Post
by A. Hugh Jass » September 10th, 2019, 5:44 am
I returned my Garmin InReach last month after using it for almost three months. It reminds me of the duality of Gollum and Sméagol. I both loves it and hates it.
First, nearly 99% of my messages went through. That's good. However, the GPS part of the InReach is terrible. That is bad. The device would show my location off by 1/4 mile to over 1 mile about 30% of the time. Messages were sent after a few minutes, but too often it took about an hour or more. At the top of Mt. Adams, it said "Poor GPS coverage - make sure you are clear of trees..." What? I'm on the top of a mountain with no trees in sight.
I carried with me, always, an PLB in addition to the InReach. If the objective is safety, then I recommend using the PLB since it has a 5 watt transmitter and beats InReach and SPOT by wide margins including under the canopy of trees and in canyons (even some slot canyons).
My wife really liked getting messages from the InReach. Knowing where (well, approximately where) I was, was a comfort to her.
We debated for a long while about returning the InReach. In the end I did not want to reward Garmin for such a sub-par and buggy product. As a former hardware/firmware engineer contractor, this is exactly the kind of product I used to fix and make it work as expected. It is a shame the GPS portion of the device is so poor.
I had two longer trips since I returned my InReach. When I circumnavigated around South Sister (about 25 miles), I brought my cell phone. With my OSMand~ topo app, I was able to text my location to my wife all the way around the mountain. I was surprised at the cell coverage in the Sisters Wilderness. I also did the Timberline Trail with the same kind of good coverage. My cheap $80 cell phone accurately transmitted my position every time. However, there were times I had no cell coverage.
With the PLB (ACR ResQLink), which has no annual or monthly costs, the idea is "no news is good news". I'll give Garmin a try in the future again with a different, improved product; until then, I think I'll us my combo of devices. The PLB for SOS type emergencies and my cell phone for occasional communication.