For emergencies, Spot Connect adds satellite communicator to your iPhone

[mikea]

Spot Connect adds a one-way satellite transmission link to the iPhone.

http://revision3.com/tzdaily/ces2011spotconnect

The service is $99 a year.

I'd still carry my PLB but this would be great to have for the pilot who has gadget room in the flight bag to send messages from anywhere.

 

[Henning]

Hmmm... what's that supposed to do for you? BTW, it's Global Star's network, which I wouldn't trust for any emergency. The only sat network I would trust for that is INMARSAT. IRIDIUM is pretty good too. G-S is freakin useless.

 

[mikea]

Hmmm... what's that supposed to do for you? BTW, it's Global Star's network, which I wouldn't trust for any emergency. The only sat network I would trust for that is INMARSAT. IRIDIUM is pretty good too. G-S is freakin useless.

Like I said only as an accessory. With this you can send a message even if you're in a cell dead zone..but of course you can't necessarily receive.

Hey, some have $99 a year to burn.

 

[denverpilot]

Hmmm... what's that supposed to do for you? BTW, it's Global Star's network, which I wouldn't trust for any emergency. The only sat network I would trust for that is INMARSAT. IRIDIUM is pretty good too. G-S is freakin useless.

INMARSAT orbits are higher than the other two. Getting that one down to the size of a hocky puck would be entertaining. Need more power with the antenna that small.

IRIDIUM is the most ingenious use of commercial money and investor losses to launch a military worldwide voice and data network, ever. Works well, carrying around that obnoxiously big phone which is mainly big only for the antenna again... is a problem. Iridium flares are fun to watch for... their solar panels are HUGE. Some can even be seen in daylight.

GS is a tragedy turned into a success story, if only a minor one. It would have rivaled IRIDIUM if they hadn't built every satellite with a defective transponder power amplifier on every bird. The remaining transponders are the low-bandwidth transponders that were originally intended for call-setup and low-speed data (texting didn't really come into "vogue" until later than their original launch dates). The main transponders were all dead, and they had to look around for ideas on what to sell and how to market devices that would ONLY have access to the low-speed transponders. "Text" messages fit the bill nicely, and companies like Spot popped up to utilize what was left of the costly, broken, on-orbit assets.

The investors all dried up, and the losses are so high between IRIDIUM and GS that it's only now, many years later, that anyone's talking about doing it all over again -- but it'd sure be nifty to see another company take a run at IRIDIUM with working transponders.

 

[Henning]

INMARSAT orbits are higher than the other two. Getting that one down to the size of a hocky puck would be entertaining. Need more power with the antenna that small.

IRIDIUM is the most ingenious use of commercial money and investor losses to launch a military worldwide voice and data network, ever. Works well, carrying around that obnoxiously big phone which is mainly big only for the antenna again... is a problem. Iridium flares are fun to watch for... their solar panels are HUGE. Some can even be seen in daylight.

GS is a tragedy turned into a success story, if only a minor one. It would have rivaled IRIDIUM if they hadn't built every satellite with a defective transponder power amplifier on every bird. The remaining transponders are the low-bandwidth transponders that were originally intended for call-setup and low-speed data (texting didn't really come into "vogue" until later than their original launch dates). The main transponders were all dead, and they had to look around for ideas on what to sell and how to market devices that would ONLY have access to the low-speed transponders. "Text" messages fit the bill nicely, and companies like Spot popped up to utilize what was left of the costly, broken, on-orbit assets.

The investors all dried up, and the losses are so high between IRIDIUM and GS that it's only now, many years later, that anyone's talking about doing it all over again -- but it'd sure be nifty to see another company take a run at IRIDIUM with working transponders.

Dude, I'm sitting here with an INMARSAT "cell phone" sized sat phone on my desk (I also have a full tracking KVM "Fleet Broadband" INMARSAT setup, 2 INMARSAT C units and a 1 meter tracking VSAT unit) With the exception of the antenna being a 1cm*1cm*3cm block that swivels on the side, it looks like any cellphone from 6 years ago. I also have 3 IRIDUMS onboard, they are the size of my cellphone from 9 years ago. SPOT is owned by GS. I have had GS phones before, luckily they fell overboard and were insured. Iridium works almost as well as anything as far as voice is concerned, second only to the Fleet system and priced the same. The VSAT provides the cheapest voice rate at VoIP pricing, but that's ontop of our $3k broadband bill....