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Comment by atty | Hacker News Reader

Honestly, if the coverage is good and it doesn’t cost too much, this would get me to upgrade years before I was planning. I live in an area with frustratingly bad coverage from all providers, and if we ever go on a hike or something a little further out of the city, we get no service at all about 30% of the time. I’d like the extra peace of mind for any potential emergencies.

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Emergency satellite beacons are fairly inexpensive, assuming emergencies are your only use case.

I frequently mountain bike alone in areas without reception. I bought a PLB1 so I have an “oh shit” button if something goes wrong (or I run into someone else in a similar situation). No monthly fee was the huge selling point to me. I could care less if I can text or pair my phone.

I feel massively safer having this beacon in my pack. It also makes a great, albeit expensive, gift for friends who are similarly active.

Not the only use-case. It would also be nice to just have some limited communication abilities in areas pretty close to our house where we currently have non-negligible dead zones.

But thank you, I’d never heard of those before.

The Garmin Inreach is a hiker staple, at least in my part of the world.

You can activate a GPS-located SOS and send messages home to check in.

I've wondered why they don't implement LoRA, if they want another type of radio network. You could message other iPhones even if none of you have a cell signal. Low power, doesn't need a big antenna.

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