Satphones in place of beacon / spot

Social stigma from people who think only corporates and rich yuppies carry satphones in the back-country? I haven't used one, but more than a few times I've mentioned the possibility of satphones in other forums and that's been an immediate style of response. Weirdly. They haven't appealed to me quite so much because I prefer to pay one-off for things as much as I can, but I'm not always logical.

Agree on the one-off payment. Which (along with terrible reviews for functionality and customer service) has put me off SPOT and their self-renewing contracts. But with pre-pay satphone options (and just found Iridium offer similar preay 'credit' which is valid for 2 years starting at $50) there is no obligation to pay a monthly fee just to have the device sitting in the cupboard ... which has always put me off before

OK. To partially answer my own question: Inmarsat, whilst cheaper, use geostationary equatorial satellites. I.e. from NZ they're low in the sky, in the north, not moving. That doesn't bode well for trying to get contact out of a ravine, with an inconvenient mountain in the way, or even a big tree. Iriduim, however, use a collection of 66 low earth orbit satellites (similar to the way GPS uses them) so a) satellites are always moving so not permanently behind 'Hill A', and B) satellites cross the poles as well as the equator so may well be available in the southern sky. Not to mention a shorter radio-path by several thousand KMs, which can't hurt. So whilst Iridium may not provide such stable connectivity as satellites are continuously moving, if you're trying to get a text message out to let someone know your situation (all I'd use it for) you'd expect it to work 'in the end'. But field reports from anyone who's tried it would be welcome. Plus any catches I haven't spotted in the pre-pay system.

Slightly off topic but caught that program I shouldnt be alive about your adventure down south couldnt help thinking they did a reasonable job of the production then Ill bet the sat phone would have worked there ok!

Satphone would have worked a treat. Great view of northern sky. Production wasn't too bad. Just abit pissed offabout the bit they made up. And dissappointed the filmed in glenorchy (i presume) not the douglas where it occurred.. though more cross with doc for making filming there prohibatively expensive.