SPOT Satellite Tracker

[longpaddler]

Sold

[tomOzarkVideo]

I love my spot! I've never had to call in the troops with it.. But it has been a nice tool for tracking my trips and 6-10 people know exactly where we are at all times. (they follow our trip online)

Cheap insurance and a fun way to do trip reports.

[Crane]

Does the Spot work in Europe?? Crane

[tomOzarkVideo]

Anywhere that has GPS.

[perspective7]

I know some people seem to have problems with the spot system but I have never had any problems even within the deepest bush The one in the pic is the same on I have and I keep it in my vehicle as my "onstar" device with original batteries..over 2 years approx...

[Cowper]

Here's my spin on the Spot trackers.

First generation units had trouble getting a GPS fix, and were a large contributor to the many negative reviews you see. Second gen units like the one advertised above are much better, although there have been some bad units for those too. %? Anybody's guess; given the number of units sold, if 0.1% were bad, there could be many negative internet reviews.

A second contributor is, how much do you use a GPS? Those who have used a GPS have a better feel for what to expect on how long a "fix" might take under varying conditions. So a non-gps user might be more disappointed when it takes a long time in a valley or under heavy tree cover, and write a negative review of the Spot instead of recognizing it as a technology limitation.

Third issue leading to complaints, “user error” due to some questionable human factors design in the status lights. I’ve found that if you go by the lights and turn the unit off immediately after it indicates it has “sent” a message, often the message hasn’t really gone out yet. There is some fine print in the manual that tells you to leave it on for another 20 minutes, which works more than 95% of the time, but just this morning I had a test message fail to go out, while the lights were indicating a successful message send. Coverage was very poor (sent from inside my house, under a roof), but that is no excuse because the manual says I should have had flashing red lights, not green lights, if the message can't get out. In a real emergency, after 30 minutes or 45 minutes I would turn the unit off to reboot, and resend the signal, and continue repeating until help arrived.

World coverage: For Spot to work, you have to have both the GPS satellites, and the communication satellites overhead. There are some places you don’t get coverage; Southern tip of Africa, Madagascar, Antarctica, Southern tip of South America. Go here to see if the places that matter to you are covered:
http://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=109" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have a Spot, like it, and have fun using it. The ability to send “I’m OK” messages from anywhere or a “come help me” message that goes out to friends only is truly a useful feature. But if you need true “world coverage”, get a PLB. And if you want it for serious emergencies only, get a PLB; it has advantages including no annual fee, a far stronger out-going signal and it cuts out the “middle man” service provider.

If you remind me, I’ll bring a Spot and a PLB to the next Central Chapter ACC meeting for a little “hands on”.