Tthanks for posting this. If it works as advertised it would be great for backcountry ski trips. It does not seem very expensive, a great value.

DB

I have no idea if it works as advertised, but I think I'm going to give it a try. looks like its about $170 or so for the unit and about $100/yr for the service. The one thing I can think of that its missing is some kind of notification that your distress signal was received and acknowledged.

Yea that would be a great feature. I guess that you would just have to believe that if the batteries were good, that the message has been transmitted. I know my wife would probably really like me to have this kind of device when I'm on some of my trips!!

If you do get one, would you please post some kind of evaluation, and if I get one I'll do the same?

Thanks again
DB

Interesting. Says waterproof for 30 minutes at 1 meter. Using Sat's vs cell service seems to be
a neat idea? Linking to google maps is cool. Says for tracking it is a 10 minute hit. Wonder if they can
do at smaller hits.

Guess the competition is really starting on this GPS stuff.

Dave

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

I picked one up earlier this week for my wife. She goes on long solo kayak trips and I want to be able find her body quickly if something goes wrong. Otherwise it can take months to get the life insurance check. Anyway... It seems to work very well so far. I haven't tried to use it in the mountains yet, but all the messages sent from open areas near the lake have been relayed reliably. The GPS locations have been accurate to within 10 meters or so. The unit is the size of a large computer mouse and feels rugged.

Here's an example "I'm OK" message that is sent to the email addresses that you have set up in your account:

SPOT Check OK.
Unit Number: 0-7347744
Latitude: 45.6728
Longitude: -122.6987
Nearest Town from unit Location: NW 69th St, Hazel Dell, WA, US
Distance to the nearest town: 0 km(s)
Time in GMT the message was sent: 12/04/2007 22:08:28
http://maps.google.com/...F8&z=12&om=1

I paid $150 at REI for the unit, and another $150 at findmespot.com for the basic annual subscription + tracking service.

wvines

thank you for the information. Does the unit send out an 'OK' message at a preprogramed interval, or as a manual 'button press' operation?

Otherwise it sounds like a great device.

Thanks

DB

There are two modes:

If you push the "OK" button once it will send one message. (They say it sends the message to the satellite 4 times to increase reliability.)

If you hold down the "OK" button for more than 5 seconds it will enter "Tracking" mode and will send a message every 10 minutes for 24 hours. They charge an extra $50/year if you want this feature.

It sounds like it is full of great features - worth the money.

I'm not so sure that the tracking mode would be that great however. If you got caught in, lets say, an avalanche, I don't think I'd want it to continue to send out OK signals !!

Thanks for the info.

DB

I just talked to the company about the 10 minute tracking ping. As expected, this is the best they can do
with the limitations of the technology. Meaning, when you share a resource, they all need to work.
So, for their intended market, this is a killer product at a killer price. And, it sure would be better than
nothing for training stuff, or long races/events/etc.

But, for shorter stuff where one really wants to track a person in more real time, just can not meet this need.

Dave

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep