The inReach SE is a two way communicator and tracker. It uses the Iridium satellite network
(alongside GPS) to send text messages to either email addresses or a mobile
number. It can be used on its own, but I
mainly used mine synced via Bluetooth to my iPhone.
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| The inReach SE in it's normal position... |
The inReach can also be used as a tracker and can be set
up to send a tracking ‘ping’ every ten minutes.
This then appears on the inReach mapshare and shows friends and family
just where I am (and how slow I was going!).
It worked very well and was pretty easy to use. I used a pre-set message at the end of
everyday just to say where I was camping for the night. Feedback from my sister suggests that this
was very reassuring, especially as I was on my own. We also sent a few messages just to say how I
was getting on.
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| The tracking in action |
Another cool feature is that by using a third party site
it’s possible to get up to date weather forecasts along the trail. The forecast
uses the GPS co-ordinates to calculate the nearest forecast, unfortunately this
is a USA only feature.
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| Weather forecasts |
The inReach also has an SOS feature; this sends an alert
text message with co-ordinates to a control centre in the USA. They then ‘talk’ via text to find out what
the problem is, and then will call on the local authorities to react. This is a great backup for an accident on the
trail. Of course I never plan to use
this feature, but knowing it’s there is great (again for worried family!). This should only be used as a last resort for
real life and death emergencies.
Power is via USB, so a battery pack coupled with a solar panel did the job. Sun is one of the joys of California! At no point did I get worried about the power. Typically it was down to around 70-80% at the end of the day.
Note – I paid for this item with my own cash.
Very Nice.
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