RUclips’s past that you had tapped into. Thanks!
Also thanks on behalf of viewers like me who'd like to support but aren't in a position to do so (disability welfare). This is one of the few channels on YT where I see a new video, I click - always something interesting!
I always enjoy these presentations.Especially the part where you crack it open and look what's inside! Thank you for doing this because for a large amount of us Don't have the tools or the confidence to do such things. Just because it's not mainstream doesn't mean it's not cool or applicable.This could be easily used by a child that needs a check in when away. Please keep taking on the adventures so that we may enjoy them for the rest of our lives
Love your channel! I havent jumped into RF and Satellite stuff yet, but really enjoy your videos. It's cool finding a channel with no politics or controversial stuff. Just exciting, inexpensive awesome technology. You have a calming voice and demeanor, so i create a long playlist at night and sleep to it.
Globalstar has an earth-station just outside of where I live, and in fact when they did a dish upgrade a few years back, we were able to buy one of their 18.5ft dishes for basically scrap value. Unfortunately, the design was very very heavy and we never got it deployed. We ended up sending it back fro scrap before moving to the Carp facility a few years back :( I always had fantasies that if/when Globalstar Canada went belly-up, we could buy their site for pennies on the dollar :)
@@saveitforparts Once I figured out who to talk to, I got a brief tour of the site while they were in the upgrade, and could see *why* they were upgrading. The antenna reflector design was exceedingly heavy for its size, and the drive system simply wasn't up to the task--no counter-weights. Just brute force and ignorance. The new antennas were much lighter, and the drive system much more sensible. They even replaced the original radomes with somewhat smaller ones.
@@patchvonbraunOh nice, I heard they upgraded all of their ground stations once Apple started funding them. I used to use a Globalstar phone and I noticed the signal improved quite a bit after the upgrades. Now everyone is on Starlink now so I have no idea what they’re gonna do with that service. Globalstar will probably switch to just IOT packet based data just like Iridium mostly has.
Another awesome video Gabe I noticed my APRS TNC controller that has built in GPS located in. It does the same thing when I’m stationary it bounces between about 5 to 10‘ 73 have a good one
I think you are right with your predictions of cell phones eventually replacing these devices. I had the chance to use two way text messaging from an iPhone here in northern Ontario recently and it was completely seamless. The person I was messaging had no idea the messages had been routed by satellite until I told them. My inReach will not likely be activated EVER again now. Cool video looking into the Spot. Cheers VE3OSF
I use the SpotX for several years now. It is $11.95 per month and supports 2-way messaging. 20 per month included, $0.25 each after that. I never go over. Took it around the world last year on a 75,000 mile voyage. Some countries do not allow them. iphones only for SOS and only on about half of the Global Star constellations.
I was intrigued by your mention of countries that don't allow sat messaging. I can understand those in war zones... but Thailand? Vietnam? India? Pretty stupid, in my opinion, regardless of any 'reasons' they might have. Gotta love that ooga booga primitive thinking and how silly it looks in our modern world. smh.
@@LuMaxQFPV It's for authoritarianism, can't have coms devices that we can't block or override at will. For ex, it's illegal to criticise the king in Thailand
We used to have theese for lone working in forestry in the north of England, they were more rugged than a phone and were great peace of mind when we were out in the woods.
I was working for an av install company a few years back and we installed a lot of equipment for globalstar's new headquarters in louisiana. It's a pretty interesting company
Axonn was/is an R&D company making small scale devices for tracking using satellites. Their market is obviously shrinking quite a bit, but for a while they were making the world's smallest Industrial grade satellite transceiver in the early 2000s
Happy New Year! I wish you good health and much success. I’m already very excited to see the videos. There’s so much out there-these are fascinating devices. If it were possible to attach such a device to a Bigfoot, you could track it with ease.
I have one of the now older 2 way models. I got it when I went on sailing trips in remote Canada. It gave me and my friends and family peace of mind and allows us to coordinate pick up when I reach my end. These days that area is getting better and better cell coverage but I still use it every year on my trip. When I got this like 5-6 years back this and the Garmin I reach system where really the only 2 options available to me. It's just nice if you are in an area with no cell coverage like much of Canada is.
I wish you a great start into the new year. I really like your style and videos, thank you for your effort. Keep going and i wish you all the best for 2025!🎉
Axonn existed from 1985 to 2009. Bought up by Globalstar. The CEO was someone called Dave Biggs. Other key people were Allain Gagnet CFO N/A Chad Holsinger VP - Sales, Marketing N/A Walter Debus Dir. - Engineering N/A
with most monthy subscriptions services you can cancel the same day and the service will continue for the remainder of the month. better than trying to remember to cancel later
I thought about one of these for a interstate motorcycle trip, but baulked at the price. It is good that you don't need to fiddle with a phone if you need to call for help.
I had the first generation spot system, in fact, I was one of their so-called ambassadors. For its time, it was terrific for the off-road motorcycle community . However, as you mentioned, with the advent of Apple devices being able to send satellite SOS signals, they have really become null and void.
Pretty cool to see satellite tech getting integrated into phones; I expect it'll take a few years for me to eventually give up my Garmin InReach though. These spot devices are a pretty neat "inexpensive" alternative to the more full featured InReach device / service though! It's always nice to be able to get a message out confirming that you're okay when exploring very rural places.
We both have high end technology that early adopters had, the difference is the price! Cool video, interesting to see this in action. It’s definitely a specific use case, not an everyday thing but helpful to have if you need it. Not sure if you’d be able to reuse the older ones, but it would be cool to see them working with a custom setup!
We use Spot trackers at work, they work well enough for their intended purpose. While phones might be replicating their functionality, having a dedicated rugged device you can just switch on and clip to someone is better.
Yeah. I doubt these things will ever truly be phased out. I'd still use a standalone device. Ultimately, who knows what these phone providers will charge for satellite services anyway. The costs might be the same or so similar that it's personal choice. Besides, some of these companies (I know garmin does) also sell "insurance" that they cover some costs of rescues if you use it.
I used to use a spot when i hunt backcountry montana. The message system is extremely slow (send the ore-texted message and it could take over 8 hours to get) and for what they charge a month it just wasn’t worth it, especially with todays technology.
So glad Apple is going to put a major dent into Spot! Their greed and lack of communication is appalling. I think Spot will go like the song, " Why don't you all f-fade away?
At about 02:29 in this video: *_'There is a subscription fee, a monthly fee, there's a activation fee..."_* In other words they really hit you in the FEE-FEEs...😉
Used one to track my weather balloon launches, it would sit between the payload and balloon, I used lithium ion batteries since they can run in extreme temperatures. I heated them anyway just in case. It was placed to run it between the payload and chute. payload and it had a gyro i built to always keep it pointing up.
That subscription is really expensive the Garmin little satellite communicator thingy is only 15 bucks a month for satellite communication and 40 bucks for the search and rescue insurance
6:21 I know it says Axonn (2 n's) but there is also Axon (one n), which has similar types of services, I wonder if it was an attempted unofficial offshoot of them or vice versa.
7:50 suggestions for how to use it... Perhaps it can be flashed with a firmware to fake out SPOT into thinking it's a newer generation? Checkout what matt brown does on RUclips
Pretty comforting to know that if you are buried under an avalanche they will only have to dig out a few thousand cubic yards of ice and snow to find you in that 50-100 foot radius.
Got one of these MANY years ago included in the package for my Delorme PN-60W GPS unit. Spent about 4 months trying to activate it and not even Spot knew how to make it work. Nothing wrong with the hardware, their system was just buggy and problematic. This was probably 12+ years ago, so likely a gen 1 device (it was all black, didn't have the same dimensions/look as the units that you have). I finally gave up and recycled it, never having been able to activate it.
I've been a long-time Spot user, and you've definitely had best-case responses for the time to send a message. It can often take 5-10 minutes for a message to actually get acknowledged by the satellite. I have a 2-way version, and I use it for sending messages to my wife while I'm flying small planes. It's typical to not have cell phone coverage a lot of the time, and getting a quick message out is a huge help. I'm interested in what they're doing with cellphones for satellite messaging, but I like having a home button, so I'll only ever get that if apple decides to release another iPhone SE variant with that functionality. I'm not holding my breath.
I'm still trying to find something like that myself. So far the best one I've found was a security camera pan/tilt mount controlled by the Sarcnet rotator system (ruclips.net/video/8Gz17Mv7RU0/видео.html)
My iPhone can text via satellite now, I use it all the time when I go camping. Very fast too, I've even texted another iPhone that was also using satellite.
I suggest hitting the 911 help emergency buttons on the two older ones. Be sure to do it away from home,watched at a distance. See if they still actually fetch help , for someone else . Wink
seguramente se puede reprogramar, si tiene un puerto, y las hojas de datos del prosesador, y el circuito, y mucho conocimiento de programacion de microcontroladores (yo no la tengo)
I don't think its fair to say its a "rip off" to pay for a service like this when a majority of their users, even the casual user are relying on these for use in the back country when hiking, off roading or similar. Not for "fun" but rather for emergency messaging in case they are stranded or have a medical emergency. It's hard to put a price on that and really its a pretty fair price for that sort of peace of mind.
To each their own. The monthly charge isn't too bad but all the extra fees are just for the company to make more money. If it was really about piece of mind they could easily charge less and still make plenty of money off new hardware sales and reasonable subscription rates. The infrastructure is already in place and mostly paid by this point.
@@sandmanxo There is no argument from me that some of the extra fees are questionable. However, Spot and by extension Globalstar don't make money off of the hardware they sell, they make money and in turn keep satellites operating by way of ongoing service fees. This is no different than mobile phone providers, ISP's, etc. It's all about cost / investment recovery. In terms of your comment around the infrastructure already being in place; It's not like Globalstar just launched one set of satellites back in 1991 and they were "good to go" for the next 50 years. No, at least every decade they need to spend $100's of million on new satellites, while the previous generations go end of life. Their latest generation of satellites to go up will support direct-to-cell services so as mentioned in the video, this service will likely become obsolete... With that said, if you don't like the price, and all of the value added features that come with the service plan, then don't buy it. Go buy a personal locator beacon (PLB). If you need emergency / rescue "peace of mind", then there is no service fee involved with a PLB, just the initial hardware cost.
An iPhone 14 or newer already offers limited satellite functionality, sadly limited to a limited coverage area. (North America, parts of Europe and Australia, probably Japan too) Pixels may have it too, but probably more limited coverage than iPhones 😭 Samsung I have no idea. Huawei have being offering something like that in China, but information of real world usage is restricted mostly by language barrier.
This feature is currently available in the US only (except Hawaii and Alaska). This feature is available on Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold only. huh, didn't know they added that to the latest generation of pixels. shame it's so ameri-centric.
iPhones can already send and receive iMessages and text messages over satellite for free (few caveats for the SMS receive). it will only let you connect if there's actually no cellular signal available and is completely free (at least for now)
Такие маяки хороши только высокой автономностью в сравнении с сотовым телефоном, а стоимость обслуживания высокая потому что спутники большие. С переходом на CUBE-SAT форм фактор спутников может быть уменьшит стоимость обслуживания. У нас пока спутниковая связь дорогая.
Hmm... I'd have to dig it out - it's not charged but it's in the RV which means I could charge it - but I have a satellite phone. It's not a large monthly fee, though it covers something like 30 minutes per month. Point being, it's not expensive (for me and my financial situation) and worth just ignoring for when I need it. I want to say it's under $20 per month. It's not much more than that, if it's more than that. I can dial in and add more minutes as needed and that phone call is free. I want to say emergency calls are also free and that the satellite company is required to pass my location data along with it when it hands off a 911 call. I last had it in the RV so I'm 99% sure that's where it is. If it isn't there, I'm gonna have to buy a new one soon because the missus and I are about to engage in some needed wanderlust. I've had the RV since I bought it new in 2007. I've put less than 10k miles on it. It's a damned shame so we're going to just head on out and waste some fuel. I'll have Starlink so I'll have better internet than I actually have at home. Imagine that!
Just wanted to drop a huge thanks for inspiring me to go out and get an RTL-SDR for weather satellites. It came in the mail today and now I''m just waiting for NOAA 15 to get close.
Keep up the great content!
get a 10 meter radio and some speaker wire before the band closes
Happy to throw a few bucks on Patreon to pay for a small portion of the monthly bill for the spot! Seeing the results of you trying it out is a good value to me!
Thanks!
You can hack device just look into the chip firmware and swap the test message (of course you need to write some program that can send this swapped message on device and device will send it through the sat network) with a custom message, somehow. Free messages no charge.
I had a Spot for years. We traveled a lot from the Midwest to the West coast and back, and parts of Montana and Idaho had no cell service back then. So, we used it to keep our family informed. Never used it for an emergency, but it did work, and came in handy. But, needs changed, and I cancelled it. My iPhone does work on satellite. Oregon gets very rural🤣🤣
@@saveitforparts question? Are you going to do a “year recap” video? The one you did last year was amazing and super nostalgic. If you are please do it in the same style, it felt like a lost gem from RUclips’s past that you had tapped into. Thanks!
Also thanks on behalf of viewers like me who'd like to support but aren't in a position to do so (disability welfare). This is one of the few channels on YT where I see a new video, I click - always something interesting!
That train ride is great. I did the Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle a few years ago. Hope you had a good ride!
I always enjoy these presentations.Especially the part where you crack it open and look what's inside! Thank you for doing this because for a large amount of us Don't have the tools or the confidence to do such things. Just because it's not mainstream doesn't mean it's not cool or applicable.This could be easily used by a child that needs a check in when away. Please keep taking on the adventures so that we may enjoy them for the rest of our lives
I hope you make it big man. you have the perfect temperament and your content is always engaging. Keep up the work
Thanks!
Thanks for the support!
This dude has one of the most interesting channels I'm subscribed to, and I'm subscribed to a *LOT.* ✅
Thanks! Glad you like it :-)
Love your channel! I havent jumped into RF and Satellite stuff yet, but really enjoy your videos. It's cool finding a channel with no politics or controversial stuff. Just exciting, inexpensive awesome technology. You have a calming voice and demeanor, so i create a long playlist at night and sleep to it.
Glad to hear my videos make people sleep 😂 Seriously though that's cool, thanks!
@@ajskyman1 this is what youtube was like 10 years ago
@@saveitforparts haha, I promise I meant it as a compliment! Thank you, keep doing what you do!
@@manonamission2000 wow, those were the days, weren't they?
Globalstar has an earth-station just outside of where I live, and in fact when they did a dish upgrade a few years back, we were able to buy one of their 18.5ft dishes for basically scrap value. Unfortunately, the design was very very heavy and we never got it deployed. We ended up sending it back fro scrap before moving to the Carp facility a few years back :( I always had fantasies that if/when Globalstar Canada went belly-up, we could buy their site for pennies on the dollar :)
Interesting! I know there are some ground stations for various providers around here, but they tend to be somewhat secretive and not open to visits.
@@saveitforparts Once I figured out who to talk to, I got a brief tour of the site while they were in the upgrade, and could see *why* they were upgrading. The antenna reflector design was exceedingly heavy for its size, and the drive system simply wasn't up to the task--no counter-weights. Just brute force and ignorance. The new antennas were much lighter, and the drive system much more sensible. They even replaced the original radomes with somewhat smaller ones.
Was this at the High River, Alberta facility?
@ no. Smiths falls.
@@patchvonbraunOh nice, I heard they upgraded all of their ground stations once Apple started funding them. I used to use a Globalstar phone and I noticed the signal improved quite a bit after the upgrades. Now everyone is on Starlink now so I have no idea what they’re gonna do with that service. Globalstar will probably switch to just IOT packet based data just like Iridium mostly has.
Another awesome video Gabe I noticed my APRS TNC controller that has built in GPS located in. It does the same thing when I’m stationary it bounces between about 5 to 10‘ 73 have a good one
I think you are right with your predictions of cell phones eventually replacing these devices. I had the chance to use two way text messaging from an iPhone here in northern Ontario recently and it was completely seamless. The person I was messaging had no idea the messages had been routed by satellite until I told them. My inReach will not likely be activated EVER again now.
Cool video looking into the Spot. Cheers VE3OSF
I use the SpotX for several years now. It is $11.95 per month and supports 2-way messaging. 20 per month included, $0.25 each after that. I never go over. Took it around the world last year on a 75,000 mile voyage. Some countries do not allow them. iphones only for SOS and only on about half of the Global Star constellations.
I just purchased a spot x used for $100! I haven't activated it yet. I plan on using it this next summer for backcountry camping in Canada!
It's so beyond stupid to me how some countries outlawed Sat devices like these
I was intrigued by your mention of countries that don't allow sat messaging. I can understand those in war zones... but Thailand? Vietnam? India? Pretty stupid, in my opinion, regardless of any 'reasons' they might have. Gotta love that ooga booga primitive thinking and how silly it looks in our modern world. smh.
"Some countries do not allow them"
as in, if they find them in your baggage at the border they'll make you throw it away or something?
@@LuMaxQFPV It's for authoritarianism, can't have coms devices that we can't block or override at will. For ex, it's illegal to criticise the king in Thailand
I have a spotx. It’s great. Helped me for many years in the areas around here where we don’t have cell service.
We used to have theese for lone working in forestry in the north of England, they were more rugged than a phone and were great peace of mind when we were out in the woods.
I was working for an av install company a few years back and we installed a lot of equipment for globalstar's new headquarters in louisiana. It's a pretty interesting company
Also pretty sure apple uses globalstar for the iPhone coms
You are on your way of being a reliable full time tech reviewer 😂😂😂😂
Axonn was/is an R&D company making small scale devices for tracking using satellites. Their market is obviously shrinking quite a bit, but for a while they were making the world's smallest Industrial grade satellite transceiver in the early 2000s
Happy New Year! I wish you good health and much success. I’m already very excited to see the videos.
There’s so much out there-these are fascinating devices. If it were possible to attach such a device to a Bigfoot, you could track it with ease.
I have one of the now older 2 way models. I got it when I went on sailing trips in remote Canada. It gave me and my friends and family peace of mind and allows us to coordinate pick up when I reach my end. These days that area is getting better and better cell coverage but I still use it every year on my trip. When I got this like 5-6 years back this and the Garmin I reach system where really the only 2 options available to me. It's just nice if you are in an area with no cell coverage like much of Canada is.
I wish you a great start into the new year. I really like your style and videos, thank you for your effort. Keep going and i wish you all the best for 2025!🎉
Axonn existed from 1985 to 2009. Bought up by Globalstar. The CEO was someone called Dave Biggs. Other key people were
Allain Gagnet CFO N/A
Chad Holsinger VP - Sales, Marketing N/A
Walter Debus Dir. - Engineering N/A
How do you know ?
Publicly available corporate data, I'd imagine
@@coreybabcock2025 Google or Bing is your friend. Let me look. 2 seconds later. Used Bing. CrunchBase is where I got the info.
with most monthy subscriptions services you can cancel the same day and the service will continue for the remainder of the month. better than trying to remember to cancel later
Oooh I've wanted to get one for ages, nice video!
Regarding what Gabe says, starting at about 01:50 in this video:
I still ain't buying an iPhone...🤭
Very informative. This newer stuff will be needed by those body suit flying people. I liked the Ham Shack view way better Gabe!
I thought about one of these for a interstate motorcycle trip, but baulked at the price. It is good that you don't need to fiddle with a phone if you need to call for help.
happy new year!
I had the first generation spot system, in fact, I was one of their so-called ambassadors. For its time, it was terrific for the off-road motorcycle community . However, as you mentioned, with the advent of Apple devices being able to send satellite SOS signals, they have really become null and void.
Hello from Russia. From the Urals.
As a bionicle lore buff I definitely apricated the "do-gooder" joke on Axonn's page.
Pretty cool to see satellite tech getting integrated into phones; I expect it'll take a few years for me to eventually give up my Garmin InReach though. These spot devices are a pretty neat "inexpensive" alternative to the more full featured InReach device / service though! It's always nice to be able to get a message out confirming that you're okay when exploring very rural places.
We both have high end technology that early adopters had, the difference is the price! Cool video, interesting to see this in action. It’s definitely a specific use case, not an everyday thing but helpful to have if you need it. Not sure if you’d be able to reuse the older ones, but it would be cool to see them working with a custom setup!
We use Spot trackers at work, they work well enough for their intended purpose. While phones might be replicating their functionality, having a dedicated rugged device you can just switch on and clip to someone is better.
Yeah. I doubt these things will ever truly be phased out. I'd still use a standalone device.
Ultimately, who knows what these phone providers will charge for satellite services anyway. The costs might be the same or so similar that it's personal choice.
Besides, some of these companies (I know garmin does) also sell "insurance" that they cover some costs of rescues if you use it.
SnowPiercer train signals analysis trail-run :)
LOL satellite view of my local train station!
I used to use a spot when i hunt backcountry montana. The message system is extremely slow (send the ore-texted message and it could take over 8 hours to get) and for what they charge a month it just wasn’t worth it, especially with todays technology.
You gotta figure out contacting the PR department of the faceless corporate entities
3:15 wow didnt know gps listened for emergency signals or anything. Cool
I should do a video on that, it's been on my list for a while.
I still got my version one somewhere never had to use it... still have the original box too, I sure hope you help find out some way to make it useful.
So glad Apple is going to put a major dent into Spot! Their greed and lack of communication is appalling. I think Spot will go like the song, " Why don't you all f-fade away?
Nice!
I have the Motorola Defy Sat messenger which seems to be the Gen3 of Spot and it uses Skylo/Echostar/has no fees beyond monthly message limits
Nice overview video, how did your T-Beam perform on LoRa, God bless.
The T-beam works pretty well. I didn't see too many other Mesh users along that route but there were a few!
At about 02:29 in this video:
*_'There is a subscription fee, a monthly fee, there's a activation fee..."_*
In other words they really hit you in the FEE-FEEs...😉
@@Allan_aka_RocKITEman you should see xm radio.
Used one to track my weather balloon launches, it would sit between the payload and balloon, I used lithium ion batteries since they can run in extreme temperatures. I heated them anyway just in case. It was placed to run it between the payload and chute. payload and it had a gyro i built to always keep it pointing up.
That subscription is really expensive the Garmin little satellite communicator thingy is only 15 bucks a month for satellite communication and 40 bucks for the search and rescue insurance
This video made me think of that. I wonder what satellite do they use to achieve that.
depending on your location, that little communicator new costs over 200 bucks.
@@anantakesharipanda4085 It is the Iridum satalite network.
@@juslitor Yea that is the garmin tax they make good products but gosh do the prices match.
6:21 I know it says Axonn (2 n's) but there is also Axon (one n), which has similar types of services, I wonder if it was an attempted unofficial offshoot of them or vice versa.
7:50 suggestions for how to use it... Perhaps it can be flashed with a firmware to fake out SPOT into thinking it's a newer generation? Checkout what matt brown does on RUclips
Interesting! Could be worth a try.
you should program all the custom buttons to say "yo"
At 12 minutes, did the auto-renew have a checkbox next to it? Were those boxes required to be checked, or could you not agree to the auto-renew?
I think everything was required to auto-renew. Kind of a scummy subscription model.
Pretty comforting to know that if you are buried under an avalanche they will only have to dig out a few thousand cubic yards of ice and snow to find you in that 50-100 foot radius.
you didnt happen to get a better photo of the circuit board on the one you opened did you? curius about the 6 pins at the top at 6:46
I didn't take any other pictures, sorry!
I reckon that you did OK getting it working from a train. Great old tech but as you say, totally bypassed by the newer smartphones.
Got one of these MANY years ago included in the package for my Delorme PN-60W GPS unit. Spent about 4 months trying to activate it and not even Spot knew how to make it work. Nothing wrong with the hardware, their system was just buggy and problematic. This was probably 12+ years ago, so likely a gen 1 device (it was all black, didn't have the same dimensions/look as the units that you have). I finally gave up and recycled it, never having been able to activate it.
Are there any C band satellites that still work?
There are some TV satellites on C-band, but the cell phone companies keep nibbling away at the frequency allocation.
I've been a long-time Spot user, and you've definitely had best-case responses for the time to send a message. It can often take 5-10 minutes for a message to actually get acknowledged by the satellite. I have a 2-way version, and I use it for sending messages to my wife while I'm flying small planes. It's typical to not have cell phone coverage a lot of the time, and getting a quick message out is a huge help. I'm interested in what they're doing with cellphones for satellite messaging, but I like having a home button, so I'll only ever get that if apple decides to release another iPhone SE variant with that functionality. I'm not holding my breath.
Hi, love youre videos, can you recomend a cheep motorized stand for my antenna to track satelites
I'm still trying to find something like that myself. So far the best one I've found was a security camera pan/tilt mount controlled by the Sarcnet rotator system (ruclips.net/video/8Gz17Mv7RU0/видео.html)
Happy New Year,
any thoughts on word that iphones will soon be able to connect thru the starlink network? kind regards
I haven't done much with iPhones, I never have any luck with used ones since they end up locked, and new ones are too expensive.
The privacy app is a great utility for taking back control from shady subscription providers
You're right
I had a model 2. Then dumped it for an InReach which is 10000xs better!
Do you ever watch Live on Patrol on RUclips? St. Paul Sherriff's Dept. with Bob and Pat while there on patrol.
I've seen it occasionally.
Preset distress message button: "I'm going to be a midnight meal for a mountain lion"
My iPhone can text via satellite now, I use it all the time when I go camping. Very fast too, I've even texted another iPhone that was also using satellite.
I suggest hitting the 911 help emergency buttons on the two older ones. Be sure to do it away from home,watched at a distance. See if they still actually fetch help , for someone else . Wink
we love our e-waste hoarder/adopter 🥴
Where did you get that desktop wallpaper? I had one like it probably a decade ago…though I think it was blue
Not sure which one you mean but I've been getting all my walpaper from Digital Blasphemy for decades now :-P
I believe samsung is set to use starlink for this
T-Mobile phones are supposed to be able to work on Starlink sometime this year so that will make all these things obsolete.
We have Starlink and T-Mobile and signed up for the Beta. Don't know if we will be accepted yet but if so will try it out.
seguramente se puede reprogramar, si tiene un puerto, y las hojas de datos del prosesador, y el circuito, y mucho conocimiento de programacion de microcontroladores (yo no la tengo)
I don't think its fair to say its a "rip off" to pay for a service like this when a majority of their users, even the casual user are relying on these for use in the back country when hiking, off roading or similar. Not for "fun" but rather for emergency messaging in case they are stranded or have a medical emergency. It's hard to put a price on that and really its a pretty fair price for that sort of peace of mind.
To each their own. The monthly charge isn't too bad but all the extra fees are just for the company to make more money. If it was really about piece of mind they could easily charge less and still make plenty of money off new hardware sales and reasonable subscription rates. The infrastructure is already in place and mostly paid by this point.
@@sandmanxo There is no argument from me that some of the extra fees are questionable. However, Spot and by extension Globalstar don't make money off of the hardware they sell, they make money and in turn keep satellites operating by way of ongoing service fees. This is no different than mobile phone providers, ISP's, etc. It's all about cost / investment recovery.
In terms of your comment around the infrastructure already being in place; It's not like Globalstar just launched one set of satellites back in 1991 and they were "good to go" for the next 50 years. No, at least every decade they need to spend $100's of million on new satellites, while the previous generations go end of life. Their latest generation of satellites to go up will support direct-to-cell services so as mentioned in the video, this service will likely become obsolete...
With that said, if you don't like the price, and all of the value added features that come with the service plan, then don't buy it. Go buy a personal locator beacon (PLB). If you need emergency / rescue "peace of mind", then there is no service fee involved with a PLB, just the initial hardware cost.
An iPhone 14 or newer already offers limited satellite functionality, sadly limited to a limited coverage area.
(North America, parts of Europe and Australia, probably Japan too)
Pixels may have it too, but probably more limited coverage than iPhones 😭
Samsung I have no idea.
Huawei have being offering something like that in China, but information of real world usage is restricted mostly by language barrier.
This feature is currently available in the US only (except Hawaii and Alaska).
This feature is available on Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold only.
huh, didn't know they added that to the latest generation of pixels. shame it's so ameri-centric.
@@alexbrown1050 here in Brazil we have some dead zones on several roads in the middle of nowhere, satellite communications would be welcomed here.
seems more of like a pacifier for those with money and anxiety
Yes so true rich people suck they can't help us homeless instead
I hope Spokane treated you well!
Didn't really get out there, just passed through.
The shady subscription practices would be enough to make me look at something else.
I have the SpotX with built-in keyboard, easy and simple though the phone app is useless
Gen 1 was introduced in 2008.
👍
😀
11:10 (Hmm what can we do to earn free money? AHA! "Flex charge". Bam! It has electrolytes. )
Empire Builder?
Yep!
@saveitforparts sweet! Definitely a bucket list trip for me, although I would do the Chicago to Seattle option.
I have a model 2 i think, i keep it in my breast pocket of my motorcyle when I'm riding. Just a little bit peace of mind when I'm alone.
iPhones can already send and receive iMessages and text messages over satellite for free (few caveats for the SMS receive). it will only let you connect if there's actually no cellular signal available and is completely free (at least for now)
Axon makes body cameras
This is Axonn. This company ceased to exist in 2009 and was bought up by Globalstar.
I hate big corporate ! Your so right on how they are
OI! where is your fancy new background?
This has been in my backlog for a while :-P
T mobile is switching some accounts to starlink.
Такие маяки хороши только высокой автономностью в сравнении с сотовым телефоном, а стоимость обслуживания высокая потому что спутники большие. С переходом на CUBE-SAT форм фактор спутников может быть уменьшит стоимость обслуживания. У нас пока спутниковая связь дорогая.
Hmm... I'd have to dig it out - it's not charged but it's in the RV which means I could charge it - but I have a satellite phone. It's not a large monthly fee, though it covers something like 30 minutes per month. Point being, it's not expensive (for me and my financial situation) and worth just ignoring for when I need it. I want to say it's under $20 per month. It's not much more than that, if it's more than that. I can dial in and add more minutes as needed and that phone call is free. I want to say emergency calls are also free and that the satellite company is required to pass my location data along with it when it hands off a 911 call. I last had it in the RV so I'm 99% sure that's where it is. If it isn't there, I'm gonna have to buy a new one soon because the missus and I are about to engage in some needed wanderlust. I've had the RV since I bought it new in 2007. I've put less than 10k miles on it. It's a damned shame so we're going to just head on out and waste some fuel. I'll have Starlink so I'll have better internet than I actually have at home. Imagine that!
Did you take the train trip just to test it ?
Ha! Nope, we were visiting family a couple months ago, I'll have another video on the train soon.
@@saveitforparts lucky you :)
Wish i could afford to travel but no one won't donate to it
I remember, back in the day, all the videos of people fighting and yelling 'Global Star!!'. I'll see myself to the door...
hmm
How did you comment 2 weeks ago? It's still not published yet
@@orca984 lol im just better
Do a video on starlink mini
12:15
I am curious about your age for many months now. PLEEEEASE let me know XD
Only 75$ yikes
This was people with a need to be off the grid. Either for pro or personal reasons. The cost of business and/or personal safety and piece of mind.
Yeah a regular bread eater can have such ... YET they still cannot find a PLANE ! Where is flight MH370 ?
South China Sea.
@danlowe8684 any evidence to back such claim ? :)
@@SG-gy7nj plenty
@@SG-gy7nj Well, the search started there, for one.
If I will I would suggest a facial hair trim up broski.
Iphone already does it
Not well, not something you should depend on.
@@EvertG8086 That's what an ACR is for
@@TexasStormChaser oh yea those are awesome, Im personally carrying around an isatphone 2. In my outings.
It didn't "already do it" 10+ years ago