Delorme, Spot, Garmin. Which one?

[Stein]

I am in the market for one of these and hoping to clear up a few questions. Is the text service work from the device to a cell phone or just to other inreach devices?

You can send a text to anyone with an e-mail address.  For most cell providers I think you can also "e-mail" to their phone.  I don't have it in front of me so others may chime in.  You can send a standard message or a custom one.  For typing out stuff, the app on the phone is the way to go unless you want to spend 10 minutes typing out four words on the inreach.

I don't use the inreach for GPS, mapping or waypoints, the iPhone with onX is far better at that.

For the inreach, you can subscribe for just a month if you want, you don't need an annual contract unless you want it that way.  In addition to safety, it gives me way more wiggle room with the family, they don't mind longer trips if we can pass a few notes every now and then and they don't need to worry.

I've never heard of anyone that got one and didn't like it - hunters, hikers, if you are in the woods it's an amazing tool.

[Buckhunter24]

Right on thanks guys. I think I will go pick one up this week. I have a garmin 64 i will keep using for my waypoints I think.

[sagerat]

I am in the market for one of these and hoping to clear up a few questions. Is the text service work from the device to a cell phone or just to other inreach devices?

You can send a text to anyone with an e-mail address.  For most cell providers I think you can also "e-mail" to their phone.  I don't have it in front of me so others may chime in.  You can send a standard message or a custom one.  For typing out stuff, the app on the phone is the way to go unless you want to spend 10 minutes typing out four words on the inreach.

I don't use the inreach for GPS, mapping or waypoints, the iPhone with onX is far better at that.

For the inreach, you can subscribe for just a month if you want, you don't need an annual contract unless you want it that way.  In addition to safety, it gives me way more wiggle room with the family, they don't mind longer trips if we can pass a few notes every now and then and they don't need to worry.

I've never heard of anyone that got one and didn't like it - hunters, hikers, if you are in the woods it's an amazing tool.

   I agree

[SuperX]

So has anyone tried successfully to stop auto-renewal with SPOT?  mine's coming up and I'm going to switch to the InReach Mini since I have my phone with me.

Do I need to hire a lawyer?

[birddogdad]

basemap pro on android phone?

[pianoman9701]

So has anyone tried successfully to stop auto-renewal with SPOT?  mine's coming up and I'm going to switch to the InReach Mini since I have my phone with me.

Do I need to hire a lawyer?

My Inreach has been on pause since last September. No issues with autopay happening.

[BDildine]

bought a used inreach a few years ago, saved me some $$$ and still works flawlessly. there is a yearly charge (like 30-40 i think, coming up) and you can pick from multiple level of plans, and you can do yearly (cheaper per month) or on for a month and off for 5, also you can send the waypoints with texts, so if you need help packing out, your buddies know right where to go

[netcoyote]

So has anyone tried successfully to stop auto-renewal with SPOT?  mine's coming up and I'm going to switch to the InReach Mini since I have my phone with me.

Do I need to hire a lawyer?

I had a helluva time cancelling my SPOT cancellation. Turned out my card expired about the same time so they couldn't keep charging to it and that was the end of it. That after many heated phone calls. I'd never deal with them again in a hundred years!

[bracer40]

So has anyone tried successfully to stop auto-renewal with SPOT?  mine's coming up and I'm going to switch to the InReach Mini since I have my phone with me.

Do I need to hire a lawyer?

My Inreach has been on pause since last September. No issues with autopay happening.

I bought the Inreach last year from Costco for $289 and used it daily during 10 days in Idaho (no cell service) and it worked flawlessly for letting loved ones know I was backin camp safely.
No problems suspending service and turning back on for the month of November.
Thankfully haven’t needed to push the sos button, nor was I worried about accidentally activating it as the design is pretty clever.

[JeffRaines]

I also have an inreach I bought used off ebay that has worked flawlessly.

I was reading awhile back that someone had tried using the SOS feature of spot and it didn't work at all. I've also heard spot coverage sucks in Alaska and some other countries. It made the decision simple.

[HikerHunter]

I had some issues cancelling my SPOT Gen 2 a while ago. I had it on the auto-renewal and had to talk to one person about cancelling my service, then was transferred to another to get my money back because apparently their policy is to not refund any money after the auto-renewal. Not sure if that was worth the hour of my time...

All that for a product that only sent about 50% of the messages successfully. You can't always hike to the top of a mountain just to send a message. On one trip, I went on a 3 day hunt in the backcountry and was supposedly sending "I'm okay" messages back to my wife. Got home and she was worried sick because not one message made it through. Apparently their network was down during that time. Not cool. Good thing I didn't have a real emergency.

Then SPOT doubled their yearly subscription prices out of the blue. I bit the bullet and bought an Inreach Mini. With the flexibility to turn the plan on/off, it will pay for itself quickly and there is two-way communication. And it works off a more reliable satellite network. I should've switched sooner!

[BeerBugler]

Buddy and I went halves on the Garmin inReach. Good unit, easy to use and battery life is amazing. Sharing it hasn’t been an issue, but neither of us use it for navigation, just messaging/emergency on remote hunts.