Thread: Weather and phones

Hay guys what do you go by for weather in the bush. Do you take a radio and if so what type or just read the weather reports prior to heading in and plan from there. Or if you can hire them where could I get one? Also sat phones. Who takes them.

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New version, the Ranger M9 will have 600hr battery life, cold proof, water proof, drop proof, expandable memory also a 5km UHF Radio and cell hot spot feature to give your mates on iPhones cell coverage.... so I've been told

Originally Posted by chris-b

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New version, the Ranger M9 will have 600hr battery life, cold proof, water proof, drop proof, expandable memory also a 5km UHF Radio and cell hot spot feature to give your mates on iPhones cell coverage.... so I've been told

That thing looks the gas!!! Do you own one Chris?

I've got my Iphone 5 with a lifeproof case on it, the lifeproof cases are magic. The battery is shit if you take it in the bush and leave it to roam but I discovered this wonderful device called a solar charger... works wonders! Still, reception is crap at the bottom of a valley, and by crap I mean non-existent. If I go in with a group of mates we use UHF radios/walkie talkies as the main form of communication and make sure that at least one of us has a PLB or some such emergency device.

I just use my phone generally

Cheer I have a iPhone 6 with a case but was thinking that I wouldn't get recp in the valley that in going for a week. And if weather really went south was thinking a sat phone could be a go. As this will be my first every fly in trip so relying on the on somone is new to me as I have only really walked into places

I just download the weather report on accuweather before I go and then refer to it for the rest of the week. If that fails I look at the sky and do my own forecasting.

Originally Posted by MassiveAttack

If that fails I look at the sky and do my own forecasting.

Works for me too.

Might take a mountain radio for updates if I was going somewhere properly remote for more than a few days and had to cross rivers etc to get out again I guess.

I bought an el cheapo AM transistor radio, hoping to be able to use a long wire wrapped around it as a antennae. I got the idea from some USA site, but I couldnt get it to work very well.
Anyone had more luck doing this ? It would have beeen a good way to get weather etc outside cell ph and FM served areas I would have thought?

Just prepare for the worst and deal with it if it comes. Cellular reception gets pretty shit the deeper you go, there are exceptions but I'd never rely on it.

Hiring a sat phone is awesome, we did last time on an extended trip and it was only about $30 a day.

I just go... If the helicopter can fly and there isn't a massive storm coming. There's always breaks in the weather to hunt. Got delayed by a day once, but just stayed a day later.
Had a few days hut/tent/camp bound due to weather, but the hunting is always awesome after.

I've had 2/2 bad experiences with Sat phones.

First trip it was really bad weather thick cloud and rain and it suffered from sattelite fade, like the old satellite TV (which was also droppping out that weekend I'm told. I'd get reception for less than a minute at a time before the sat would drift out of sight and it would cut out. Never successfully made a call due to texts going in and out as soon as it made contact. I was stuck behind a big river for an extra day and overall it caused a lot more worry than it could ever have saved. the lesson here is to only have ONE contact person you might call from your sat phone and they need to be 100% reliable and have nerves of steel.

Second time, we didn't try to use it but sent a text when we arrived to say we were in OK. It never arrived. The interface is clunky and nothing like using an android or even ios phone.

Data connectivity is sloweer than dial up so no smartphone / useable internet access, sorry.

Another good idea is to test it thoroughly at home before you go and then again once you're in the hills. Trouble is you don't want to pick it up a few days before because so expensive per day. Also calls cost $5 a minute plus GST and that's USD. So it discourages you from getting familiar with it.

So, good for the big jobs or if you've got someone with a medical condition but mostly in the hills you're on your own.


In a few situations you can get cell phone reception in the hills but it can vary from minute to minute. I often take my phone for taking pictures. I switch it to flight mode then power off. Takes a while to turn on for a pic but battery lasts a couple of days. Also, you can get a mobile power pack that will recharge an ordinary phone a couple of times.



Advice: look at the weather map before you go, learn to read weather and the sky and trust yourself. Prepare for the worst and hope for good weather. I the old days people went into the hills to get down to the simple life without gadgets but maybe not any more.

Learning to read pressure patterns is a handy skill to have, it's pretty basic really and let's you know when the weather is about to take a turn for the worse, most GPS's have a built in barometer, my old garmin 60csx does the trick for me.

This is a handy read....

Predicting the Weather with a Barometer: PASCO