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Mountainpines
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PostThu Jun 08, 2023 9:20 am 
I am going to order the device today finally. How much is the monthly subscription and can you pause it at any time, or you are committed to a full year? We don’t go often since we live on a flat terrain, and only travel at times for our hiking adventures. I wouldn’t want to pay every month for no usage.

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idoru
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PostThu Jun 08, 2023 9:31 am 
You can view the various plans available here on Garmin's website. There is an option for a monthly subscription that you can cancel whenever you don't need it, but there is an annual program fee involved - so, $34.95 annual program fee, then $14.95/month whenever it's active. The monthly fee is reduced to $11.95 if you commit to the annual contract. There are also additional fees based on use, eg, if you want to send more than 10 texts in a month or make weather requests (which use up 1 text each).

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Mountainpines
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PostThu Jun 08, 2023 9:44 am 
So, it doesn’t come cheap with only 10 texts included. What features you mostly use?

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HitTheTrail
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PostThu Jun 08, 2023 9:51 am 
You get 3 preset messages (like, check-in everything ok, or camping here tonight) that you can send for free an unlimited number of times, that do not count against your 10 monthly message count. A cheap way of tracking is to send an "ok" message every half hour. But be aware, if someone responds to your message, that counts against your 10 total for the month.

Mountainpines
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zimmertr
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PostThu Jun 08, 2023 9:52 am 
I normally only use mine when going solo into potentially dangerous terrain. But when I do, I turn on tracking at the car and share the link via the device to my partner. Then every 10 minutes it records my location on the map she received. Then when I get back to my car at the end, I just send a "car" message to her so she knows I've made it back. Occasionally we'll do 2-way communication but not always. For example, she sometimes sends a "congrats" message when I reach the summit or whatever. It's also very useful because you can query weather reports on your location. I use that feature often when backpacking. I think it uses one message. I have also occasionally messaged other InReach devices to coordinate while backpacking or mountaineering when parties separate.

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Cyclopath
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PostThu Jun 08, 2023 10:00 am 
HitTheTrail wrote:
You get 3 preset messages (like, check-in everything ok, or camping here tonight) that you can send for free an unlimited number of times, that do not count against your 10 monthly message count. A cheap way of tracking is to send an "ok" message every half hour.
They stopped this. Garmin still honors it for everybody who bought in when this was promised, so you're grandfathered for life. But new ones don't have this.

Mountainpines, fourteen410
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HitTheTrail
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PostThu Jun 08, 2023 10:11 am 
Cyclopath wrote:
But new ones don't have this.
So there is no free pre-set messages at all? If so, they better be careful. That little device is getting very close to becoming redundant and obsolete by newer stuff coming out anyway.

fourteen410
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idoru
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idoru
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PostThu Jun 08, 2023 12:34 pm 
Cyclopath wrote:
They stopped this. Garmin still honors it for everybody who bought in when this was promised, so you're grandfathered for life. But new ones don't have this.
Yes/no-ish. They stopped offering (but grandfathered in) the 3(?) presets that you could customize however you want and then send an unlimited amount of times. I purchased mine a couple of months ago, and I do get unlimited "check-in messages", but they are pre-defined by Garmin: "I'm checking in. Everything is okay." "I'm starting my trip." "I'm ending my trip." I do have the option to customize "quick text messages" that I can choose from, but those count against my 10 free texts/month.
Mountainpines wrote:
What features you mostly use?
- Data gathering; elevation gain, mileage, speed, GPS track, etc. for each trip - Navigation (with the phone app connected via bluetooth); useful in areas with lots of blowdown/snow, or when I'm venturing off-trail - Wife; she can easily see where I am on my route and get a sense of timing for my return, or general comfort to know that I'm still moving and OK I've only used it to text one time, when I made a poor choice in my route and needed to notify my wife that I'd be a few hours longer than anticipated. Other than that I don't usually use any of the texting features.

Mountainpines
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NightOwl
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PostThu Jun 08, 2023 12:44 pm 
You're going to end up spending a good chunk of money for something you'll probably never need. I recently sold mine because I realized it was a waste of money. Also Garmin's products, particularly their software, are a dumpster fire in my experience. Live dangerously: go into the wilderness without a two way satellite device; people did it for thousands of years, and so can you. If you're that concerned about safety, you can always stay home.

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Cyclopath
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PostThu Jun 08, 2023 12:52 pm 
HitTheTrail wrote:
So there is no free pre-set messages at all? If so, they better be careful. That little device is getting very close to becoming redundant and obsolete by newer stuff coming out anyway.
I didn't have time to find this earlier this morning, you can read about the technical details here: https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8036313 This probably doesn't affect you personally, I'm assuming you're grandfathered in, but it's a "the details matter" kind of thing. It's like "shrinkflation." And you're 100% right. High end phones are starting to provide this kind of functionality. They don't currently do it as well, but technology moves fast and in a couple (phone) generations this will all be completely different.

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fourteen410
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PostThu Jun 08, 2023 2:13 pm 
NightOwl wrote:
You're going to end up spending a good chunk of money for something you'll probably never need.
But if you do need it, you'll want to have it.
NightOwl wrote:
Live dangerously: go into the wilderness without a two way satellite device; people did it for thousands of years, and so can you. If you're that concerned about safety, you can always stay home.
Yes, and some of those people never returned. There's nothing wrong with evolving and utilizing new tools to mitigate risk. I will agree that Garmin's interface sucks.

HitTheTrail
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Mountainpines
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PostThu Jun 08, 2023 3:56 pm 
So what device would you recommend that’s better than the mini one?

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HitTheTrail
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PostThu Jun 08, 2023 4:04 pm 
fourteen410 wrote:
Yes, and some of those people never returned. There's nothing wrong with evolving and utilizing new tools to mitigate risk. I will agree that Garmin's interface sucks.
Yeah, my wife has passed and both kids are grown and doing just fine without me so It is probably not critical that I have to notify anybody of anything. But, just a couple of days ago I was 6 miles up the Entiat river trail and took a hard blow to my ribs when I got hung up in brush and fell over a log. I found out later I was the only person in the entire Entiat drainage at that time. It turned out I just had badly bruised ribs and no punctured lung so I continued on with a scaled back trip and hiked out the next day. But it could easily have been a situation where the Inreach would have been handy. Also, if you have the Inreach mini2 you use the Garmin Explore app witch is slightly better than the EarthMate (in my opinion).

idoru, Now I Fly  Cyclopath
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rubywrangler
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PostThu Jun 08, 2023 6:36 pm 
Mountainpines wrote:
So what device would you recommend that’s better than the mini one?
I'm definitely considering upgrading from my InReach once this thing becomes available: New satellite messenger from Motorola coming soon

fourteen410
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CS
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PostFri Jun 09, 2023 1:17 am 
I just upgraded to an iPhone 14 which has Satellite SOS and sold my Garmin one. I'm fine with it being less rugged and more manual for now. Not having to have yet another device to remember, keep charged, and all the bad Garmin software and billing to deal with is worth it to me. It will periodically remind you to share your location manually via satellite: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/send-your-location-via-satellite-iph2aac8ae20/16.0/ios/16.0

Mountainpines, Slim
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