REMOTE PHONES, MADE SIMPLE

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Satellite Phone Service

The newest and most advanced wireless telecommunication system is satellite phone service. As might be expected, it's also the most expensive. Nevertheless, if you live somewhere between the Arctic Circle and the Panama Canal, satellite phone service will work. In fact, it also offers coverage hundreds of miles offshore in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. About the only place satellite coverage doesn't exist in North America is approximately one half of the northern and western portions of Alaska. Nome and Barrow are out of luck, but the area east of a line running roughly from Prudhoe Bay to the mouth of the Kukoswim River (including the Aleutian Islands) are covered.

Satellite service differs from SMR and cellular by totally eliminating the need for strategically located relay towers. Your phone signal is transmitted through a special high-gain dome antenna directly to a satellite placed in geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the earth. In turn, this satellite bounces the signal back to an earth station where it is patched into the public phone network.

Now for the bad news. At the time of this writing, satellite phones cost about $3,200. A monthly access fee of $25 plus $1.49 per minute (calls within the contiguous U.S.) is currently being charged for service. As with any new technology, premium prices are likely to be the norm for the first few years. Hopefully once there are a large number of subscribers of satellite phone service, the cost of equipment and service will be within the reach of the average remote dweller's budget.

Skycell, the sole satellite phone service, will offer one service that may be of interest to remote cellular users who experience intermittent reception failures. Satellite roaming service will fill the gap and provide coverage if your cellular unit fails to operate due to weather conditions or other interference that long-range remote cellular users frequently encounter. You'll be able to access Skycell via dualmode satellite/cellular phones distributed through your cellular carrier. The same service charge of $25 per month and $1.49 per minute apply. Contact your local cellular carrier, or Skycell at 1-800-753-2672 or 1-800-872-6222.

Ham Radio

Don't underestimate ham radio as a remote wireless communications system. The name may be the same since the first ham communications at the turn of the century, but advances in modern radio equipment have been nothing short of phenomenal.

Radio operators today utilize small mobile and handheld FM radios to communicate in their local area via tower mounted repeater stations that relay their signals over a much farther distance, or allow you to direct dial a local phone number via auto patch. Computers linked to radios open up a new world to ham operators who can view current satellite weather maps, electronic billboard services and even a global position service which shows your exact location on the earth.

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