Soon there will be no escape

[MTGomer]

I’ve always known this would be a thing someday. I know there’s positives to this too, but it sure is nice to just get away from service sometimes.

SpaceX and T-Mobile team up to use Starlink satellites to 'end mobile dead zones'

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the service will work with Starlink's second generation satellites

www.cnbc.com

 

[rtraverdavis]

I distinctly remember my dad stopping at a pay phone to call my mom in the last town before we headed into the mountains on my first hunt with him as a kid. Then, it was just him and me and the mountains for the next five days. I carry an inReach now, because I have a wife and kids, but there’s something special about being unreachable.

 

[Scott85]

I distinctly remember my dad stopping at a pay phone to call my mom in the last town before we headed into the mountains on my first hunt with him as a kid. Then, it was just him and me and the mountains for the next five days. I carry an inReach now, because I have a wife and kids, but there’s something special about being unreachable.

We can end the thread now. Inreach just to let love ones know we are ok or if SHTF but other going in unplugged is part of it.

 

[rwc101]

I'm more pissed off about corporations unilaterally ruining the night by sending tens of thousands of pieces of future space junk. That being said, I do enjoy the barrage of texts and emails when I return to service after a weekend out knowing I didn't have to deal with them for a while.

 

[JustinsDad]

I like being away from cell service too sometimes. I think we will have to do something different like leave all phones home or something when we go hunting. It’s not going to be the same though. My wife will know I am unavailable on purpose.

 

[hank4elk]

Well, starlink has changed the game here for me . I can actually use the pc and stream now, effectively.
I have a DR appt. today and all the paperwork/questionaire/ history done online before the trip. Get test results instantly.
I have 34k emails I can ignore or delete... or watch a whole season of whatever nonstop.

Walk away from the house and I'm service free.
Still can't get a cell call or a text until the signal reappears. I had cell & internet all over the ranch 10 years ago.
One can always leave the baggage behind here. I'll check texts and voicemesages from Alb. and have 5G service.

 

[buckbull]

starlink has been a game changer for me. I can work remote and bought starlink for my hunting cabin. I'm able to spend the entire hunting season at my cabin (about 3 months).

 

[ccc23454]

My phone is pretty cool, i can turn it off anywhere if i want to...

 

[Nameless Range]

It really is something to mourn, but it's just another step in a direction we've been headed for hundreds of years if not more.

I lived life just before cell phones, and didn't get my first till 2005 when I was a sophomore in college. Today, I feel like I am missing something if I don't have my phone with me - if I leave for town and realize I left it on the counter, I run scenarios in my head of how this may be a problem for me.

I wonder how much more reliant on on a tech-based world-connectedness , just for a sense of comfort, the coming generations will be. The fact is most dead zones in Montana are quite temporary (if you are driving) and often times when one is way the hell back in the hills, your elevation gives you quasi-line-of-sight enough to get service. It's really is special, like the 4 days I spent up the North Fork of the Blackfoot last month, when calling the wife and kids isn't an option for you or them, and the emails are just stacking up in some virtual location somewhere and you couldn't care less, and one doesn't need to access self control to reduce your phone to nothing but a camera. It feels like there’s a difference between self control and not having an option.

I guess we can always look back nostalgically, or at least know the location of your nearest cave if you want that old thrill.

 

[Gerald Martin]

“Kids, when I was your age, I had to walk five miles, uphill both ways with bare feet just to see smoke signals….”

 

[noharleyyet]

I have the most bars between 4:30 and 5:00 on Friday afternoon.

 

[rwc101]

I had better signal 30 miles off of paved roads on a pronghorn hunt than I usually do in Laramie.

 

[hank4elk]

My age. We had a party line the 1st 10 years of my life. In a big city. Then a private line.
Later it was just catch me when you can. Then the answer machine.
Then the county gave me a pager. Cool. No phone to call back,but you knew they were looking. Then in 05 they gave us cell phones and paid for them. Then the IRS audit made us get our own account cause the county would not pay us for off time.
The cell phone rarely worked in that hilly country outside a city.
Had cell service over most of NM 13 years ago with a hotspot. Now with a booster it depends.
I got 2 texts this morning from a HT bud and my call to him got dropped just now as he's in the Malpais...now I lost signal.

 

[hank4elk]

I had better signal 30 miles off of paved roads on a pronghorn hunt than I usually do in Laramie.

I'll call Mike from the Plains on my way to town, great cell service near the VLA. I'll get 10 on the way but they will drop as soon as I stop...

 

[antlerradar]

You can always turn the phone off.

 

[Potsie]

I don't get the people that go on vacation and set of their "Out of Office" notification to say "I'll have limited access to phone/e-mail." Then return every e-mail within 30 minutes. What's the point of your vacation Tom?

I mean hell, I set mine to say "I'm in the mountains, if it's an emergency call someone else, otherwise I'll deal with it when I get back."

I'm cool with momma being able to get ahold of me over the InReach, she knows that's just checking in and emergencies only. My unplugged time is golden.

 

[WoodMoose]

starlink has been a game changer for me. I can work remote and bought starlink for my hunting cabin. I'm able to spend the entire hunting season at my cabin (about 3 months).

still waiting on it to come available in my area - started out they expected it late 2021,, then summer 2022,,, now "in 2023",,,

 

[brownbear932008]

I was just talking with the wife the other day. I could be perfectly happy without cell service of any type. Just a convenience honestly. I'm good with a landline and getting a message when I get home.

 

[Hunting Wife]

I think the expanded connectivity just hastens the development of rural and wild lands, and speeds the crowding in previously uncrowded places. Limited connectivity limited the length of time people would stay. Now, there aren’t any limits. Places people previously found only suitable for a brief camping trip are now suitable for long-term habitation. I get that there are upsides, but I think in the long-run it is just another nail in the coffin for wild places and solitude.

 

[MThuntr]

I spend a lot of time outside cell coverage...in the summer it's Monday-Friday morning from Memorial Day to about Labor Day. We have gone through multiple lines of communications from handheld personal radios to radios supplied by the USFS to Spot to InReach. All have had their limitations and in some non-emergency cases poor communications caused a lot of heartburn and headaches. Part of me likes this because it means I can purge a lot of devices and improve communications with people I'm working with but part of me wants the 65 daily text messages to go unread until Friday afternoon.