emergency communications

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carisea

I have a SSB transceiver and I was debating about buying a sat phone and using global star for voice and e-mail communication. Then I thought about the cost and the availability of the land line almost everywhere we intend to cruise in the Caribbean. It seemed to me if I really did the math I could make a lot of calls every Sunday night to the family by land line and prepaid phone cards. Then my wife asked but what if the kids have an emergency and need to get a hold of us? This sort of shot a hole in my cost /benefit analysis! How would our kids get a hold of us if I have an SSB but do not keep it on except when I want weather or to talk to cruisers.
 
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Vic

Us hams call it a "schedule" ... but the kids need

access to a Ham operator or to be licensed as well. Then every night, say at 7 p.m. or whenever ... you tune in 14.300 ham marine net and if the kids want to get in touch with you they just check in asking for you and if you are listening and hear them call ... you answer and move to a clean frequency to chit chat away. Vic K1IVX
 
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Chuck Wayne

globalstar

globalstar's a good solution-excellent voice quality and connectivity, decent email,web surfing, and voice mail. the phones have come down in price, as have the connection plans-and you can turn it off in the off season
 
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carisea

global star

Chuck what do you mean by turn it off in the off season?
 
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Debra B

rent a phone - iridium for example

You can rent an iridium phone or buy one. I have seen service rates at $34 per month plus 1.40 per minute. If you only use it in an emergency the cost is not too bad. (Of course we all bought cell phones "only for emergency" when they were new ... look where we are now.) You could always just be out-of-touch. Where is it written we have to be tied to the communications grid?
 
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Chuck Wayne

globalstar

globalstar lets you "turn off" the service temporarily for $10/month and keep your phone number-and no startup fee when you turn it back on-up here, wher we spend months on the hard, it's a great deal
 
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