The condition of a specific satellite phone might matter more than its exact features in some cases. However, GPS-enabled satellite phones will already have more important capabilities than other satellite phones, which could potentially change the outcome of some emergency circumstances.
GPS Capable
Most satellite phones are GPS enabled, but not all of them have this exact capability. It’s a feature that will be particularly useful during many difficult situations. The people who are specifically using satellite phones to make emergency calls won’t regret having phones like this.
The very best sat phone will be GPS enabled. These GPS capabilities also ideally shouldn’t be limited, which might be the case with some sat phones.
Some satellite phone features will give the devices new uses. The individual sat phone features themselves can also vary in quality. Even a satellite phone’s antenna can have an effect on how the device will be used in practice.
Effective Antennas
Some satellite phones will have omnidirectional antennas, while other sat phones have directional antennas. People might assume that the sat phones with omnidirectional antennas will be better than the products with directional antennas, but the situation might be somewhat more complex than that.
An omnidirectional antenna is capable of effectively getting signals from every angle, which is a very useful feature during many emergencies. However, it’s also true that these omnidirectional antennas may pick up more interference than the directional antennas, since they could receive that interference from any direction.
Essentially, the omnidirectional satellite phone antenna might pick up interference that a directional sat phone antenna would have missed. Interference of any kind can be extremely hazardous in emergencies where people absolutely need to have functioning satellite phones.
However, the interference itself still might be temporary and minor, and there’s no guarantee that sat phone users will have this problem. There are many high-quality sat phones with omnidirectional phone antennas.