Satellite Communicators - Spot X vs. InReach vs. Zoleo

Kenny Taylor

Kenny Taylor

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Kenny Taylor
I've always been big into communications tech, and I've started looking at options to reach friends and family from the air. There seem to be three options out there: Spot X (Globalstar), Garmin/Delorme InReach (Iridium), and Zoleo (Iridium).

I have been testing with a coworker's Garmin InReach Mini and have been very impressed. Most striking is the fact that it will send (eventually) from indoors. Sending from the front room in my house takes an average of 7.9 minutes, and sending from my desk at work, inside a concrete/steel building took an average of 31 minutes. Testing outdoors it took an average of 19 seconds to send, and hanging from my car's mirror it took an average of 1.4 minutes. I'm thinking that last test is probably the best estimate of performance in an airplane.

I'd like to hear from anyone who's tried the Spot X device on the Globalstar network. I've read enough to convince me the Iridium network is better, but the price is also higher. I've heard the Spot X uses a directional antenna, which needs to point up to the sky to work. That, combined with the lower satellite count on Globalstar and lower TX power (400mw vs 1.6 watts), makes me a bit skeptical of the Spot X's performance. I'd be interested to see if anyone has good or bad experience with that one.
 
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Interesting thread, following. Also, if you have something like inReach, would that replace a handheld PLB?
 
WannFly said:
if you have something like inReach, would that replace a handheld PLB?
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Yes. I have had the inReach for several years; I originally bought it more as a PLB than for "normal" communications. It has an SOS button, and there is an add-on subscription for a search and rescue service which you can couple to the inReach. My last renewal this year was $24.95 (per year). That's not much money for a lot of peace of mind.

- Martin
 
I have the InReach mini, not just for flying, but my motorcycling as well. My preferred routes are backroads as much as possible, and I want to be able to summons help even when out of cell range. I don't need all of the fancy foo foo messaging etc., so have the basic plan.
 
Martin Pauly said:
Yes. I have had the inReach for several years; I originally bought it more as a PLB than for "normal" communications. It has an SOS button, and there is an add-on subscription for a search and rescue service which you can couple to the inReach. My last renewal this year was $24.95 (per year). That's not much money for a lot of peace of mind.

- Martin
Click to expand...
thanks. My handheld PLB life expires next year i think, I was going to get inReach anyway for other stuff, I will just stick it then
 
Probably 5 years ago we bought a Spot X @ OSH. It did not work consistently or well (even sitting on the glare shield) in either our R182, or at altitude in my wife's work Citation. At the end of the year contract, we cancelled, and ate the cost of the unit. Dated info, but possibly useful....ymmv!

Jim
 
My buddy bought the Zoleo so he could text while flying. The amount of work he is able to get done running his company while cruising at FL210 is ridiculous. Totally a money maker for him
 
Some versions of the Spot interfere with Garmin WAAS GPS antennas if they are too close (eg up on the dash). I had to get rid of mine because it caused my GTN 650 to lose satellites every 10 min.
 
I may take a closer look at Zoleo. It requires a paired smartphone or tablet to do anything meaningful. The big selling point seems to be a seamless transition between Iridium, cellular, and wifi. That's awesome, if it works the way they advertise.
 
Adding another vote for inReach. We just have the safety plan. The way I see it, if all goes well I don't need to text that much. If there is an emergency I'll happily pay extra prices for 11th message and beyond. I bought the one with the screen which in a way is a total GPS backup with no need for phone.

If this is something for work, not sure if the inReach plans are the best for that.

If you are into tracking and Ross's level of world travels then the full plan would make a lot more sense.

One thing people forget about the inReach are the pre-programmed messages. There isn't a fee for some of them. I basically have one that says all okay, on time, etc. I have a few more that say running late or early or aborted. So only a few clicks to let them know. Very useful once above about 6000agl.

If you are a hunter, hiker, snowmobiler or into big open water sailing its also handy. I was once out with the dog where I was worried he would get lost so I clipped it on his vest and enabled tracking. It was a bit spendy experiment but is more reliable than a top end dog GPS collar which becomes useless once out of controller range.

I think their website setup is a bit dated.
 
Those three preset messages are more flexible than I expected. The text and recipient are fixed and cannot be changed on the fly, but it's possible to include your GPS coordinates and a link to your location on a map with each message. So you could set up one to say "I'm here" to your wife, and she'd receive a message with a link to you on the map. Not too shabby. Of course, if she replies "OK" that counts as a billable message :D
 
+1 more for the Garmin Inreach Mini. Works great. The most expense of them all but it’s Garmin. You get what you pay for. Garmin always comes through.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Has anyone used any of these devices in an airplane with heated windshields? I.e. airliner or bizjet?
 
I ended up purchasing and activating a Zoleo last week, and I'm impressed. Did some testing with my wife over the weekend, kicking the phone into airplane mode and forcing the satellite link, mid-conversation. She never noticed the difference. Pretty dang cool. One big feature I'm missing is the ability to text for METAR/TAF.

There is a third-party METAR/TAF service for the InReach devices, but none for the Zoleo. I built one using the AVWX web service. Same syntax as the Leidos 358-782 service you may access with your cell phone. Anyone out there using a Zoleo is welcome to use it. I'll post a separate thread with more info once I've done more testing.

From Zoleo (or a cell phone), send a new message to 'flightweather@rocket-tech.net' with either 'metar IACO' or 'taf IACO' in the body. If you use a three-character airport code, 'K' will be prepended to get the IACO code. You can shorten 'metar' to 'm' and 'taf' to 't', just like Leidos.
 
I had a Spot X that I used on my sailboat offshore to send safety updates every 6 hours. For that function, it worked as designed. My understanding is that the Spot X was made more for hikers and that I was opting to be a test pilot with it for my intended use. ie, I don't think it was designed to be used in the cockpit.

For whatever reason, the Iridium units are easier to use airborne. I have used their constellation for airborne applications in the past with much success.
 
I’ve had a SPOT Gen3, SPOTX, and inReach Mini. Sold the Mini after deciding it wasn’t worth any more than the SPOTX.

If you crash, you have to find both the Mini and your phone in order to do any detailed communicating. Both have to be working, too. And both batteries have to last as long as you need them. The SPOTX is the only one of them all that’s self-contained when you need it to be. For texting from the airplane, they’ll all work.

TBH, I don’t really like any of them very much. But I dislike the SPOTX less than I dislike the others. It does all of the stuff as well as the others and costs roughly half as much. Also, it has its own phone number, so your contacts can save it and text you even if you don’t initiate a conversation. The Mini doesn’t have that.
 
I'm a belt-and-suspenders kind of guy on stuff like this. If I need help, I'm not relying on one option. I have an old SPOT that still functions, but is slow and really doesn't do well with any kind of tree cover. I'm likely going to upgrade to a inReach with messaging soon.

Plus, we have the 406 ELT in the plane. Interestingly it randomly went off siting on an airport ramp a couple days ago while my partner had the plane. It was not related to hard landing or anything else we can figure he might have done. Getting a call from USAF S&R out of the blue is not a heart-warming experience. Fortunately, I was able to reach him on his cell immediately and he heard the beeping coming from the ELT.

BTW, add this phone number to your contacts, so you won't think it's spam when USAF S&R calls: 850-283-5955

When I do serious back-country travel, someone in the group also has a sat phone for emergencies. They aren't terribly expensive to rent vs. the piece of mind they offer.
 
I have an in reach mini. I use the basic plan of $12/month. I used it on my Midde Fork of the Salmon river trip in march, I used it in October when I flew to Idaho for the week and had to set it down in the middle of nowhere due to IMC. I always carry it when ski flying.
I like it, I think it is a great device. People I send messages to like it as well, it gives them a link to the map of the area and they can see the terrain and follow my progress on a river trip.
 
Since my plane has ELT on radio waves I bought InReach Mini satellite which I wear and will only use in case of emergency, SOS button.
 
A bit of longer-term PIREP on the Zoleo device..

Pros:
- Seamless transition between wifi/cellular and satellite. Remote party doesn't need to know what service you have or don't have when texting.
- Works absolutely anywhere (outdoors). Often works from indoors in single-story structures (home, FBO, etc.), but don't count on it.
- Runs on the Iridium network, which is significantly more reliable than Globalstar (Spot).
- Works great with the 1-800-WXBRIEF text messaging for opening and closing flight plans.

Cons:
- Sensitive to temperature. The device will refuse to charge and eventually power off if it gets too hot. This happened once sitting on the dash of the Cherokee. Tossing it under a sheet of paper was enough to avoid this.
- Occasionally messages will get sent via both cellular/wifi and satellite. This doesn't happen often, but it's enough that I wouldn't recommend the $20/month plan.
- Location sharing depends on the recipient running the Zoleo app. They're pushing the app way too hard, IMO. If the receipient runs the app, messages to their text number will send as an app-to-app message. The app gets closed while running in the background on some versions of Android, so I'm unable to share my location to my wife and daughter without breaking messaging.
- Does not support being linked to 1-800-WXBRIEF flight plans for location tracking like Spot and InReach.
 
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Kenny Taylor said:
Iridium satellites move across the sky, while Globalstar satellites are fixed
Click to expand...

I agree with your summary, but globalstar is not fixed. It's LEO just like Iridium. It's just not as good a system.
 
That's right.. I'd been looking at the Globalstar coverage map thinking geostationary. It excludes the oceans and some land because it lacks the ability to relay satellite-to-satellite like Iridium, so they end up with coverage gaps where sats can't directly hit a ground station. (edited the post to clear that up)
 
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