Handheld Satellite Phones

When using a handheld satellite phone, you need to remember that you are communicating with a satellite that’s way out in orbit – hundreds of miles.

How Satellite Phones Work

Satellite signal needs to reach one of these satellites and then be bounced back to a ground station before the signal is delivered to the call destination. The repeat occurs when a reply is made to your call.

For you to be able to make this connection with a handheld satellite phone you need to be outdoors or be indoors but be attached to an external antenna that is outdoors. There also needs to be at least an 80% view of the skyline.

You will have successful calls if you stay away from tall structures including trees that can block signals. Make sure that your antenna is properly installed and connected. Make sure that you wait for the global satellite phone to register and that you have stable signal strength.

Of course, always follow the instructions that come with your phone. Companies like americansatellite provide clear instructions and great customer service to assist their phone users, so make sure you get a satellite phone from a reliable provider like them.

A Closer Look at the Satellite Phone

Let’s have a look at the handheld satellite phone. It can take as long as three minutes for the phone to register and you need to be patient and wait. Once it registers with the satellite constellation on the inverted letter “I” appears on the right side of the

The handheld satellite phone has two antennas - the small one that is on the top which is for the cellular communication and it is not activated until it arrives at you. You must first deploy the big antenna which is on the back of the phone and is the antenna that is used for satellite calls.

Rotate the large antenna so that it is in a vertical position. Hold the phone to your ear and take note of what is the vertical position which is the right position for usage and avoid the dropping of calls.

If you have trouble making outgoing calls or you receive a pre-recorded message that asks you to provide your credit card number you are likely in a cellular mode that is not activated when the handheld satellite phone ships.

You can quickly switch it to Gstar only so it only looks for satellites and ignores all cell stations. When you are outside the jurisdictions of the US and you want to make long-distance calls you will need to hold down the 0 key and wait until you see a + symbol to appear in the display.

Then you can dial the International code plus the country code, area code, and then the number. You need to make sure that the antenna has at least an 80% view of the sky so that your handheld satellite phone can have a clear path to shoot to the satellite and back.

There are both high satellites and over 40 low earth-orbiting satellites and you can be connected to as many as 4 satellites all at once for improved quality.

Some Cons of Satellite Phones

There are a few common problems with a handheld satellite phone but certainly you can deal with them just for the portability. Let’s have a look at those drawbacks: You can only use it indoors if you have an external antenna; it doesn’t work well around tall buildings or trees and it also doesn’t do well around tall buildings.

Heavy cloud interferes; a car with a metal roof interferes; you can have interference when other satellite phones are around, and it may not allow the phone to be registered which is the most critical of all. The rest of the problems you can likely workaround.