Tracking with gps

[davidvz]

My son and I ride adventure motorcycles in back country areas often without cell phone coverage. We ride different routes that may be separated by up to 20 mi. I am looking for a way for us to know where each of us are. The Garmin (delorme) inReach units seem to be able to do that but i would need to pay monthly fees for 2 units.
The questions - Is there another way to do this? Is there a way to do this without monthly fees?​

 

[Nuvi-Nebie]

I don't think you will achieve this, a GPS receives signals from satellites, it doesn't transmit anything, so you will need a radio link between units, the inreach does this by combining a GPS with a two-way satellite link, this can also be achieved with cell phones when within coverage, or GPS plus walkie-talkie

 

[davidvz]

thx for the insight. does the dog tracking with gps work the same way, by radio signal? and i so any idea of the range? similar to garmins' rhino units?

 

[Nuvi-Nebie]

Most Trackers use a built-in cell phone and a SIM card just the same as your cell phone, so obviously, no cell phone signal means no tracking. Some use other radio links, Bluetooth, or something more like what you would find on an Garmin Rino, but these devices are smaller than the Garmin and their transmitters are less powerful so the range is less

 

[davidvz]

thx again for the response. to be clear, the inReach SOS (or inreach to inreach) is not via gps satellites/ but radio frequency?

 

[Nuvi-Nebie]

Sorry I was mixing up two different Garmin products, the Garmin Rino has GPS plus two way radio (walkie-talkie), the Garmin inreach has GPS plus two way communication via Iridium Satellite (not GPS satellites), however unlike the inreach, the range of the Rino can't reach 20 miles

I have edited my posts above to correct the mix-up