Hi Chris. I have the Inreach mini and I have used it to send messages to my family from the Big Bear area and it is true at certain times of day the messages did not go through. An hour later they did. I changed my position to insure I had a clear view up through the trees. It was hit and miss but the messages finally went through. Just need to be patient..that's all. A good thing too is my family can follow my tracks on line so if they don't get my check in on schedule, they know my last position. Such peace of mind for all!! Thanks for all you do for us and info you give. It's so great! NO ONE out there does a better job at giving ALL the info for your hikes.....NO ONE!
Thank you 🙏👍 I appreciate the kind words and so glad that the guides are helpful. And I'll echo your thoughts on the inReach. It's worth every penny to me, even if it's not as slick as a 5G cellphone. There was just a guy missing at Mt Pinos during a snow storm. He survived after two days out there, but if he had an inReach or PLB he could have just hit the button or his family could have followed his track. They're not cheap but for me, worth every penny. Hope to see you out there one day!
Your videos are my first place to look for the answers to all questions about GPS units for hiking. Keep up the good work! I just began using a Garmin Inreach Mini for my hiking trips. I have been testing its reliability by sending pre-set messages to my own email account and those of three other people. The rate of successful deliveries to email accounts has been disappointing thus far: typically less than half of the sent messages ever reach the email of me and the other three recipients. So in my case the time lag between transmission of a message and its receipt is far less of an issue than whether the message gets delivered at all. My hikes take me on trails through groves of lodgepole pine trees, and the landscapes are often mountainous. But even in places where I have a clear view of substantial portions of the sky the delivery rate is lower than I had hoped for. I cannot think of a reason why an SOS emergency message would be any more reliably delivered than these test pre-sets (though I realize the SOS won't be trying to reach email accounts), but please let me know if you think otherwise. My verdict thus far on the Garmin unit is that it is definitely worth carrying but far from a panacea.
So if a message can't go through, you'll eventually get a message telling you that the message couldn't be sent. I've gotten these in strange places above the treeline on hikes, so it does occasionally happen. If messages are just disappearing, it's usally a different issue. I'd post on the Garmin support forum, someone may have had the same issue. I know that some VoIP like Google Voice won't accept inReach messages, and I'm sure there are other wrinkles like that which might be the culprit.
@@Hikingguy Thanks for your reply. You're surmise that it might be a different issue turns out to be correct. I was accessing the preset message I wanted to send without going through the "Send Preset" menu option. Then I would hit the send button, and the message would never be sent and there was no indication from the unit that it was not sent. I discovered my mistake on a four-hour hike today, and after using the device correctly got 10 out of 11 messages successfully sent to recipients. The one failure occurred because I purposely sent if from a fairly thick grove of trees, and the Inreach immediately responded that the GPS strength was low. I hate the unintuitive menu of the Inreach 1, but once that is mastered it does seem to be reliable and to me surprisingly accurate. I'll close by recommending that anyone new to the Garmin take it out on some practice runs to get a feel for its reliability, accuracy, and software quirks.
Hi Chris. Your videos are excellent. I work in forestry in the UK, often in remote (well as remote as it gets over here) areas with no mobile phone coverage. The sites are steep sided vallays covered in deciduous trees. We are trying to sort out what satellite communication device we need to call for help in the event of an accident - Iridium Extreme satellite phone, garmin inreach or PLB? A few weeks ago we tested the Iridium Extreme, garmin inreach and SPOT X from a total of 11 sites at different times of the day. All the sites were in the bottom of the ravine and under as much tree cover as we could find - although no leaves! We set a time limit of 5 mins for the signal to get out. The Iridium Extreme made decent voice contact 11/11 times in less then 1 min. The garmin inreach got a message out 11/11 times and the message arrived at it's destination in an average of 1 min 40 seconds. The SPOT X was only successful 4/11 times with an average when successful of 3 min 24 seconds. We do survey work in the summer, under the leaves, on our own and could still need to call for help. I'm guessing the iridium devices are going to struggle a lot more in these conditions and a PLB might be a better choice? I guess you would recommend carrying both and I think that is where we'll end up. Do you know of any way of testing the connectivity of a PLB? I have noticed that ACR are now offering a 406Link Beacon Self-Testing Service for $49.99 per year but this is currently only available in the US.
Hi Mark, thanks for the note and for sharing your results, which also fall in line with my experience over the year. First, ditch the idea of SPOT, it's just an inferior experience overall. For the PLB, I'm going to test the 406Link service next month, but otherwise I'd say the tech there is robust and reliable, having been used in the marine world and commercially for many years. If you don't care about 2-way comms and want to save on a subscription, I think you'll be good with a PLB. Otherwise your best bet is probably the sat phone, as you have more comms options than an inReach and your contract is directly with Iridium, not You-Garmin-Iridium. But they're expensive. And now the long and winding road comes back to inReach. I think for most folks inReach or ZOLEO is a great balance of functionality and price. And they will likely work or not work exactly as the sat phone. You can get non-critical info through 2-way text. Overall the tech is robust and has been out there since 2014. It's not 100%, but no sat comm is. I've used them in heavy tree cover in the Pacific Northwest without a problem. Generally a lag occurs if satellites aren't overhead, but that changes as they orbit, so at some point a message should go out no matter what. The comm frequency is designed to penetrate organic matter like trees but doesn't work through rock. So if you have the funds, the phone is great, otherwise I think an inReach will do the trick and give you some versatility. And if you need SOS only and want to save, go with the PLB.
Thanks Chris - really good advice. You've clearly got a great deal of knowledge and experience of this topic. I'll definately be ditching the SPOT! I'll be very interested to see the results of your 406Link service test. No doubt you've already decided how you'll conduct the test but I'd be really interested to see how a PLB performs compared to an Inreach. Do you have anywhere you could activate the PLB where you know an Inreach will struggle? I'd love to see how they perform from under heavy tree cover and/or in the bottom of a canyon! I've also just got permission from the centre that receives alerts from UK registered PLB's to carry out an activation test. I'll probably wait until the spring and our trees are back in leaf to do the test (and will have to think about the cost if it means replacing the battery afterwards?) but would be happy to share the results with you.
@@markwood7985 Ah, that's great, and yes, I'd be interested in the test results so please let me know ( info@hikingguy.com works best). And yes, when I test I'll do it in some deep cover with moderate canyon walls. Nothing extreme like a slot canyon, but also not out in the open. Hoping to get it done in the next few weeks. On a side note, I'm heading to Fort William in August to do Ben Nevis. It's my first trip back to the UK since COVID. Excited to get back across the pond.
@@Hikingguy Hi Cris. That sounds great. Sad I know but looking forward to the test. And good luck with the trip to Fort William. As you probably know Scotland is great if you get the weather and can avoid the midges! I did Ben Nevis about 10 years ago from Carn Mor Dearg (which was excellent), returning via the tourist path (which can be pretty busy). No doubt you'll be well prepared but if you need help with anything just say and I'll send you my email. I live near Sheffield in England but am excited to be off to Glencoe (about 15 miles south of Fort William) in 10 days time for a winter mountaineering course. Hoping for some snow and ice but you never know these days!
I am in the market for Etrex 22x (because I can afford this) luckily I found your comparison blog on your website (someone mentioned you on Reddit) and now I have a full understanding of GPS, communication devices, and GPS+Comm. Dev. . Also your videos and reviews allow me to understand the differences between Garmin devices on their website (Montana, inreach, etc... thank you
Ah that's awesome to hear, thank you. And yea, the assortment of units and functionality is a bit of a mess, even if you understand the basic concepts. The 22x is still a solid unit for an outdoors GPS.
My experience is that it may take many hours to send out messages on the bottom of forest canyons and minutes at the mountain tops with clear view of the sky
Yea, I think as a general rule that's a good observation. I've had great luck at the bottoms of canyons when I thought it would be horrible. Guess it's all just what's over your head at the time.
I have try this Garmin InReach Mini 2 in Thailand. It really take times to send out one message. Sometime messages took less than a min to send out. But if the Iridium did not pass over my unit it will talk longer as 15 mins. But if I try in the open space or on the roof top should me much easier. So if compare to Isatphone 2 that connect to GEO satellite. I already know the satellite direction and I just point the antenna to the gap of the elevated expressway and elevated flyover then it still work such as call or text. But Isatphone 2 got a really big antenna and it can't connect via Bluetooth to smartphone to get all the feature of the unit like InReach 2. If you really need to make 2 way instant messaging communication in realtime like Whatsapp, Line, Google RCS, or Facebook Messenger, Garmin InReach 2 is not work like that at all.
Very good. I didn’t know that Iridium doesn’t cover all spots on the whole planet, but that I may wait a little while until a sat is above me due to their low orbit. This was helpful to understand why it may take a few mimutes to connect/send. The distance of the sat from earth shouldn’t matter though - the electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light. So it’s a matter of fractions of a second. However, having done multiband sat communication in the the armed forces many years ago, you notice a delay of about a second in phone conversations when going through geo-stationary satellites that are very far away from earth. But no matter how far, it’s never minutes due to the signal travel time itself.
Yup you are 100% correct on the radio waves traveling at the speed of light. I realized I wasn't clear when I was talking distance. I was assuming there could potentially be more interference inbetween, but based on what you shared, maybe it's fine. Thanks for adding to the convo and a big thanks for your service!
When you hit that SOS, does the command center automatically receive your gps coordinates with the message ? I’m thinking that in a emergency situation, you want your 1st message to have as much detail as you can get in with wait times being long for messages transmissions
Great video! I wish Garmin had an optional high gain external antenna for Iridium. That would be marvelous. If not, just a dedicated Iridium satellite connector on the back of the unit would be great. I could build my own antenna.
PLBs/EPIRBs are great for those who don't want a subscription, and they have a long track record being used by boats & military - difference is that PLBs use a different sat network (MEO), have 5 watts transmit (which they need to hit the sats which are farther) and like you mentioned, no 2-way comms - I carry both
Hi Chris. I have the Inreach mini and I have used it to send messages to my family from the Big Bear area and it is true at certain times of day the messages did not go through. An hour later they did. I changed my position to insure I had a clear view up through the trees. It was hit and miss but the messages finally went through. Just need to be patient..that's all. A good thing too is my family can follow my tracks on line so if they don't get my check in on schedule, they know my last position. Such peace of mind for all!!
Thanks for all you do for us and info you give. It's so great! NO ONE out there does a better job at giving ALL the info for your hikes.....NO ONE!
Thank you 🙏👍 I appreciate the kind words and so glad that the guides are helpful. And I'll echo your thoughts on the inReach. It's worth every penny to me, even if it's not as slick as a 5G cellphone. There was just a guy missing at Mt Pinos during a snow storm. He survived after two days out there, but if he had an inReach or PLB he could have just hit the button or his family could have followed his track. They're not cheap but for me, worth every penny. Hope to see you out there one day!
Wow, great video indeed, very informative! Learned quite a few new things, thank you!
Your videos are my first place to look for the answers to all questions about GPS units for hiking. Keep up the good work!
I just began using a Garmin Inreach Mini for my hiking trips. I have been testing its reliability by sending pre-set messages to my own email account and those of three other people. The rate of successful deliveries to email accounts has been disappointing thus far: typically less than half of the sent messages ever reach the email of me and the other three recipients. So in my case the time lag between transmission of a message and its receipt is far less of an issue than whether the message gets delivered at all. My hikes take me on trails through groves of lodgepole pine trees, and the landscapes are often mountainous. But even in places where I have a clear view of substantial portions of the sky the delivery rate is lower than I had hoped for. I cannot think of a reason why an SOS emergency message would be any more reliably delivered than these test pre-sets (though I realize the SOS won't be trying to reach email accounts), but please let me know if you think otherwise. My verdict thus far on the Garmin unit is that it is definitely worth carrying but far from a panacea.
So if a message can't go through, you'll eventually get a message telling you that the message couldn't be sent. I've gotten these in strange places above the treeline on hikes, so it does occasionally happen. If messages are just disappearing, it's usally a different issue. I'd post on the Garmin support forum, someone may have had the same issue. I know that some VoIP like Google Voice won't accept inReach messages, and I'm sure there are other wrinkles like that which might be the culprit.
@@Hikingguy Thanks for your reply. You're surmise that it might be a different issue turns out to be correct. I was accessing the preset message I wanted to send without going through the "Send Preset" menu option. Then I would hit the send button, and the message would never be sent and there was no indication from the unit that it was not sent. I discovered my mistake on a four-hour hike today, and after using the device correctly got 10 out of 11 messages successfully sent to recipients. The one failure occurred because I purposely sent if from a fairly thick grove of trees, and the Inreach immediately responded that the GPS strength was low. I hate the unintuitive menu of the Inreach 1, but once that is mastered it does seem to be reliable and to me surprisingly accurate. I'll close by recommending that anyone new to the Garmin take it out on some practice runs to get a feel for its reliability, accuracy, and software quirks.
This is in line with my experiences too, generally my messages seem to send in around 5mins, rarely much more.
Hi Chris. Your videos are excellent. I work in forestry in the UK, often in remote (well as remote as it gets over here) areas with no mobile phone coverage. The sites are steep sided vallays covered in deciduous trees. We are trying to sort out what satellite communication device we need to call for help in the event of an accident - Iridium Extreme satellite phone, garmin inreach or PLB? A few weeks ago we tested the Iridium Extreme, garmin inreach and SPOT X from a total of 11 sites at different times of the day. All the sites were in the bottom of the ravine and under as much tree cover as we could find - although no leaves! We set a time limit of 5 mins for the signal to get out. The Iridium Extreme made decent voice contact 11/11 times in less then 1 min. The garmin inreach got a message out 11/11 times and the message arrived at it's destination in an average of 1 min 40 seconds. The SPOT X was only successful 4/11 times with an average when successful of 3 min 24 seconds.
We do survey work in the summer, under the leaves, on our own and could still need to call for help. I'm guessing the iridium devices are going to struggle a lot more in these conditions and a PLB might be a better choice? I guess you would recommend carrying both and I think that is where we'll end up.
Do you know of any way of testing the connectivity of a PLB? I have noticed that ACR are now offering a 406Link Beacon Self-Testing Service for $49.99 per year but this is currently only available in the US.
Hi Mark, thanks for the note and for sharing your results, which also fall in line with my experience over the year. First, ditch the idea of SPOT, it's just an inferior experience overall. For the PLB, I'm going to test the 406Link service next month, but otherwise I'd say the tech there is robust and reliable, having been used in the marine world and commercially for many years. If you don't care about 2-way comms and want to save on a subscription, I think you'll be good with a PLB. Otherwise your best bet is probably the sat phone, as you have more comms options than an inReach and your contract is directly with Iridium, not You-Garmin-Iridium. But they're expensive. And now the long and winding road comes back to inReach. I think for most folks inReach or ZOLEO is a great balance of functionality and price. And they will likely work or not work exactly as the sat phone. You can get non-critical info through 2-way text. Overall the tech is robust and has been out there since 2014. It's not 100%, but no sat comm is. I've used them in heavy tree cover in the Pacific Northwest without a problem. Generally a lag occurs if satellites aren't overhead, but that changes as they orbit, so at some point a message should go out no matter what. The comm frequency is designed to penetrate organic matter like trees but doesn't work through rock. So if you have the funds, the phone is great, otherwise I think an inReach will do the trick and give you some versatility. And if you need SOS only and want to save, go with the PLB.
Thanks Chris - really good advice. You've clearly got a great deal of knowledge and experience of this topic. I'll definately be ditching the SPOT!
I'll be very interested to see the results of your 406Link service test. No doubt you've already decided how you'll conduct the test but I'd be really interested to see how a PLB performs compared to an Inreach. Do you have anywhere you could activate the PLB where you know an Inreach will struggle? I'd love to see how they perform from under heavy tree cover and/or in the bottom of a canyon!
I've also just got permission from the centre that receives alerts from UK registered PLB's to carry out an activation test. I'll probably wait until the spring and our trees are back in leaf to do the test (and will have to think about the cost if it means replacing the battery afterwards?) but would be happy to share the results with you.
@@markwood7985 Ah, that's great, and yes, I'd be interested in the test results so please let me know ( info@hikingguy.com works best). And yes, when I test I'll do it in some deep cover with moderate canyon walls. Nothing extreme like a slot canyon, but also not out in the open. Hoping to get it done in the next few weeks.
On a side note, I'm heading to Fort William in August to do Ben Nevis. It's my first trip back to the UK since COVID. Excited to get back across the pond.
@@Hikingguy Hi Cris. That sounds great. Sad I know but looking forward to the test.
And good luck with the trip to Fort William. As you probably know Scotland is great if you get the weather and can avoid the midges! I did Ben Nevis about 10 years ago from Carn Mor Dearg (which was excellent), returning via the tourist path (which can be pretty busy). No doubt you'll be well prepared but if you need help with anything just say and I'll send you my email.
I live near Sheffield in England but am excited to be off to Glencoe (about 15 miles south of Fort William) in 10 days time for a winter mountaineering course. Hoping for some snow and ice but you never know these days!
Very useful mate thanks 🙏
Great video, thanks! That's why I prefer sattelite phone in some cases.
I am in the market for Etrex 22x (because I can afford this) luckily I found your comparison blog on your website (someone mentioned you on Reddit) and now I have a full understanding of GPS, communication devices, and GPS+Comm. Dev. . Also your videos and reviews allow me to understand the differences between Garmin devices on their website (Montana, inreach, etc... thank you
Ah that's awesome to hear, thank you. And yea, the assortment of units and functionality is a bit of a mess, even if you understand the basic concepts. The 22x is still a solid unit for an outdoors GPS.
Excellent information. Thanks!
Thanks for the video - very interesting
My experience is that it may take many hours to send out messages on the bottom of forest canyons and minutes at the mountain tops with clear view of the sky
Yea, I think as a general rule that's a good observation. I've had great luck at the bottoms of canyons when I thought it would be horrible. Guess it's all just what's over your head at the time.
I have try this Garmin InReach Mini 2 in Thailand. It really take times to send out one message. Sometime messages took less than a min to send out. But if the Iridium did not pass over my unit it will talk longer as 15 mins. But if I try in the open space or on the roof top should me much easier. So if compare to Isatphone 2 that connect to GEO satellite. I already know the satellite direction and I just point the antenna to the gap of the elevated expressway and elevated flyover then it still work such as call or text. But Isatphone 2 got a really big antenna and it can't connect via Bluetooth to smartphone to get all the feature of the unit like InReach 2. If you really need to make 2 way instant messaging communication in realtime like Whatsapp, Line, Google RCS, or Facebook Messenger, Garmin InReach 2 is not work like that at all.
Good job!
Very good. I didn’t know that Iridium doesn’t cover all spots on the whole planet, but that I may wait a little while until a sat is above me due to their low orbit. This was helpful to understand why it may take a few mimutes to connect/send. The distance of the sat from earth shouldn’t matter though - the electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light. So it’s a matter of fractions of a second. However, having done multiband sat communication in the the armed forces many years ago, you notice a delay of about a second in phone conversations when going through geo-stationary satellites that are very far away from earth. But no matter how far, it’s never minutes due to the signal travel time itself.
Yup you are 100% correct on the radio waves traveling at the speed of light. I realized I wasn't clear when I was talking distance. I was assuming there could potentially be more interference inbetween, but based on what you shared, maybe it's fine. Thanks for adding to the convo and a big thanks for your service!
When you hit that SOS, does the command center automatically receive your gps coordinates with the message ? I’m thinking that in a emergency situation, you want your 1st message to have as much detail as you can get in with wait times being long for messages transmissions
Yes, it must have GPS position to send message
Great video! I wish Garmin had an optional high gain external antenna for Iridium. That would be marvelous. If not, just a dedicated Iridium satellite connector on the back of the unit would be great. I could build my own antenna.
Agreed - I wish they had a better antenna or even an option for one. Hopefully the next generation of inReach will have the option.
If you want a faster more reliable signal get a PLB instead. You can't text on them but they don't require a monthly fee either.
PLBs/EPIRBs are great for those who don't want a subscription, and they have a long track record being used by boats & military - difference is that PLBs use a different sat network (MEO), have 5 watts transmit (which they need to hit the sats which are farther) and like you mentioned, no 2-way comms - I carry both
love these InReach you do
Thank you 👍