Backcountry communication

[SAJ-99]

I assume my experience is similar to most who live and or hunt in more remote lightly populated areas.

The arrival of 5g made cell reception far WORSE. Even at my house--where we used to have no trouble with reception, I often don't get voicemails until I step outside in an open area.

The reason? In their rush to 5g they replaced all the 3g transmitters--which used to be a boost to 4g signals. That boost gone, cell reception is a lot worse.

I was given a Zoleo for Xmas, based on reviews I think I'll be happy but need to get it set up by fall when I hope to do more hunting than usual.

Same for me. 5G isn't as strong and doesn't go through walls and such as well. You can turn off 5G on your phone, but it should switch to LTE when that signal is better. I called Verizon and made them give me a booster because the signal in my neighborhood is so bad. It has improved dramatically, but still not perfect.

As for the iPhone sat messenger, I found it faster than Inreach and a much better user experience. But agree that not being able to manually switch to sat mode is a little annoying when you get one bar.

 

[MTGomer]

Same for me. 5G isn't as strong and doesn't go through walls and such as well. You can turn off 5G on your phone, but it should switch to LTE when that signal is better. I called Verizon and made them give me a booster because the signal in my neighborhood is so bad. It has improved dramatically, but still not perfect.

As for the iPhone sat messenger, I found it faster than Inreach and a much better user experience. But agree that not being able to manually switch to sat mode is a little annoying when you get one bar.

Which inreach do you have? The new one “messenger” that looks like a little hockey puck messages in almost real time.

 

[mevertsen]

I signed up for the Beta testing for t mobile. Will see how that goes.

On a side note, I'm in a situation that absolutely requires 24/7 contact with the world.

Looking at getting an iridium 9555 sattelite phone.

This will not be used on a regular basis, only for potential checking and if I get the "one" call and I need to go, now.

Looks like about $105 a month for the plan, 2 year contract and a US number.

Has anyone dealt with these before?

 

[ChaosOneZero]

Which inreach do you have? The new one “messenger” that looks like a little hockey puck messages in almost real time.

+1 for this. I had an inReach Mini previously and it took forever to send/receive but last fall moved to the messenger (puck version) and it’s way faster.

 

[SAJ-99]

Which inreach do you have? The new one “messenger” that looks like a little hockey puck messages in almost real time.

Explorer+. It is probably 5 yrs old. The user interface is horrible. Hopefully it has gotten better. I have to watch a blinking light to see if a message is sent. Seriously, I often wonder if the Garmin engineers use the product?

 

[MTGomer]

Explorer+. It is probably 5 yrs old. The user interface is horrible. Hopefully it has gotten better. I have to watch a blinking light to see if a message is sent. Seriously, I often wonder if the Garmin engineers use the product?

I went from the black box mini microwave looking thing that Delorme made prior to Garmin buying them to the messenger.
It was also a flashing light thing.

Big upgrade.

 

[MTGomer]

I signed up for the Beta testing for t mobile. Will see how that goes.

On a side note, I'm in a situation that absolutely requires 24/7 contact with the world.

Looking at getting an iridium 9555 sattelite phone.

This will not be used on a regular basis, only for potential checking and if I get the "one" call and I need to go, now.

Looks like about $105 a month for the plan, 2 year contract and a US number.

Has anyone dealt with these before?

I’ve used ones owned by others but never owned one. They work fairly well.


I don’t know if they still make them but a friend had an “iridium go” which allowed you to call with your cell phone and also functioned as an inreach style messenger.
That was cool. I think it was expensive

 

[mevertsen]

I’ve used ones owned by others but never owned one. They work fairly well.


I don’t know if they still make them but a friend had an “iridium go” which allowed you to call with your cell phone and also functioned as an inreach style messenger.
That was cool. I think it was expensive

Yeah. The GO! is 175 per month vs 105 for the phone.

 

[SAJ-99]

I’ve used ones owned by others but never owned one. They work fairly well.


I don’t know if they still make them but a friend had an “iridium go” which allowed you to call with your cell phone and also functioned as an inreach style messenger.
That was cool. I think it was expensive

Can you make calls over a Starlink? I think you can, but have no experience with it.

 

[Bowmannate2000]

Same for me. 5G isn't as strong and doesn't go through walls and such as well. You can turn off 5G on your phone, but it should switch to LTE when that signal is better. I called Verizon and made them give me a booster because the signal in my neighborhood is so bad. It has improved dramatically, but still not perfect.

As for the iPhone sat messenger, I found it faster than Inreach and a much better user experience. But agree that not being able to manually switch to sat mode is a little annoying when you get one bar.

I turned off 5G on my phone. My connection and internet speed drastically improved.

 

[Bonasababy]

I turned off 5G on my phone. My connection and internet speed drastically improved.

I don't know how this is possible, thought most phones search for the signal in declining speed order and you can't shut it off. You can avoid it with WIFI depending on the router. In any case, that doesn't change the real problem--which isn't 5g, it's the loss of 3g transmitters which helped boost the 4g signal when 5g is nowhere near--which is the case where I live and is ALWAYS the case pretty much anywhere I hunt. Fishing isn't as bad.

 

[mevertsen]

Can you make calls over a Starlink? I think you can, but have no experience with it.

T mobile is working on this I believe.

 

[MTGomer]

Can you make calls over a Starlink? I think you can, but have no experience with it.

Yes. You just use the wifi calling feature on your phone. Almost every call I make while at my house is over starlink due to poor cell signal.

 

[mtmuley]

Yes. You just use the wifi calling feature on your phone. Almost every call I make while at my house is over starlink due to poor cell signal.

Same. mtmuley

 

[Bowmannate2000]

I don't know how this is possible, thought most phones search for the signal in declining speed order and you can't shut it off. You can avoid it with WIFI depending on the router. In any case, that doesn't change the real problem--which isn't 5g, it's the loss of 3g transmitters which helped boost the 4g signal when 5g is nowhere near--which is the case where I live and is ALWAYS the case pretty much anywhere I hunt. Fishing isn't as bad.

My phone settings let me disable 5G. 4G is working much better for me. Maybe we have better 4G towers in my area . All I know is whenever it would switch to 5G, I could rarely stream music or load a web page. Haven't had a problem since turning it off.

 

[SAJ-99]

I don't know how this is possible, thought most phones search for the signal in declining speed order and you can't shut it off. You can avoid it with WIFI depending on the router. In any case, that doesn't change the real problem--which isn't 5g, it's the loss of 3g transmitters which helped boost the 4g signal when 5g is nowhere near--which is the case where I live and is ALWAYS the case pretty much anywhere I hunt. Fishing isn't as bad.

on iPhone
- Settings
- Celluar
- Celluar data options
- Voice and Data

3G and 4g are different band widths, so I'm curious as to what was going on with "boosting". As it was explained to me by the engineer, sometimes 5g gets blamed, but it might not be the exact cause. 5G is higher band width and typically will go further but becomes blocked easier. My specific situation was totally something else.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

on iPhone
- Settings
- Celluar
- Celluar data options
- Voice and Data

3G and 4g are different band widths, so I'm curious as to what was going on with "boosting". As it was explained to me by the engineer, sometimes 5g gets blamed, but it might not be the exact cause. 5G is lower band width and typically will go further but becomes blocked easier. My specific situation was totally something else.

5g ought to be a higher frequency, which means shorter wavelength.

Longer wavelengths go further but carry less data.

That's why ham radio operators can communicate vast distances whereas FM radio is fairly limited in range.

 

[SAJ-99]

5g ought to be a higher frequency, which means shorter wavelength.

Longer wavelengths go further but carry less data.

That's why ham radio operators can communicate vast distances whereas FM radio is fairly limited in range.

Thanks. I don't know why I typed that. I was confusing two things (larger vs longer). It has been edited.

 

[Bonasababy]

on iPhone
- Settings
- Celluar
- Celluar data options
- Voice and Data

3G and 4g are different band widths, so I'm curious as to what was going on with "boosting". As it was explained to me by the engineer, sometimes 5g gets blamed, but it might not be the exact cause. 5G is lower band width and typically will go further but becomes blocked easier. My specific situation was totally something else.

Figured it was I phone. Class lagging antennas still to this day I believe, never had one but before 5g came along and the 3g transmitters were lost I routinely had service where I phones did not. Never did see the need to pay twice as much due to that.

Again it's not 5g itself directly...but the dropping of far reaching 3g transmitters to help along conversion to 5g. And I was first told that by high level tech engineers at Verizon who were helping diagnose the never before coverage problems at our house that started when they started dropping 3g.

 

[SAJ-99]

Figured it was I phone. Class lagging antennas still to this day I believe, never had one but before 5g came along and the 3g transmitters were lost I routinely had service where I phones did not. Never did see the need to pay twice as much due to that.

Again it's not 5g itself directly...but the dropping of far reaching 3g transmitters to help along conversion to 5g. And I was first told that by high level tech engineers at Verizon who were helping diagnose the never before coverage problems at our house that started when they started dropping 3g.

Same. I think a lot of people saw a decline in service/quality so Gen Y could watch Netflix on their phones. Oddly, my service in urban areas has significant holes as well. You would think they would be outraged. There are also a bunch of small providers for cell towers that further complicates the rural networks.