Episode 121: Sat Phone Conundrum

Posted by on Dec 8, 2009 in All Podcast Episodes, HD Episodes, Season 4, Everest Trek 2009 | Comments Off on Episode 121: Sat Phone Conundrum

What We’ve Got Here Is A Failure To Communicate. Since today was a rest day here in Namche, I decided to test our satellite gear. It doesn’t work.

Whenever I visit Everest I always bring some technology that allows me to share my experiences with everyone. One of my favorite things is working with high-tech gear in remote, wild places. My sat phone and sat modem are usually very dependable but as with everything there are times where technical difficulties arise.

Today was one of those days.

We brought the sat gear so that everyone on the trek could share their adventure with their friends and family. The goal was to allow everyone to update Twitter, upload their best photos from each day to flickr and simply phone back home.

In the past I’ve always brought my Iridium sat phone but it is notorious for dropping calls while in the himalayas. For this trip I purchased a Thuraya sat phone because it’s reception is almost always rock steady.

I also brought an Inmarsat BGAN satellite modem for accessing the Internet. I’m familiar with BGANs since CNN provided one to us for the 2003 Everest expedition. It’s an amazing little piece of technology.

Unfortunately I purchased these pieces of gear from a vendor that I’d never used before and they just didn’t give me all of the instructions for activating everything.

Without properly activating everything they pretty much are as effective as a paperweight.

The issues I’m having made me furious because communication is an integral part of the workshop and one of the services Chris and I promised everyone. Luckily there is a hotel near our campsite that has an Internet connection and PC so I was able to email my sales rep for help. I hope he’ll get right back to me with the missing registration instructions.

We just want to phone home. ET phone home. Everest Trek phone home!

Jon Miller

Total Running Time: 31:21

Well, it’s official–the DVD for our film Everest: The Other Side is now in stock and shipping! In fact, I’ve already mailed all of the pre-orders all over the world.

If you’ve been waiting for this announcement before you place an order, please head on over to everesttheotherside.com to grab your copy.

I am my own shipping department and personally mail each of the DVDs so I can fulfill each order within about 24 hours after it’s been placed.

Thank you to everyone who placed a pre-ordered, we couldn’t have completed the DVD without your support.

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