inReach Communicator - how do you use yours?

[nickburt]

There's lots of discussion about different types of navigators and communication devices and which ones are "best" or suit individual preferences, but I want this to focus on inReach.

I ask this because I'm already sold on the advantages of inReach and it's capabilities, what I'm now looking at is how best to employ it. I have my own ideas (based on likely personal needs) about the answers to the questions below, and they are bound to be based on personal requirements, but I'm just curious as to the choices made by others.

1: Putting the navigation ability to one side for a moment, what subscription levels do users use?

• Safety
• Recreation
• Expedition
• Extreme

These levels will depend on the amount of time you're likely to be using, or ,might need to use, the features such as; texting, tracking, location pinging, weather reports.

Which level works for you and why? Pros and cons vs needs, and to a degree, cost (although for me, my, and my families & friends safety has no cost restriction).

2: Along side of this, do you have

• Annual/contract monthly plan
• Freedom plan

This is again, likely to be based on the amount of likely usage, and there will be a crossover point, where one plan becomes more cost effective than the other.

3: Which type of maps do you have loaded, and why did you choose it:

• Topo North America
• OpenStreetMap
• Digital Atlas of the Earth.

 

[Kevin108]

I have the Safety subscription on the Freedom plan. I typically have some minor message overages when I do a trip, but not enough to justify the next subscription tier. I use the Color Aerial Imagery and Digital Atlas of the Earth maps in a hybrid configuration.

I visualize my routes with a Google Earth, save my collection of locations in Google Maps, and create my routes with Google My Maps before importing them at https://inreach.garmin.com

I have an iPhone 7, but the way the Earthmate app handled importing my KML caused problems that I did not experience when importing them via the website. Other than that, integration of the inReach with the phone and the app worked great.

 

[nickburt]

Many thanks @Kevin108 pretty much what I was thinking, although I'm contemplating the Recreation plan for the unlimited tracking and location pings, as well as getting more texts.

I use inReach on the Iphone and Ipad quite a bit, and want to start messing around with importing waypoints and routes - interesting about the app not liking KML files though - not tried it yet.

 

[Kevin108]

I need to try it again now that I've learned more about what I'm actually creating. I'll mess with it some tonight or tomorrow night and let you know how it works out.