That hits the Spot

[Av8r3400 1178]

Who here has one of these "Spot" locators?

I'm interested in learning more about them and what people think about them. More than what the sales pitch on the website is...

[6320012s 12]

I've had one long enough for it to be an "old" model, and it has worked pretty good for me. My wife likes to see where I'm at, and I like to have a little insurance. The only down side of it is that it only reports position every 5-10 minutes, and sometimes it will miss the connection for several transmissions. I have never tried to call for help with it, but by looking at my track, I'm pretty sure it would do the trick. Worst case, it might take 15-20 minutes to transmit the call. I've used it on some backpacking trips in the mountains, and even in those conditions it has performed surprisingly well. That said, it's my understanding that if it cant see a satellite, it will have to wait till it finds one.

[bdavies 0]

Who here has one of these "Spot" locators?

I'm interested in learning more about them and what people think about them. More than what the sales pitch on the website is...

I've had one for about 5 years now. I live in a remote area and do a lot of ski flying in the winter. SPOT not only keeps my family and friends up to date, as to my whereabouts (very accurately) but also gives me the peace of mind in knowing I can summon help if something should go wrong. There is no cell phone coverage on most of the lakes I land on. A friend used his on a trip into the Arctic and I was able to track his progress on my PC and even estimate his ground speed. I don't leave home without it.

And btw, I don't sell them or work for the company.....

Edited 23 Jan 2012 by BeaverBill

[TheDeltaFox 0]

At the last tower I worked at, one of the pilots had the new version of the SPOT with is online access in his flight plan details. He had it set to track every couple minutes and we could watch him do his wildlife surveys. I thought it was a great idea especially if he ever went down we'd be able to see his last position and if it was still operational they'd find him rather quick.

[ChrisBolkan 130]

I have the "new" Spot. The one that can send text messages as well as do all the tracking and SOS stuff the original does. Uses wifi to talk to a smart phone. Works as advertised with the exception that sometimes is is a pain to get the I touch to mate with the spot. Although it is not sophisticated enough to receive text messages, being able to send them provides additional ability to communicate over and above pressing an I'm ok button.

The messaging works very well and have never experienced one not going out. The new spot seems to suck batteries down real fast, but I only use alkaline batteries, not the recommended lithium. it probably wouldn't suck batteries down as fast if I didn't ust the tracks function which drops breadcrumbs along the way.

I've never had to use the message capability for an emergency, but it is nice to be able to send actual messages to those on your spot email list. Especially like "We arrived safely and are at the beach having a blast. Sucks to be you."

I understand you can update facebook and other social networs sites too, but I haven't done that either.

All in all good peace of mind for not a lot of money.

Chris Bolkan

[High Country 69]

I know its a bit old but it thought i would give from the responders side of things. I'm an emergency dispatcher for sheriff, fire, and Mountain Search and Rescue. It seems like we send out search parties several times a year usually in fall hunting season or winter. Many times it will take us days or even weeks to find the person(s) but every time we have gone after a person who set off their SPOT we were there within hours. I'm definitely going to get one once i get my bird off the ground. It would be nice to be able to set it off from another source ie. you've been missing for a day and your wife could set it off to start a search just in case something really bad happened and you couldn't set it off your self. hmmm maybe i should suggest this to the SPOT company.

-Robert-

[marshawk 82]

I know its a bit old but it thought i would give from the responders side of things. I'm an emergency dispatcher for sheriff, fire, and Mountain Search and Rescue. It seems like we send out search parties several times a year usually in fall hunting season or winter. Many times it will take us days or even weeks to find the person(s) but every time we have gone after a person who set off their SPOT we were there within hours. I'm definitely going to get one once i get my bird off the ground. It would be nice to be able to set it off from another source ie. you've been missing for a day and your wife could set it off to start a search just in case something really bad happened and you couldn't set it off your self. hmmm maybe i should suggest this to the SPOT company.

-Robert-

I have the old spot and it works great except I think it marks a waypoint every 10 minutes,which means you can put quite a few miles on between the waypoints.Can you adjust the time they are sent on the new ones and do you need cell phone service in order to send a text message.

Thanks

[akflyer 1427]

I have the old spot and it works great except I think it marks a waypoint every 10 minutes,which means you can put quite a few miles on between the waypoints.Can you adjust the time they are sent on the new ones and do you need cell phone service in order to send a text message.

Thanks

With the new spot messenger, you use Bluetooth to link the cell phone and the spot, then the satellite signal to get the text message out. I have used my old SPOT and have not yet purchased the newer one. When they first came out they had some teething pains, but I think it is all straightened out now and works great!

[horsepower 24]

With the new spot messenger, you use Bluetooth to link the cell phone and the spot, then the satellite signal to get the text message out. I have used my old SPOT and have not yet purchased the newer one. When they first came out they had some teething pains, but I think it is all straightened out now and works great!

Joey ( C5 Engineer) has one and uses it alot.When he comes up to Idaho he post it on the internet so you can watch his progress.I think Im going to get one after watching him use his.He flies a lot of hostile territory as does the Alaska guys and if you went down your probably going to get picked up a lot faster with a SPOT than a ELT 450.Randy