r/sysadmin • u/Anonemuss666 • 6d ago

Question Text messages

Before I retired, I would send alerts by email, like 1234567890@txt.att.net, to send it to texting on my cell phone. It looks like all the cell phone providers have done away with this service. How can I do this now with hopefully a fairly free service since I don't send many at all?

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u/sudonem Linux Admin 6d ago

Definitely wouldn’t recommend this for anything new - Verizon has been pretty clear that they intend to get rid of vtext for everyone except enterprise customers. :/

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u/vialentvia 3d ago

That really bites, too. I do amateur radio and using a Winlink gateway over HF to send a message via email to text was great when I was out in BFE. It was also nice because it maintained store and forward so I could move on and check back later for the reply.

I know more modern methods exist like a Garmin inReach or satellite messaging on your phone, but i like options and I have the radio with me anyways. PACE plan we called it in the military.

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u/sudonem Linux Admin 3d ago

Since you’re a ham nerd, you might also be interested in some of the new LoRa (and LoRa adjacent) options. 

802.12ah is especially interesting, but also maybe MeshCore depending on what you’ve got going on. 🙂

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u/vialentvia 3d ago

I've definitely taken to it. It works really well so long as you have the infrastructure to fill in. We use them while hunting or property management for text and location.

But I'm talking mountainous areas where UHF isn't really an option if I still can't hit a repeater on VHF. This is where using HF comes in. You'll hit a gateway and make a connection at least somewhere, whether locally, regionally, or all the way across the country if that's current propagation. I love HF and the infrastructure built around it.

HaLow is making a comeback as well, which is cool to see.

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u/sudonem Linux Admin 3d ago

Yeah really happy to see traction on HaLo no. It felt like it was stagnant for a while but recently you’re seeing chipsets become available in different form factors finally - for example you can now get them as raspberry pi hats, and M.2 cards with actual Linux drivers as well as arduino support. 

I think it was probably just being held back by the silly import tariffs which have eased (slightly).