PLB vs. satellite communicator

[hooky]

I was on a boundary waters trip and my partner was having medical issues. We were able to use his Inreach tethered to his phone to arrange an earlier pick up at another entry point that we were able to get to, instead of just hitting the button to come get us. The 2 way communication was invaluable during that experience.

[backwoods doc]

Please report back on your impressions during setup and first usage.

The InReach Mini worked great on its first trip. We opted against using the tracking feature, in order to preserve battery power during the 7 days we were out. There was no trouble linking to the satellite, though it did take a solid minute to do so. The "basic weather" report in the package we bought did not include wind, which would have been helpful as we were paddling. Can't report on how the SOS feature worked, and hope we never need it.