Get started

The first step takes about five seconds. The rest is worth doing while you still have service.

Step 1

Text TENT? to (406) 333-1298.

You are on the free tier from the moment the reply lands. Your phone number is the account.

Text TENT? to (406) 333-1298

Scan to text us.

Step 2

Set the phone up while you have service.

Two things, thirty seconds. Do them now, not on the ridge.

Get the Shortcut. iPhone

Install the Shortcut and Tentcast gets seamless. One tap grabs your GPS and writes the whole text for you, straight from your Lock Screen or your watch. No copying numbers off the Compass app with cold hands. No typo that sends you the forecast for the wrong ridge.

Tap Get the Shortcut.
Tap Add Shortcut.
Run it. Your coordinates are already in the text. Hit send.

Get the Shortcut

Scan to get it on your iPhone.

Installing the Shortcut, start to finish.

Using it: one tap, coords sent, forecast back.

Save the contact. Any phone

Three weeks from now, on a ridge, with cold hands, you type “Tent” instead of trying to remember a number.

Download the contact card

No iPhone? Use the Compass app.

Open the Compass app and text us what it shows. Numbers like these are all we need:

45.818198,-110.896455

Step 3

Learn the satellite screen before you need it.

The first time you send a message over satellite should not be on a ridge in the dark. Your phone puts an arrow on screen and asks you to aim at a satellite that is moving, and you turn slowly until it holds.

On an iPhone you can rehearse it: Settings, then Apps, then Messages, then Satellite Connection Demo. Run it in the driveway.

Over satellite, a number that has never texted you cannot start a conversation. Text us once from anywhere with service and we can reply to you out there all week.