In the previous parts on this topic I have mentioned a few times how amazed I am that despite a transmit power of only 1.5 watts, the small Garmin InReach Mini 2 can send text messages to Iridium satellites that are thousands of kilometers away. This becomes even more impressive when one sees where the satellites are actually located during the message transfer.
The screenshot on the left was taken from the Irdiumwhere website at a time when my Mini 2 reported that a message had been sent successfully. According to this map, which is updated in real time, the message I sent from Cologne was either exchanged with a satellite that was just over the Mediterranean island of Sardinia or with a satellite that was over Iceland at the time.
I continue to be amazed, so in the next part of this series, I’ll have a look of what kind of technical information is available on the Iridium constellation.