I love being able to use my HF radio to communicate with people (via email mostly) while away from the dock. After running into a problem with signal propagation due to sun spots a while ago, I’ve been contemplating getting a Inmarsat phone to that I can make paniced calls for help should that be necessary instead of lighting of my EPIRB.
The following site seems to offer a decent deal on sat phones for emergency use. Check them out if you need one!?!
http://www.satphonestore.com/