The outfitter I'm planning on using only has Spot GPS units available. But we would prefer a sat phone. Has anyone rented a sat phone from somewhere other than an outfitter? I see Verizon rents them for $59/week and they are shipped right to your home. But I don't know what they charge you for shipping? What other companies have you guys used for rentals? What did they charge/week and for shipping?

Goldenbadger, I have one that I would be happy to loan you if you like, as long as our trips are not at the same time. I have had it a couple years and have never made a call with it. I swore I would only use it in a life and death situation. Of course you could call whomever you want as often as you want.All you would have to do is cover the cost of shipping it to you. Just e-mail me if interested.

Wallee,
That is a very kind and generous offer. Our trip is Aug 15-23. Does that conflict with yours?

No, not at all. My first trip is in early July, and I do have one planned for the 28th of August, I will not need the phone for this trip anyway. The model I have is the Iridium Extreme.

Awesome! I'll connect with you closer to trip time and set up getting it here. This will save us a good chunk of money. It is very much appreciated. This site and the members on it are amazing. :)

Wallee, do you want to go in to the rental business? We have a trip last week of July. If not, that's cool.

quote scramble4a5: "Wallee, do you want to go in to the rental business? We have a trip last week of July. If not, that's cool."

As of right now I do not have anything planned for that date, although that may change. I do have a tendenancy to go up at the spur of the moment. ( 9 times this past year). I would be happy to loan it to you if I am not using it.

I have rented from this place 3x. They are good to work with.
You pick the day you need the phone and they Fed X it to your door.
Then I charged it and went out side and tried it, to know how to use it. Then When I got home, I put it in Fed X back to them.

Easy as pie.

They take down your credit card and charge the time (calls) against your card, when the charges hit a certain amount, then they charge your card.

I had NO problems with the phone at all. I would put it in a zip lock inside a dry bag, or a pelican case to keep it dry. I took a spare battery with me and ONLY had it on when I wanted to call home.

I just set up a specific time to ALWAYS call home. It was 6 pm for me no matter where I was. that way my wife knew when I was calling home. She always had a wind direction for the next day and weather report for that evening and the next day ready for me :)

Hope that helps

SunCatcher

Mobal Satellite Phone Rental

I have also rented from Mobal three times with good success. I just text my wife every day or two and let her know what lake we are on. Text's are relatively cheap.

quote SunCatcher: "I have rented from this place 3x. They are good to work with.
You pick the day you need the phone and they Fed X it to your door.
Then I charged it and went out side and tried it, to know how to use it. Then When I got home, I put it in Fed X back to them.


Easy as pie.


They take down your credit card and charge the time (calls) against your card, when the charges hit a certain amount, then they charge your card.


I had NO problems with the phone at all. I would put it in a zip lock inside a dry bag, or a pelican case to keep it dry. I took a spare battery with me and ONLY had it on when I wanted to call home.


I just set up a specific time to ALWAYS call home. It was 6 pm for me no matter where I was. that way my wife knew when I was calling home. She always had a wind direction for the next day and weather report for that evening and the next day ready for me :)


Hope that helps


SunCatcher


Mobal Satellite Phone Rental "

Their website says it's $14/day. Do you have to count the shipping days in those charges? I suppose 2 days on each end of your trip?

Sorry, I can't remember on the shipping days? I believe it is nothing on the days coming to you. In other words say you request it on the 10th and they ship to you, it does not start until the 10th.

Then it is up to you to get it back asap. I sent mine back the day I got home, which was the day AFTER I got out of the woods, and they did charge me for that day.

Hope that helps.

I never talked ober 5 minutes at $2 per minute

SunCatcher

One other thought, I have rented from Outfitters before, they tend to charge like $16 per day and $4 minute. (At least mine did)
However, you pick it up and rent starts that day, and you give it back the day you come out.

Just because your outfitter is not renting you one, does not mean you could not rent one from another outfitter close by?

SunCatcher

Outfitter Satellite rents for $10/day and charge regular FedEx rates for shipping. I've used them, and they are good.

I've rented many times from

Network Innovations

they charge $50 per week and $15 for shipping.

Wallee, I'm just checking back in to confirm if the offer still stands to use your sat phone in August. I know you mentioned doing an early July trip so you may not see this message right away. If I don't hear back from you after a bit, I will try to send you a message.

quote Goldenbadger: "Wallee, I'm just checking back in to confirm if the offer still stands to use your sat phone in August. I know you mentioned doing an early July trip so you may not see this message right away. If I don't hear back from you after a bit, I will try to send you a message.
"

yes, it will be available. I am leaving for Quetico in 6 hours and will be back around July 22nd. I am then turning around and heading back up to Ely and Grand Marais on the 24th of July for another couple weeks.I can send it to you when I return home for those few days, or if you are going up when we are up there I could give it to you then.

I rented a satellite phone from our outfitter last year because our wives were nervous. Turns out it was a good call. Trip partner got sick last day so we called for a tow instead of paddling all the way. Would've been a rough day for him. $17/day if I remember right plus $x per minute. Think it was $4 but dont remember for sure.

quote walllee: "

quote Goldenbadger: "Wallee, I'm just checking back in to confirm if the offer still stands to use your sat phone in August. I know you mentioned doing an early July trip so you may not see this message right away. If I don't hear back from you after a bit, I will try to send you a message.
"

yes, it will be available. I am leaving for Quetico in 6 hours and will be back around July 22nd. I am then turning around and heading back up to Ely and Grand Marais on the 24th of July for another couple weeks.I can send it to you when I return home for those few days, or if you are going up when we are up there I could give it to you then. "

Thank you, Wallee. We'll be in touch. Please send it when you can. We're leaving here on the 14th of August.

I've also used Mobal for 4 trips with no probs.

Wallee I'm sending you an email with my mailing address.