Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Anybody ever rent and use a sat phone?

Looking at renting and using one one a late hunt in the wilderness. Your experiences? Thanks.

usually there is a cost to rent and a cost to use.

all the ones I've used weren't as easy as a cell phone.

made sense to use them (for me) before I needed them, so if I needed it, I wouldn't stumble.

cheap insurance.

garmin inreach is impressive, same though, pay to buy it, pay to activate it (by the month i think)

can send text by satellite pretty handy

I have used my friends in reach on the same hunt 2 times prior. It worked well. The sat phone is about $18 to 25 a week. There may be a few other charges but overall pretty reasonable. I wil be in the middle of the Frank church. About as remote as it gets in the lower 48. Map says it has coverage, just wondering...

Make sure the sat phone you rent works well in the area where you plan to use it. On my last trip, a couple of moths ago, I rented an Inmarsat from the Satellite Phone Store and it had great reception. They have very reasonable weekly or monthly equipment rental rates and pre-paid talk time packages which will save you quite a bit.

On prior trips I had rented an Iridium sat phone. Although it worked well in the Northern hemisphere, reception was poor well south of the equator.

It pays to check the available coverage maps for the different sat phone systems, before you decide on the equipment you rent. PM me if you want more details.

Never missed... the times i used them

Didn't rent one but I borrowed a buddies back in '11 when we hunted the N slope of the Brooks. We bought 100Min ahead of time and were able to use it any time we wanted/needed it.

Ive rented from Surveyors Exchange in anchorage . They shipped it freight to Kenai where I picked it up. Fee for that. Also to ship it back. Minor.

Rental fee just puts it in your paws. Paid by the use minute. Could not get the airplane in When needed without it.

If no cell service, it’s money well spent.

I didn’t know you could rent them.

I am retired from the Forest Service and we used them a lot on remote forest fires. Always worked well.

I went on my first remote Alaska hunt in 2004. One of the guys on the trip had been in the bush on 9/11/01. They didn't have a sat phone. You probably remember that the government shut down all air traffic for several days. Their bush plane ride back to the hub community was a week late. They had no idea why because weather was OK. He told me that their food ran out and they ate a lot of moose meat, fish and wild berries. His wife was frantic and he said he would not go on the 2004 trip unless we had a sat phone. He made a phone call to his wife every night.

I've rented one every time that I have gone on a remote Alaska hunt. The most valuable use is to communicate with your bush pilot. But you can call anywhere in the world for the same air time price. If someone got seriously injured, it would be absolutely priceless to call for evac.

It costs +/- $10/day to rent the phone and then if you actually use it, you have to pay for air time ($1.50 - $2.00/minute) on top of that. Of course you split this costs among everyone on the trip, so your individual cost is not that much.

I have used Outfitter Satelite Phones but there are others.

Outfitter Satelite Phones

One of the guys who went with me on a caribou hunt in Newfoundland rented one. His wife didn't want him to be out of her control. Nuff said.

I've used them several times over the years, they can be a life saving device and I wouldn't do a remote hunt without one.

I rented one when I had my Strip deer hunt in Arizona. They work good but I tried to use the texting feature just to save money when I checked in daily with my wife. A true pain in the a$$. If you rent one just call when you need to and keep it short to save money.

I have used a sat phone twice.

My experience is it will not work in a canopy, you have to have a clear path to the satellite.

The one in the Republic of Congo literately saved my ass after two weeks in the rain forest.

The other one was more for convenience on a fishing trip in Brazil.

I used these guys for the Brazil trip

Explorer Satellite Communications


The phone rental $75.00 per week
Prepaid for 100 minute $139.00
Plus shipping charges

Had them on a couple of remote rafting trips. Used one on a trip once. Worked fine. Iridium.

Rented one on two trips to Zimbabwe. They work great out in the open but not under trees. They are a lot heavier than a cell phone so I kept mine in camp. During my last trip I was told the Chinese are building cell phone coverage for the entire country, even the bush.

I used one a New Zealand south island back country hunt. Would power up the phone and sit and wait for coverage. When we got coverage it was only for a couple of minutes at most. Overall was happy with the rental and even happier I was never charged for the rental.

'till the locals steal the copper and other metals out of the towers.

Thanks guys, for all the feedback. Think I will call and get one sent my way for the upcoming hunt.