Thrane + Thrane BGAN Adventure

Mark Kalch and Nathan Welch, two fearless Australian adventurers, have joined the elite few in history to have survived the treacherous journey from the source of the Amazon high in the Andes in Peru to the mouth of the river where it meets the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil. The two ‘Expedition Amazonas‘ explorers, who completed their journey of a lifetime on February 21st, 2008 relied on Thrane & Thrane‘s rugged EXPLORER 500 BGAN system for communication with the outside world throughout the expedition. Reliable communications were vital to the safety and well being of the whole team and the success of the expedition. An extra criteria, important to both Nathan and Mark, was the ability to update the expedition website on a regular basis to help strengthen the support around the world and to highlight the plight of the Amazon region on behalf of environmental and indigenous rights action group, Amazon Watch. The EXPLORER 500 became vital equipment to the team’s safety during several close calls that they encountered during the expedition. The first incident came right as the team set-off: “At the beginning Nathan was severely affected by Altitude Sickness. We made a rapid descent but even at the reduced altitude Nathan’s condition was still of concern, but we were able to get a call out to the closest town for assistance using the EXPLORER. Quite a feat,” explains Mark. The team also faced a huge challenge as their raft became trapped between rocks and a siphon on the river for two days, losing vital supplies in the process. After freeing it, a series of sharp rocks in the Apurimac Canyon tore an enormous hole in the bottom that the team had to make emergency repairs on. Nathan takes up the story: “We eventually reached a point where we suspected there could be road access. Again the EXPLORER came into play and we made an emergency call to our logistics contact. With no food or cooking equipment and a badly damaged raft, the EXPLORER saved us on that occasion.” Thrane & Thrane’s EXPLORER range of BGAN terminals is designed to offer broadband data speeds and high-quality voice calls from almost anywhere on the planet. EXPLORER is used by military, medical, media, NGOs, and business professionals, and adventurers like Mark and Nathan, all who depend on the simple and reliable operation even in the most extreme environments on the planet—Copenhagen, Denmark