DeLorme InReach Satellite Tracker FOR SALE

why sell it?

Dale,

I'm upgrading to the new delorme unit which has a color display and keyboard for texting, etc.

$300 for the new one...

On Friday, July 5, 2013 8:33:25 PM UTC-5, Sean F (F2) wrote:
Dale,



I'm upgrading to the new delorme unit which has a color display and keyboard for texting, etc.



$300 for the new one...

Cool - did not realize there was a newer version already! Suspect by the time I am ready for XC contesting there will be a even better version. Smile.


ZEN

On Friday, July 5, 2013 5:16:20 PM UTC+2, Sean F (F2) wrote:
I guess my hope was, gentleman, that our sport (specifically the SSA) would see the value in stronger adoption of an impressive GPS system (Delorme InReach and Iridium network vs Spot and its poor, unreliable network) that transforms watching our sport (contests, cross country, record flying) into an interesting realtime viewing experience for our valued spectators.



The SSA has invested a lot of time into the sailplane tracking page which they have recently developed. Thus far, unfortunately, t's a massive flop because the content (SPOT with its awful 10 minute, no telemetry location info) is WATCHING GRASS GROWING BORING! DeLorme in contrast offers 1 minute updates combined with altitude, heading and airspeed. It is simply not comparable. If all pilots had DeLorme the silane tracking page would be massively popular and similar to watching the live tracking of Grand Prix soaring.



Also, the idea that 10 minute updates is somehow safe in a crash is flawed. If the crash is severe (pilot alive but uncounsious or the Spot is broken) you could be as far as 20 miles away from your last known location. DeLorme's IRIDIUM NETWORK allows for 1 min tracking. So a mile or two is as far as you would be away from the last known location. That is the whole point of their aviation level service. Safety. Crashes which require rescue are usually severe. Minutes count if you are to survive.... Spot is not designed to track aircraft. It's designed to track 3 mph hikers!!!!



Delorme = Safer, far better functionality both in the unit and on their website. Altitude, heading and airspeed. Actually interesting to watch.



Spot and DeLorme are far, far apart. DeLorme is far superior to Spot. It's worth a few extra buck a month if you value VALUE. It's not worth it if you do not value VALUE or you are cheap. We fly gliders worth many tens of thousands of dollars with significant inherent risks. Especially in contests and cross country flying.



Get a DeLorme. You will not be disappointed. Don't be cheap. Your worth higher levels of safety!



Sean

F2

Well, I am cheap, no doubt about it. And while I hope your vision of Soaring becoming a spectator sport comes true, I'm not holding my breath about it. The problem (as I see it) is that not enough people know anything about gliders (including most power pilots), so have a hard time getting excited about it - and lets face it, flying is pretty boring to watch unless something blows up! This isn't like America's cup racing with mega-million boats dueling it out - everybody kinda understands how a boat works, and watching the crews work the boats is interesting - and once and awhile something breaks! If we had head to head competition between huge Concordias on a closed course with live TV, and occasional mid-airs, then people would watch. Not sure if that would be good for the sport, though...

Back to the Delorme - You make some good arguments - I see I have to do some more research. I was looking at getting a 406 PLB as a backup, maybe an Inreach would be a better choice.

Is the SSA website setup to show Inreach tracks?

Kirk
66

Useful discussion, thanks.

On Friday, July 5, 2013 9:48:54 PM UTC+2, Steve Koerner wrote:
My point seems to be missed... You can choose the Aviation 1 plan for InReach and pay quite close to the same as you do for Spot's contract. You then have a vastly better gadget that is producing more interesting and useful data points every 10 minutes and provides 2-way arbitrary messaging and it does not cost more for the service contract.



The idea that InReach costs more is only for guys like Sean that want the high sampling rate. You don't have to set a high sampling rate -- you can set it at 10 minutes. It seems to me that there's actually no rationale for Spot except that you may want to keep it until your Spot contract runs out. And, be careful on that sco Spot is setup to automatically renew unless you notify.



There's a one time cost to upgrade, of course, but that doesn't count.

Good point, Steve. I need to look into it some more.

Cheers,

Kirk
66

Kirk,

One cool thing about Delorme is you can change its update cycles to you preference. Example, 1 minute for contests. 5 or 10 minutes for record flights or CC. In this way you minimize your data usage and can use a lower data plan that costs less. You cannot do this in the air (need to hook up to a PC), but it only takes a few seconds to change this.

I think we (ssa) should try to negotiate group pricing. But we would need 100 or so to do this....

I would be very willing to lead this negotiation with their CEO who I have spoken with several times already...

Maybe we could email a poll to the SSA membership and see what level of interest there is?

I don't think the cost of the unit is a factor, it is the cost and structure of the subscription plans. I like the simplicity and fix cost of the spot plan, I can use my spot as much as I want for $150 per year. I am not clear if and what is the equivalent plan with the InReach for say 5 min interval unlimited plan. I don't want to have to keep track of my usage such as with cell phone and test messaging. This is why unlimited plans are popular. Gimme a reasonable cost for 1-5 minutes interval unlimited plan and I'll get one.

Ramy

Ramy -- the pricing scheme is setup such that the overage minutes are cheaper than the plan minutes. It's not the gotcha scenario that used to be commonplace with cell phone plans. If you look at it more closely, I don't think you'll fret about data overage. Again, this is all laid out very well at the Cumulus Soaring site.

On Saturday, July 6, 2013 7:10:24 AM UTC-6, Sean F (F2) wrote:
Kirk,



One cool thing about Delorme is you can change its update cycles to you preference. Example, 1 minute for contests. 5 or 10 minutes for record flights or CC. In this way you minimize your data usage and can use a lower data plan that costs less. You cannot do this in the air (need to hook up to a PC), but it only takes a few seconds to change this.



I think we (ssa) should try to negotiate group pricing. But we would need 100 or so to do this....



I would be very willing to lead this negotiation with their CEO who I have spoken with several times already...



Maybe we could email a poll to the SSA membership and see what level of interest there is?

The SSA membership could be polled, though there are likely other approaches. Group unit pricing is best left to one or more of the soaring community's enterprising vendors, with whom the SSA does not wish to compete. Negotiating a special subscription for SSA members could be a win-win, similar to the SSA group plan discount for AOPA members.

Frank Whiteley

Sean F (F2) wrote, On 7/6/2013 6:10 AM:
Kirk,

One cool thing about Delorme is you can change its update cycles to
you preference. Example, 1 minute for contests. 5 or 10 minutes for
record flights or CC. In this way you minimize your data usage and
can use a lower data plan that costs less. You cannot do this in the
air (need to hook up to a PC), but it only takes a few seconds to
change this.

My inReach SE tracking rate can be set directly on the device - no PC
needed.

Settings Tracking Moving interval

That's on the ground - haven't tried changing the rate in the air, but
have no reason to think it can't be changed in the air.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Feb/2010" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm
http://tinyurl.com/yb3xywl