IF you were stranded...and your phone battery died..

Many of today's phones are power hogs...

We had two guys stranded in Galveston bay recently. Both sought help on a local fishing site. In both cases, they ran out of phone battery power...just when the helpers needed more info as to where-abouts etc.

In my boat I am lucky to have a cigarette lighter outlet. Last week, I bought a couple of doo-dads for my phone from Amazon. One thing that came along was an extra car charger. That charger is going into the boat right now.

Even if your battery was "run down" and couldn't start your engine..it still would have enough juice left to re-charge your phone.

If you do not have an outlet, a female cigarette outlet, attached with two clips to the battery, would work just fine in a pinch.

regards, Rich

That's a good safety tip; thanks, and it might just help one of us someday.

EPIRB

Cell phone only work if you are in "line of sight" with a tower.

Since we found out the earth is not flat, , , ,

I'm not putting myself in a position where I have to rely on a cell phone to save my tail. If it happens to work, great, but I'm not going to consider it a safety item.

Around here, we have mountains, so I can be within walking distance of a tower, and have no reception. Out on the coast, well, you get the picture.

I worry about this more now than i did before ewe all had cell phones.

Back in the day they would send out a search party if you missed supper.
Now my wife would be mad I wouldn't return her calls for two days before she got worried.

"He would call if something was wrong"

good idea, have seen those duracell or bunny batteries that would recharge your cell phone advertised. My wife calls to ask how much longer I'll be fishing as she wants to go see the grandbaby. I tell her I don't have "service" even tho I can see 2-3 cell towers from where I fish when she askes why I didn't answer the phone. LOL

My Dad and uncle got caught in a sudden storm some years ago. The boat flipped over and fortunately the current taken them both to shore. They were wearing PFDs. Dad was sick for a while though because he swallowed a lot of nasty water.
The boat was later retrieved, but he lost all his tackle.
Anyway, fast forward a few years.
My 70+ yr old Dad got his first cell phone, thinking he could call for help if needed, as he sometimes fishes alone. Well, he discovered he didn't have service in some of his favorite fishing spots, oh well.
I don't fish a lot of remote areas, usually sticking to the small lakes, but I always let the wife know where I'm going.

jasper60103 said:

but I always let the wife know where I'm going.

Click to expand...

Exactly. Thanks to the Acme mapper from one of Jims posts, I have all of my hunting stands and areas marked and tell the wife where I'm going to be hunting and what route I'm taking to get there. That way God forbid something happens, my exact cordinates are there if they're needed.

Link to the mapper if anyone is interested... VERY helpful.
https://mapper.acme.com/

Captain Ahab said:

EPIRB

Cell phone only work if you are in "line of sight" with a tower.

Since we found out the earth is not flat, , , ,

Click to expand...

bassboy1 said:

I'm not putting myself in a position where I have to rely on a cell phone to save my tail. If it happens to work, great, but I'm not going to consider it a safety item.

Around here, we have mountains, so I can be within walking distance of a tower, and have no reception. Out on the coast, well, you get the picture.

Click to expand...

Sorry guys, but this is not how it works at all... :? Just because you can see a tower, does not mean that your cell phone company's antenna's are projecting off of it. This is like the biggest myth there is. The other false of this is that you have to be in direct line of the tower.... ummm no. It works exactly the same as the radio folks...just a little less extreme. The signal penetrates buildings, houses, etc.... the lower the freq. the better for penetration. Kinda why all the new LTE stuff is going on. As for being out on the water.... of course your going to run out of service, a normal antenna can only project about 5 miles at best.

How it really works, is there are tower company's who own the towers...like Crown Caste, SBA, American Tower inc. These company's rent space on the tower, and lease ground space for the equipment. So just because you can see a random tower, does NOT mean you will have service.

Even though I have explained this to my mother, and many other people, they all still whine when they can see a tower, and they have no service on thier cell phone... :roll:

Thanks Perchin - that is kinda what i meant. i realize that it is not EVERY tower. I only meant that when you are out of sight of land (and i often am) there is a better then good chance that your cell phone is not getting any reception. We also will use a SAT phone - which works just like a SAT phone, LOL

Your best option is to leave an itinerary with a loved one, and have a Marine Radio on board.

Cell phone is worthless while on the road too. With a CB I can get the latest road conditions, accidents, etc. from other CB'ers. I can also tell you where ever cop is from one state line to teh next.

I carry a spare battery in a waterproof container... but my biggest asset that I carry with me at all times is a windproof/waterproof cigarette lighter that I keep in my pocket. If you do get stranded and make it to shore (or if you have a mishap and go overboard), you can hopefully start some type of fire that will give off your position. I also carry one of my wife's old compact makeup cases with a mirror. If the sun is shining, you can start a fire or send out signals. If it's dark out, get a mini-mag light with an LED light to keep on board..

russ010 said:

I carry a spare battery in a waterproof container... but my biggest asset that I carry with me at all times is a windproof/waterproof cigarette lighter that I keep in my pocket. If you do get stranded and make it to shore (or if you have a mishap and go overboard), you can hopefully start some type of fire that will give off your position. I also carry one of my wife's old compact makeup cases with a mirror. If the sun is shining, you can start a fire or send out signals. If it's dark out, get a mini-mag light with an LED light to keep on board..

Click to expand...

Great recommendations, Russ. I'd also make sure I had some backup water with me also, even if it's just one 2 liter bottle stowed somewhere on the boat.

and just incase you don't know it.... this is SOS · · · — — — · · · tap tap tap, taaap taaap taaap, tap tap tap

I have battery powered Li-ion and alkaline GPS (PN60w SE) with SPOT from DeLorme. I carry spare batteries in my equipment box. Not only will it post your location, you can send text messages



The GPS also has NOAA charts and aerial photos that I downloaded from DeLorme and uploaded to the GPS