Recent content by Rando

There is still a niche for Iridium even with Starlink which is handheld and machine-to-machine communications. As of now anyway, Starlink requires a phased array antenna to steer the beam to a satellite, which makes it impractical for handheld devices (phones, inReach, hotspots) and embedded...

Dave pretty much covered what you need to know - if you are staying in the continental US and only want to send SMS (aka SBD) messages the constellations are fairly equivalent. I use both professionally - SPOT as an asset tracker and Iridium for data transmission. Personally/recreationally I...

Gaia also has a public lands map layer. The nice thing is that you can layer this with whatever map you are using for navigation.

I have been using Gaia but recently tried OnX backcountry and OnX off road, and there for my use there is really no comparison, Gaia wins hands down. Gaia has far more map resources, which is the primary purpose for using these apps. The ability to layer the maps in Gaia is also key - for...

In my mind, the biggest advantage of a flatbed is the side door, which means you no longer need the galley layout with a clear isle down the middle. With more than one person in the camper, someone can be sitting at the dinette and someone else can be comfortably cooking at the stove or...

It sounds like you have TPMS on the trailer tires, in which case tire pressure may be able to give you some warning of brakes overheating. While it may take a while for the air in the tire to heat up, particularly if you are using a valve stem mounted TPMS, if the rim is getting warm the...

It is a four-to-one 8mm barrel jack combiner. It takes 4 of the goal zero 8mm barrel connectors and puts them all in parallel. Maybe worth chopping it off and putting something more standard in.

A heat pump coefficient of performance is strongly dependent on the temperature differential. Assuming an outside temperature around 25F, the COP for a good air source heat pump is around 3, meaning you could only need 250W to produce 750W of heat - that is still 12kWh of battery for 48 hours...

Have you done a ballpark calculation of what your energy needs will be? A small number of folks have successfully run AC off batteries for well insulated campers, but they typically need a large solar array to keep up. In most cases, heating takes more power than cooling - simply because...

I would have to second the opinion that the '50% rule' has been completely over stated and over used. There are a lot of folks who seem to think that taking their lead acid battery below 50% will kill it, which is simply not true. Furthermore, this has lead to the marketing mumbo-jumbo that...

There is no requirement to use bluetooth here. What is being suggested is to use the built in GPS in the tablet. This is by far the most rugged and reliable option. If you want to improve your cellular signal (it is not the wifi signal that matters), then a cellular amplifier (aka a cell...

You can use a tablet for navigation, but use your phone for the hotspot instead of the Nighthawk (ie to provide wifi). One less device and one less cellular subscription to worry about. Again, there is really no need for the GPS antenna on the roof. Most of us here use the built in GPS...

I gave some advice in your other thread - to recap, no need for a GPS antenna, and generally no need for a cellular router if you already have a smart phone with hotspot capabilities.

Apologies for the thread drift..... To get back on subject: inReach > Zoleo > Bivy.

Garmin is going great guns, and consumer handheld GPS is only one part of their market (they also have marine, avionics, wearables, etc), so I don't have concerns about their long term viability, or Iridium either as the DOD is very heavily invested in their success and with Iridium Next their...