@Philip Glass ... I have bought sim cards from Amazon, though I have used eBay too. The cards look identical but it's been a couple of different companies, and sometimes I'm able to just pay and top off over the phone without a new card. The ones I have purchased have been 200 minutes and good for 6 months. I sometimes have lapses in periods of time when I don't need one and I get lazy and let it lapse, and then have to ante up when it does. The minutes will carry if you re-up as soon as it's about to expire, but typically there's not a whole lot left on them by that point.
I use mine a lot for weather checks in places where I can't check the weather. I have a network of friends that KNOW how to read the weather for rural Alaska, and decipher the weather patterns. A couple are bush pilots. When I'm in the field, hunting or up at my cabin for a week to two weeks it's nice to get an accurate handle on what's happening and when; WU has it hour by hour and is usually really accurate - you can target windows of time. Maybe I'm telling you what you already know. It's also handy for hunting if you need more time or need to get picked up early, with the air taxis. I've lived here long enough that I know all the local ones really well. And I also use it just to talk to family, while I am gone.
There are probably better, more efficient ways available today. I started with this years ago and have just never bothered to change. I have heart disease and had my heart worked on in 2012. I am in really good shape now, but I often go to the cabin alone to work, so this seemed like fairly cheap insurance. My card is specific to Alaska and Canada and runs about 275-300 for that 6 month card. Sorry to be long-winded.
