Garmin 010-01879-00 InReach Mini, Lightweight and Compact Satellite Communicator, Orange

I took the inReach Mini on a week-long trip to the BWCA last week. I normally go to the BWCA without any means of outside communication and in 45 years of canoeing there and in Quetico I've never had an emergency that communication would have helped. But several years ago we took a rented satellite phone on a trip, and this time we took an inReach, not because we feared an emergency, but because we needed to remain in touch about things going on at home. So why not rent a satellite phone again? Because the inReach allows text communication--and you can own, rather than rent, the satellite communicator for a reasonable price. The inReach doesn't allow voice, only short text messages. Outgoing and incoming messages are limited to 160 characters and can be sent to any cellular phone or to any email account. Messages are not sent immediately from the communicator--satellite connection must be made--and there is often a 10-minute lag between texts being sent from outside and their reception on the inReach. The advantage of the inReach is that it costs only $300 to own, and you can sign up for monthly access to the satellite network for message packages ranging from $20 to $60 a month, plus a $25 yearly access fee. Monthly plans can be for as many or as few months as you would like in a given year, provided you pay the $25 access fee. I signed up for an unlimited-message $60 plan for the month of the BWCA trip. In addition to messaging, the inReach works with a normal iPhone or Android phone to provide GPS mapping and weather reports. Weather reports use DarkSky's reporting system and were basic, but sufficient for planning our days in the BWCA. The inReach's battery lasted all week used about thirty minutes a day solely for communication. At the end of the week the battery hadn't fallen below 75 percent. The inReach can be left on to passively track your route (and report it via satellite), but we did not need route tracking, nor did we want to carry the extra battery packs necessary to recharge an always-on unit used for that purpose. Now, as to use in the BWCA in particular... The inReach uses Garmin's Earthmate GPS mapping software on a phone. It's pretty good software and works nicely on the phone with or without the satellite communicator. But for the BWCA it's insufficient as a front-line mapping solution because Earthmate maps provide neither BWCA campsite locations nor portage locations or lengths. Basic weather reports require one message each (40 message pack costs $35/month). A basic weather report covers several days with three hour gaps between condition reports the first day and fewer each subsequent day. A premium report, available for a separate $1 fee, covers more days and gives more information for each day. This was helpful in the BWCA, especially the wind reports which give daily wind speed and direction information, though not more granular than day-by-day. If you've been in the BWCA you know that wind conditions are almost more important than temperature or rain conditions. Peace of mind. I've never had an emergency in the BWCA (worse than a bear eating some of our supplies), but I had a friend whose son sustained severe, third-degree burns in Quetico before satellite phones existed. God provided a team of powerful, EMT-trained canoeists to carry the boy through the night to a hospital. But having a means of getting an SOS out is reassuring, and it's one of the reasons I bought the inReach. If you're taking young children of your own, or overseeing a trip on which you're taking the children of others, I would recommend this communicator. It has a separate, distinctly-labeled, difficult-to-engage-accidentally SOS button that reports your emergency and location via satellite to an emergency center from which aid will be dispatched. Finally, on a rather mundane note, last winter all the pay phones at the BWCA's main entry points were removed, which means you can no longer call your outfitter from a payphone and thus you must either exit at the location of your outfitter, or find a house or business to call for pickup from. Our outfitter didn't inform us of this change and so we exited at the location on Seagull Lake we had always used in the past--only to find an empty pay phone booth. We were able to text the outfitter's phone number to family members in Ohio, and they called to have us picked up. Without the inReach it would have been a long walk....

My favorite tracking company closed shop and I needed a tracking solution for my next event. The in-Reach mini works great even if I am using off label. I say that because the inReach is mostly marketed to outdoor adventurists and not endurance athletes. My cycling takes me way out on rural roads with limited cell-signal and best of all limited car traffic. My running also keeps me out of the house for several hours. The inReach lets people follow my progress and keep track of my location. The inReach also works great to track your athlete during an event. Whether a marathon, ultra, or long distance triathlon. You'll know where the athlete is. During a long event that means you can plan your cheer-squad logistics and know the approximate ETA of your athlete. Man, athletes LOVE cheer squads, nothing boosts the energy more than your friends and family cheering. Some of the nitty gritty. You can program 3 Custom Preset messages, which you can send for free. So I use all 3 during training. Here are mine... One says I am ok. The second says I am delayed but still going, just incase people get worried that my position hasn't moved. That's incase I find a good coffee shop or stopped for an extended amount of time I hadn't briefed. The third says things went bad and I need a ride home. Every message you send includes your location coordinates, you know, incase you do need a ride home. You can also send regular text messages. Typing them via the device, well, lets say it makes T9 texting look futuristic. Yup, there's no "quick" texting with the inReach. It's a lot of button pushing, not complicated but lots of pushing and time consuming. The good news is you can program a TON of Quick Text messages... ie store prewritten massages you anticipate you'll use. You can also pair your phone and use the phone as a keyboard. The message goes from phone to your inReach via bluetooth, then the inReach sends it vis Satellite. Your phone does NOT need to have signal. As for tracking, you get to pick how much to share and even set a password on your tracking page. I usually make the password my bib number so my friends and family can track me and it's easy to remember. The tracking updates about every 10 minutes. That works great for long events. In a marathon, that's an update of about every 1 or 2 miles. Cycling about every 3 miles. Other uses, I found myself using it on a road trip. Lets family keep tabs on my progress just in case. It's also nice having SAT Comm capability and not be dependent on unknown cell signal availability or quality. Data plans are reasonably priced... keep in mind you are paying for WORLD WIDE coverage using Satellite Communications. Initial device setup took a few minutes. The unit needs to acquire signal from a Com Satellite (not the GPS sats). Then the setup is akeen to setting up cell service. The earthmate companion app isn't required. However it's a powerful mapping tool that's definitely worth getting. You get access to topos, and all sorts of maps. I use the app a ton just looking for trails and training routes. To clarify the earthmate app is for the eathmate user. Those tracking you don't use earthmate. The in-reach website is fairly easy to use. Play around with it for a bit, it takes a little getting used to but it works well and lets you adjust all sorts of stuff. Your tracking, privacy, etc. You can also set up auto tracking posts via twitter. Keep in mind that the inReach uses Satellite coms. So it takes anywhere from a few minutes up to 10 minutes for your data, tracking or text, to transmit into space, and the Satellite to pick it up, transmit it back to earth, send it via terrestrial networks to it's destination.... same for the return back... That's potentially up to 20 minutes roundtrip from send to reply. Quite sci-fi isn't it? I bought the inReach to use off label as an athlete tracker for long distance events and it has worked great for that purpose. Now, i find myself using the inReach way more that I thought I would. Road trips, mountain biking, hiking, wildlife spotting. Pretty much take it everytime I leave the house for non-routine trips. I've used it to text with family. This is perhaps the best and most versatile item i purchased in 2019. One last note, as with most advanced pieces of technology, you'll get out of it what you put into it. Take your time and learn the device, it's interface, it's website... the more you learn it the better your experience will be. This applies to smart watches, computers, and pretty much any tech. Like I said this is the best thing i purchased in 2019.

Used the Garmin Inreach Mini for 3 weeks in the Karakoram mountains/ K2 Base Camp in Pakistan. It performed very well, the battery life was great, and it was easy to charge it with a solar charger. It also proved to be water resistant, and handled hot and cold temperatures properly as well. The weather forecast was really useful, but you need to request premium weather for a proper forecast for some days ahead. It definitely needs a clear view of the sky, sometimes the signal got blocked by clothes, even. Also, one downside is that when charging, as soon as power goes out, the inreach switches off itself automatically. This is not really good when charging with solar. Some messages did not get synced from the device to the app, so make sure you check your messages directly on the device as well. Not sure what was the reason for this. Also, be prepared for some hefty charges for the subscription, although I think that the value for money is still excellent.

L'ho utilizzato per fare un trekking di 5 giorni in solitaria, è stato utile sia per me che per chi era a casa. Comoda anche la messaggistica con sistema iridium

Certo, se andiamo a vedere il costo del dispositivo e il costo mensile che bisogna sostenere per tenerlo attivo, non è proprio economico, ma se il tutto lo rapportiamo con la garanzia che c'è sempre qualcuno che in situazioni difficili ti supporta e ti può salvare la vita, beh, allora non ha prezzo! Questo gioiellino e fatto veramente bene, piccolissimo e leggerissimo, si vede e si sente che è fatto con materiali al top, come tutti i prodotti Garmin rivolti all'avventura. Ha le funzionalità base che può avere un dispositivo GPS non cartografico, ma la sua peculiarità è offrire un collegamento satellitare con il mondo in modo da essere rintracciati in qualsiasi situazione oltre che poter richiedere aiuto con la pressione di un tasto. Si aggancia ai satelliti molto velocemente e mantiene la connessione in modo molto stabile (a meno che non ci troviamo in una grotta). In base all'abbonamento che abbiamo stipulato, può inviare la posizione (su MapShare) ogni TOT minuti oltre che essere "pingati" da chi ci sta seguendo in modo virtuale. Anche la possibilità di inviare dei messaggi predefiniti in modo illimitato è una gran cosa: permette di far sapere a chi è a casa che va tutto bene oltre che le coordinate della posizione da dove si è inviato il messaggio; il messaggio può essere inviato via email o SMS al destinatario. La cosa bella è che dopo aver inviato un messaggio ti avvisa quando questo è stato effettivamente consegnato alla rete satellitare (quindi inoltrato al destinatario). Sembra banale, ma può capitare che da quando si invia il messaggio a quando realmente la rete satellitare lo prende in carico passino anche diversi minuti, quindi avere un avviso sonoro ti da una garanzia in più. E' compatibile con diversi dispositivi Garmin, tra i quali la serie Fenix 6 (anche la 5) con cui lo uso spesso: si hanno a disposizione sull'orologio tutte le funzionalità del inReach, quindi non serve ogni volta prendere in mano il dispositivo per inviare un messaggio, leggerne e rispondere ad uno rcevuto o attivare la rilevazione, nonché inviare lo SOS. La durata della batteria è abbastanza buona, con invio della posizione ogni 10 minuti, l'aggiornamento della traccia locale bassa e la connessione con l'orologio (tanto è quest'ultimo che rileva la traccia dettagliata), dura più di 2 giorni, ma anche collegato ad un power bank continua il rilevamento. Esistono in commercio dispositivi simili che costano molto meno sia acquistarli sia come abbonamento, ma hanno delle grosse differenze con inReach, quella più importante è il segnale satellitare: inReach usa 60 satelliti la concorrenza meno della metà e questo influisce molto sulla qualità del segnale, specialmente in zone più impervie. A tutti fa gola risparmiare, ma non fatelo quando c'è di mezzo la vostra sicurezza. Concludendo, per chi va spesso in montagna o zone dove la connessione cellulare è inesistente, e magari, come capita spesso a me, da solo, è un dispositivo da avere assolutamente: ti fa sentire più sicuro e fa sentire più sicuri chi è a casa ad aspettarti... la più bella spesa che abbia mai fatto!

Tamaño pequeño que lo hace muy práctico. Negro que pasa desapercibido sobre todo cuando te mueves en áreas donde prefieres que otras personas no lo vean. Muy exacto en la localización ya que la familia te encuentra en forma rápida en el mapa. Hay planes para cualquier gusto y presupuesto, así que siempre encontrarás alguno que se ajuste a ti.

Es un dispositivo muy recomendable para náutica,vuelo,etc. Da seguridad y funciona perfectamente. Necesita suscripción.