inReach Use Case Questions

In general, this is a good use case for inReach.

I don't have any personal experience with response times. I'm not sure what kind of response time you're asking about, either. There's the time from when you send the SOS until something, such as SAR dispatch, happens. Then there's the time from dispatch until they can reach your location. The latter pretty much depends on your situation.

The SOS messages are fielded by a third party, GEOS. Since inReach texting is bi-directional, they can get additional information from whomever sent the SOS before attempting to dispatch responders. That's a big advantage.

There is summary information about SOS functionality here. Click on the SOS heading. There is more detailed information on the GEOS site, although it's sometimes hard to determine what's included with inReach subscriptions and what is not. This is because GEOS provides services for lots of different devices. I find that a lot of what I want to know is covered in the GEOS FAQs, but there is good information elsewhere on the site.

Edited to add: You might be interested in the list of recent SAR events handled by GEOS.

This timing is going to depend largely upon distance and difficulty to access.

I'm unable to find it now, but there was a recent Northwest rescue on the news yesterday about someone using their inReach to gain rescue for an injured hiker. Start to finish it was 4 hours for SAR to reach the injured.

Before they go out to their cabin, they should practice using it at home and become comfortable with it before depending on it. Then, they should use it each time they go out and send messages to you or someone and share to the map for tracking. This helps to reinforce the familiarity.

In the described use-case there are other concerns. If the inReach is thought to be just an emergency device it might left in a drawer until it's needed. That could lead to unknown battery levels if/when it is actually needed. It could also cause the GPS data to become stale which would result in longer GPS acquisition time when the device is needed.

Since it's a satellite communicater rather than a cell phone it really needs a clear view of a significant area of the sky to send and receive messages. It often doesn't work well inside a building and can also be affected by other physical obstacles such as tree cover and geographic features.

Keep in mind that inReach messages are less instantaneous than cell phone text messages.

As others have said — practice using the inReach and become comfortable with its operations before finding yourself in a sticky situation.

Since it's a satellite communicater rather than a cell phone it really needs a clear view of a significant area of the sky to send and receive messages. It often doesn't work well inside a building and can also be affected by other physical obstacles such as tree cover and geographic features.

Excellent points from both TL and Bob. I just want to reemphasize Bob's point about the environment. I don't want to make it sound like messaging is touchy or unreliable. It really does work well. But when you're dealing with possible life and death situations, you need to understand the physical limitations of the satellite system.

Although you might get an approximate GPS location indoors, you will not be able to successfully transmit a message unless you are at a window with a clear view of a substantial portion of the sky. For example, I can use inReach messaging from my office window. But the office is on the second floor and has an unobstructed view of half (the northern hemisphere) of the sky. Even so, message transmission and reception takes substantially longer in this environment than it does with a clear view of the entire sky.

The same considerations apply outdoors. The best situation is a clear view of the entire sky, with little or no tree cover. Very heavy, solid tree cover in all directions may prevent successful messaging. Tall obstacles on one side (for example, standing at the foot of a bluff or steep hill) may slow things down, but usually will not prevent messaging. Nearby obstructions on multiple sides (particularly things like narrow slot canyons) may prevent successful messaging.

You will want to test messaging from several different locations in and near the cabin to see what works best. As TL points out, don't wait until there's an emergency to get familiar with the equipment and its limitations.

Thanks to each of you for the feedback! All are great points and I totally agree with the practice and rehearsals before relying on technology and then maintaining that technology. This is great food for thought. The biggest challenge is going to be a semi clear line of sight, their cabin is in pretty dense old growth. I think I will order one and test it out in different conditions up there.

Inreach messaging and rescue

I have been using inReaches for several years now, starting with their "Green" and "Blue" versions that coupled with the Delorme PN60 GPS receiver through the current Garmin inReach Explorer (in case you didn't know, Garmin bought Delorme a year or so back). The big reason I have gone through several stages is that I am involved in the American Climber Science Program. We do environmental research in mountains around the world, so rely on having a dependable communication system to talk among our various groups in the field and between field and home.
I have been involved in 2 SAR events - one up close (we were in the Peruvian Andes with the incident being 2 climbers caught in an avalanche and the other involving one of our researchers in the Himalaya who fell into a crevasse).

The response time in Peru was that we got a call on the inReach that the incident had occurred near us, and could we help the local SAR team (language problem since the SAR team spoke only Spanish and Quechua, while the surviving victim spoke a bit of Spanish). The time to get the survivor into camp was a few hours (the location was well into the Andes with only foot access), plus a lengthy time for the local SAR team to get to our camp where we had the survivor. The body recovery took a lot longer, since it was fairly high on the mountain - again no motorized access.

The Himalayan incident had our team member managing to climb out of the crevasse and crawl back to his tent. The communication was, as mentioned above, through GEOS. GEOS has contacts with local SAR groups around the world and can help activate them, plus as mentioned, relay information between the SAR groups and the on-site incident. In the Himalayan case, it was 36 hours from the crevasse fall and getting the victim to the hospital in Katmandu, about 100 km away. The rescue used a helicopter which had to fly from Katmandu, locate the victim (the inReach's GPS location was spot-on). The victim is healthy again and actively participating in our research activities, this time in the Andes.

So as you can see, the response time is dependent on the terrain, access, and relay time. The Himalayan incident had the victim by himself, but able to operate the inReach to send and SOS and describe location and injuries. The Andean incident was difficult access (no helicopter availability, and many miles of hiking to and carrying the victim out of the Andes to a road for the ambulance).

If your parents had an incident and road access, the response time would be much shorter.

When we are communicating among members of our expeditions, response time is instantaneous. The inReach message includes the GPS-measured lat/lon, usually accurate to a few meters (yards). SAR teams these days carry GPS receivers, and GEOS relays the reported position. GEOS itself operates 24/7. If your parents' cabin is readily accessed by road or has a helicopter-sized clearing nearby, access can be fast. If, as in the 2 cases I described, access involves a difficult hike in or a long helicopter flight, access time can be very long.

Great info, glad to hear these real world experiences. I've had the luck of always having an Iridium phone when traveling in remote locations overseas for communications, so inReach is new to me. Luckily for my parents they are in a location that can be accessed by standard 911 emergency response vehicles (ambulance, sheriff, etc.), there is just no phone or cell coverage in their area. So it sounds like if the SOS is received with the correct GPS location, then GEOS would contact the 911 emergency response agency for that area and they would dispatch based on that. I think I'll order a device and start doing some testing/familiarization.

Emergency contacts via GEOS

Great info, glad to hear these real world experiences. I've had the luck of always having an Iridium phone when traveling in remote locations overseas for communications, so inReach is new to me. Luckily for my parents they are in a location that can be accessed by standard 911 emergency response vehicles (ambulance, sheriff, etc.), there is just no phone or cell coverage in their area. So it sounds like if the SOS is received with the correct GPS location, then GEOS would contact the 911 emergency response agency for that area and they would dispatch based on that. I think I'll order a device and start doing some testing/familiarization.

We do carry Iridium phones, or rather, the team leaders carry an Iridium phone. Most of the team members are grad students. As you apparently already know, Iridium phones are very expensive to use, as is true for all satcom voice messaging. So almost all satphone use is between team leaders and the in-town headquarters. Using the text messaging with the inReach keeps the cost down, plus the location is automatically included in the message. With inReach, you can set up a series of canned messages, such as "stopping here for the night", "reached the summit - descending soon", "pick me up at trailhead", and simple answers for questions like "NO" and "YES". One that comes up too often in field operations is "need more camera batteries" (some of our biology staff like lots of photos of newly discovered plant species).