Communication on the road - satellite phones

Communication - Satellite Phones

In our view and experience there really is only one totally foolproof emergency communication option, PARTICULARLY if you have serious health problems, and that is investing in a satellite phone. There just is no contest – it is the best, even though now not NOT even the most expensive route to take. It will theoretically work over ALL of Australia and 200 nautical miles out to sea, as long as you are not deep in a valley or underground, as it must be able to SEE the satellite. It has made using the Royal Flying Doctor radio network, as an emergency back up, (RFDS) almost redundant. Over the last year they have come right down in size and are now almost as small as an everyday mobile. Most have a slightly bulkier antenna and that is the only difference. Using one has the tiny disadvantage in that there is the tiniest delay after speaking before your caller actually hears you. This is called “lag” and is easy to adapt too, as you hear it every night on the news when anyone overseas is interviewed. Voices also no longer appear to be “digital” with the Darth Vader sound! They are in fact totally crystal clear. Now the good news is the cost has come right down PROVIDED you act quickly and buy a just superceded model. Buying a latest model Motorola 9505 phone outright can cost $1,995.00 – down from $2,250.00 just 3 months ago and a whopping $6,000.00 when the original model was first released. Yes you do swallow hard when this big chunk of money is mentioned, but look upon it as -THE BEST LIFE INSURANCE POLICY AVAILABLE AT ANY PRICE

Now the good news is Telstra still has 250 Motorola 9500 available (September 2002). So this is your chance to get into this technology at less than half the normal entry cost. The phone is pictured below. It comes in the spunkiest box you could ever imagine - probably a throwback from when it was $6,000.00 in 1999! You can get a fair amount of info on this Telstra Satellite page. For more details on how the Iridium network operates try www.iridium.com.

SETTING UP LIFELINES - We truly bend over backwards not to fill this site with preaching our own personal views, as they could well be wrong, but this is one subject where we are going to hoe into it! In researching this article we read a new book Surviving Australia. A darn good book with some wonderful tips, but guess what—satellite phones were not given a mention and we might be blind, but we couldn’t find EPIRBs either.

HOW WILL IT HELP YOU? - A satellite phone will get help pronto/instantly no matter where you are ANYWHERE in Australia and 200 nautical miles out to sea. A RADIO WILL NOT despite what you may have heard at workshops. The feeling of peace and security one gets from having a satellite phone with you at all times really can’t be put into words. You might have the best HF radio money can buy installed in your vehicle, but what happens if one of you breaks a leg whilst bush walking even just a kilometre from your vehicle? If there is just the two of you, and let’s face it, this is how most of us travel most of the time, you are FORCED to leave your partner who is probably drifting in and out of consciousness and going into shock, to get back to the radio. Even when you get there, instant contact is not guaranteed by any stretch of the imagination and things are further complicated if the “rescuing” partner is not competent at using the radio. Yes most HF sets do have an Emergency Button, but this is about as far as an untrained person can reasonably be expected to go. Remember very few of us can remain totally calm in a real life and death emergency. If the vehicle has turned over and damaged the aerial the rescuing partner will in all probability not have a clue how to lay out an emergency antenna on the ground etc.

DIALLING 000 AND EPIRBS - Please really ponder these points and work out if saving your partners life is worth just $1,995.00 or $995.00 if you can find the older model? (Motorola 9500) Sorry to be so dreadfully blunt, but we have been involved with several emergencies and it is far from fun, even looking back much further down the track we still don’t joke about it. We always carry an EPIRB and in the old days WRONGLY believed that this gave us all the backup help we needed. Nothing could be more wrong, as anyone who saw the ABC documentary on how EPIRB distress signals sometimes are responded too can attest. You don’t for instance even know if the thing is really working! Even if you are totally lost, do you know that when you dial 000 on your satellite phone the operator instantly gets a rough idea where you are?

JUSTIFYING COST - Please don’t be put off either by the high call cost – remember this is your LAST RESORT EMERGENCY line of communication, so you wouldn’t use it just to ring up to see how much the dog is missing you, so in theory at least your minimum monthly access cost via say Telstra (the Iridium network) would be just $7.00 per week or putting it another way just $1.00 a day! Now most of us could somehow or other find a dollar a day by cutting back say on smoko! (but Heaven forbid not Happy Hour!) Let’s say you get only five years out of the phone, that’s just another $1.00 per day even if you buy the dearer phone or just 50 cents if you can find a 9500. In our book it is VERY cheap insurance.

CALL COST ANALYSIS - Let’s look more closely at the Telstra entry level plan called CASUAL - $28.00 per month. Outgoing calls with Telstra are a maximum of 99 cents per 30 seconds with a 40 cent flag fall. Incoming calls cost you ZERO but 60 cents per 30 seconds is charged to your caller. Oddly Telstra’s fact sheets or the web don’t mention flag fall. If you need to keep in touch for business it makes good commercial sense to consider diverting your home phone to your sat phone, but remember that you will be picking up the tab. You do need to educate your callers as to just how your sat phone works though, as the beeps etc. are different and there are “pauses” whilst it locks on.

USING A SATELLITE PHONE - Operating a satellite phone on the Telstra Iridium network couldn’t be easier and there is absolutely nothing complicated to learn. The phone must be able to see the satellite, so it works best outside with the aerial pointed skywards, or with a small magnetic aerial passed out a window. Simply switch on and you are asked to enter a four digit pin number and press OK. You are reminded to extend the aerial about 2” if you are outdoors. The phone then tries to REGISTER with the Iridium network. This takes about 15 seconds. If you are in a difficult reception area such as deep in a valley or beside a hill it will advise you WEAK SIGNAL. The best bet is to move until you get a signal. Now if it is an emergency and you can’t move simply leave the phone searching and eventually it will register, as a new satellite passes over every 7 to 10 minutes. This means you would be dead unlucky for it not to come into view for at least 2 minutes. You know it’s registered when Iridium is displayed. Signal strength and battery condition is also displayed. The screen is uncluttered and easy for us oldies to read as the numbers etc. are in very large type.

MAKING A CALL - To make a call dial the state code (07) for Queensland etc. then the normal number. To ring a mobile phone simply dial the normal number. Emergency 000 works EXACTLY the same as a normal phone. Connecting does take slightly longer than on a landline but appears to be exactly the same.

RECEIVING A CALL - To receive a call just extend the aerial, open the flap and speak. As the signal has to go such a long way and also in some cases connect to a landline as well, there is a slight delay. You soon get used to this. To finish the call just close the keypad flap.

CALLING A SATELLITE PHONE FROM A LANDLINE - Simply dial the number. It takes a lot longer to connect and you may get the impression that nothing is happening (about 30 seconds). You will hear soft beeps rather like an engaged signal but it isn't! There is delay when speaking but you only notice this if you do a test where you can see and hear the other person on the sat phone.

CHARGING AND BATTERIES - Your phone will work whilst charging on 12 volt or 240 volt. For this to happen simply plug in and switch on the charger, then turn the phone on. Remember that satellite phones use far more power than normal mobiles as the signal has to travel a huge distance and the signal has to be higher. The longest standby available at present is 36 hours for the 9505 and 24 hours for the 9500. Be aware that the two batteries supplied with your phone are different sizes. When leaving your vehicle we suggest you ALWAYS take the spare battery with you. On extended hikes a small solar panel is available.

ALL ABOUT AERIALS - When in the A'van our sat phone is on all the time. If you don’t want to buy a permanent aerial just pass the portable aerial out through a roof vent and attach it to the roof with double sided tape. The aerial is very small -about the same size as a thicker drink coaster. The phone will NOT work inside your A'van (in fibreglass vans it will work but not at 100% efficiency), inside a tile roofed house but not under corrugated iron. If you are a true technophile then you can spend hours/days programming the phone. We have not done this - kept it simple!

SATELLITE PHONES AND THE FUTURE - Personally we feel the satellite phone is the best communications option currently available, as there is far less to go wrong than with radio, no messing about with licences, it's easy to understand as at present at least, the technology is almost exactly the same as a normal mobile, it is the way of the future, lets you use fax and email anywhere and you do not need a huge aerial. Satellite however will NEVER take the place of the GSM or CDMA networks in Australia. In the USA the SAME phones as detailed above pick up GSM and CDMA as well as satellite and this is all detailed in the very substantial User Guide. Apparently the phone automatically uses the cheapest option. It is a bit of a mystery why Telstra aren’t doing this at the outset. This isn’t mentioned on their website! The only option offered is Message Bank. We use this system as it works well. You can download the manual from the Motorola site. We did this and when we went “shopping” we seemed to know more than the sales people - always worth the extra effort! Optus use a different system in that there are only 3 satellites in geostationary orbit 36,000 kms above earth in line with the equator. This causes extended “lag” when speaking. Optus indicate that their service will be going until at least 2014.

EMERGENCY NUMBERS

It is very important to commit the following to memory as it could save a life. There are two free emergency numbers in operation for mobile phones. If you are on the GSM network the number is 112. If you are on the CDMA network the number is 000. Something that is not generally known is both these numbers work if the phone is locked or call barring is activated. If your phone indicates NO SERVICE it is ESSENTIAL to try dialing the above numbers with the phone switched on as both these numbers are network independent. If you are a Telstra customer and there is no service (no bars) if Optus etc. covers the area you WILL GET A CONNECTION.

MORE INFORMATION - There is even more REAL LIFE information about satellite phones in a book by Collyn Rivers - Motorhome Electrics and Caravans Too. See page 60. Collyn has actually used a satellite phone since 1994 so speaks from first hand experience. He recently travelled Barcaldine on his own straight across the “middle” from Broome with his satellite phone on the Optus network, so you can get yet another perspective on this subject. More info at www.caravanandmotorhomebooks.com

Acknowledgements – Special thanks to Collyn Rivers CMCA, Telstra Satellite Division and Laurie Smyth CMCA - webmistress