Bosque Bill
Senior Member
Eddie, I've camped in some canyons where it took quite a while for a satellite to become "visible" to the radio so my message could be sent (~20 minutes or so.) There are a lot of "birds", but a lot of world to cover, too. Recall they are LEO and not geosynchronous. The moral is, don't fall in a deep hole and expect a signal right away.
[Updated]
You can send 5 free test messages a month and get a reply bounce automatically. They mention this in the documentation/website, but don't make the info easy to find. Apparently the new models have this built into the firmware.
If you have one of the original devices (without the built in test function) the test address has changed.
To test your inReach device send message to testinreach@garmin.com
I just used the new address and confirmed it works.
[Updated]
You can send 5 free test messages a month and get a reply bounce automatically. They mention this in the documentation/website, but don't make the info easy to find. Apparently the new models have this built into the firmware.
If you have one of the original devices (without the built in test function) the test address has changed.
To test your inReach device send message to testinreach@garmin.com
I just used the new address and confirmed it works.