SPOT Emergency locator

[Turkrazy]

I am looking for feedback from anyone who has used a SPOT locator or simular product. Had a scare over Labor day weekend with my Dad and will be purchasing some type of emergency rescue/locator product.

At some point we will all be at the age or condition where we may need this type of item. Heck, just being out there leaves us at some risk.

Thanks in advance fort he input. Stay safe out there.

Dave

 

[cantclosethedeal]

Used one this year for the first time. They are a little slow to lock on, and have difficulty in the thick cover as expected, but I would still recommend one. Great piece of mind for the family. (They know you are OK, and exactly where you are) Was able to call my packer with the exact location of my elk. Pretty cool toy.
BTW, they are coming out with an upgraded model sometime in September. Smaller and faster lock.

 

[Turkrazy]

Thanks for the feedback. I will look for the new model.

 

[nruehmeier]

I have had one for a year now and will not go out without one. Gives the wife a nice piece of mind when she gets emails. Go to www.HardcoreOutdoor.com, Hardcore Outdoor here on MM has done a nice review. Good info. Also search here on MM, been discussed alot. Good luck.

nrueh

 

[HardcoreOutdoor]

Can't add much to what I have already said about SPOT. In the interest of full disclosure though you should know that I am a SPOT Ambassador and have assisted in the development and improvment of the device. However, I am not paid or employed by SPOT which means I maintain my independence and objectivity. I promote SPOT because I believe in it and depend on it myself.

I got involved with them when the product first hit the market because I was sceptical but very interested in it. In fact, I challenged them on its capabilities from day one and through my own evaluations and field testing I found that if used properly it works. Mine has worked 100% of the time. Meaning I have never had a failed message but I also take care to give it a good view of the sky and enough time to do what it needs to do which is key to its success.

I carry one with me all the time in the field and I include them in the Emergency Wilderness Kits I make up for family and friends. It is not the perfect backcountry communications device but as far as I can tell it is the best non-duplex device currently available to civilians.

The first generation model works well and is offered now at a reduced price but the newer model will be smaller, lighter and features upgraded performance which will be important for those that operate under heavy cover or in canyon country.

I think every outdoorsman ought to have one.

Wade
www.HardcoreOutdoor.com

 

[Turkrazy]

Thanks all for the input. I had the pleasure of a 50 mile backpack trip a couple of years back and took a sat. phone with me. The phone crapped out on a test but luckily we didnt need it. We were way deep in the Uinta Mountains.

My Dad who is creeping up on 70yrs old still enjoys to get out and I want some extra insurance.

Take care and stay safe.

Dave

 

[Spartacus]

Has anyone ever heard of the Spot being used in an actual emergency? I get that it's a good thing for the wife to get updates but I'd like to know how reliable it is in a wilderness emergency.

Thanks

 

[HardcoreOutdoor]

I have been to the GEOS Emergency Operations Center outside of Houston. They are the folks that handle the distress calls. I was impresed with the set up, redundancies and the people.

On the other end, I have read a lot of the first hand incident reports from the people that used the 911 feature and everything seemed to work as advertised.

I have also interviewed some of the SAR Coordinators that are on the recieving end of the notification calls from GEOS and they say that the Incident Mangers are very thorough and persistant to the point of overkill making sure that the responding emergency services are on top of things and that the families are being kept informed of what is going on.

I am sure that they have not all gone perfectly, Murphys law and all, but I certainly got the impresion all the way around that somebody would be busting a gut to make sure that things would be handled properly if and when I ever had to set it off.

Wade
www.HardcoreOutdoor.com

 

[patientlywaiting]

There are alot of rescue stories on their website but here in Utah a guy used one and was rescued near Notch peak (Millard County) just a few days ago, when he and his buddy were separtated and he ran out of water. His buddy wasn't so lucky and must not have had one. they found his body yesterday..here is the ksl story.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=7967245

I'm going to by one of the new ones this winter..

 

[ChubbyTuna]

I have used one the lasy 2 years and the peace of mind for my family is great. i have also invested in the Rino Walkie Talkie so that I can have a "visual" on my dad as we hunt.

 

[Bulzeye]

I don't mean to stir the pot, but mine is pretty much worthless. Needless to say I now have an orange paper weight that I would not pay one dime to renew the service for. I have never gotten it to consistantly send out messages. Even on hill tops and under favorable weather conditions. Sometimes it will send out and other times it won't. I go by the book and turn it on and let it warm up for 15 to 30 minutes. I've even had it at my house and turned it on and left it in the driveway for over an hour and then tried to send out a message. It never went through! Other nights it may go through with no problems at all. I took it on two deer hunts in Sonora Mexico. The first trip I was there for a week and only about half of a dozen or more messages went through. The second trip not a single message went through. Pretty disapointing.

If have zero confidence in this thing while in my driveway then how am I supposed to have any confidence when I'm out in the hills?

I think it's a great idea, but I'd suggest waiting until they get all the bugs worked out.

 

[HardcoreOutdoor]

Your experience is certainly not consistant with my own nor from anyone else I have heard of. Sounds like you have a defective unit. Why haven't you exchanged it?

Weather dosn't have anything to do with performance.

Wade
www.HardcoreOutdoor.com

 

[Spartacus]

They new SPOT should be in stores soon. It seems like a lot of bugs are worked out, better GPS, faster signal, smaller, etc.

That's the one I'm waiting for.

 

[HardcoreOutdoor]

You can already buy them at REI. I am testing mine now.

Wade
www.HardcoreOutdoor.com

 

[Bulzeye]

I never took it back because a couple of my friends were having the same experience with theirs as I was having with mine. I figured that must be how they all work.

I bought it for a little piece of mind and it gave me nothing but fits!

Perhaps the new ones are better?

 

[HardcoreOutdoor]

Either you are using it incorrectly or it is a defective unit. I am 100% with mine and for the second year in a row the Primal Quest race tracked more than 60 teams through 600 miles over 5 to 10 days with virtually no problems. There are thousands of storys of satisfied users.

The device works!

Wade
www.HardcoreOutdoor.com

 

[Bulzeye]

How hard can it be to use it... right? You turn it on. Let it warm up for a few minutes and press a button. Then you wait a few minutes before turning it off and in my case cross your fingers that the message transmits. I don't have a college degree or anything, but I'm sure I was doing it right. It probably transmitted the message 50% of the time.

To late to do anything about it now. It's over a year old and I did not renew the service.

If you're happy with it that's great! I was just sharing my own experience with it.

 

[HardcoreOutdoor]

I appreciate what you are saying but there has to be a cause for what is happening. I have worked with hundreds of people that have used it with no problems so like I said, either it is something you are doing or it is a bad unit. Either way, i would like to get you squared away.

Let me give you an example. In last years Primal quest race all units were set to SPOT Cast or Track mode. We had a couple of units that were not showing up on the map. We found the teams and determined that the responsable team member had let the unit slide down the pack strap either to the rear or down the front. In another case a team was crashed out asleep on the side of the trail with their packs still on. The problem with this is that the antennae sits directly under the logo and has to be facing up with an unobstructed view of the sky. Once we moved the units back to the top of the shoulder while they were walking/running the units registered perfectly. The antennaes are that sensitive.

Here is another. Some people will do just like you described. They set the unit up in a good area facing up, turn the unit on and give it plenty of time to "warm up" and then hit the Check OK button. Here is the rub, the unit can take up to 20 minutes to transmit the message and if you aren't watching the unit every second you might not see the Message LED stay lit for 5 seconds (which indicates that the message is actually being sent) you might assume that it has already gone out and turn the unit off prematurely.

The fix is to leave the unit on for the full twenty minutes after sending the message. I know, that is a pain in the neck. We changed this in the new SPOT II. Now a dedicated message sent LED lights up after the message is sent. Much better.

I am betting that you are shutting the unit off too soon after sending the message. Try doing it the same way you have been doing it but let the unit stay on for the full 20 minutes after sending the message. Remember that this small, lightweight device that runs on two AA batteries has to do a very big job. It has to communicate with a set of navigation satellites that are a couple hundred miles above earth to get a good fix then communicate with a second separate set of communications satellites that are even farther up all while everything is hurtling through space at 25,000 mph. It is truly rocket science.

Give it a shot and see if it works. If not, send me a PM and I will see what I can do for you.

Wade
www.HardcoreOutdoor.com

 

[Sitkaspruce]

Make sure you read ALL the istructions. Went guiding for moose this year took the unit to tell the wife we were OK, she did not get a message. Then she read the part about moving more than 600 miles and having to reset it....I did not get to that part...Opps

My only complain was that the wife sent a message off on Oct 1 to see if there was a problem with the Sats or other things wives worry about. She just recieved a reply on Oct 21. Way too damn late to help her. I will be asking why it took so long to aswer her email. Poor service like that will not help sales.

Cheers

SS

 

[califhuntn]

Hey Wade I want to clear something up that you said in the third paragraph. Correct me if I'm wrong hear but you don't have to actually see the right LED light light up for 5 seconds to know it sent the message. When you initially press the OK button it will flash simultaneously with the LED light for the power indicator. These lights flash simultaneously until the signal is sent then the right LED turns off after going solid for 5 seconds. I think I am correct there. But if this happens in 15 minutes and the right LED goes solid and turns off do you still need to let it stay powered on for 20 minutes?

JR

 

[HardcoreOutdoor]

Hello JR,

I turn on my Gen I SPOT and lay it out in the open where it has the best possible viiew of the sky with the logo poit skywards-the green LED above the On button blinks about once every four seconds.

After about five minutes I press the Check/OK button for a couple of seconds-the green LED above the Check/OK button lights up and blinks in unison with the LED above the On button.

At some point, usually six or seven minutes, both the On and Check/OK green LEDS will stay lit at the same time for five to six seconds indicating that the message is being sent.

Then the green LEDS above the On and Check/OK buttons go back to blinking in unison every four to five seconds

After about twenty minutes the green LED above the Check/OK button goes dark but the LED aboe the On button continues to blink about every four seconds.

Since I don't watch mine every second anymore I usually turn the unit off when I check it and see that only the On led is blinking. That tells me that the cycle has run its course and I can continue on with whatever else I am doing.

Does that make sense? That is the way mine has always worked and if memory serves, it is the way most of the other units I have seen work.

Again, it is not an ideal user interface which is why the form factor was changed. I think the new set up combined with the better chip set and antennae of the SPOT II are far superior.

Wade
www.HardcoreOutdoor.com

 

[COSA]

Wade,

I'm not sure what your relationship with SPOT is, but why didn't SPOT include a simple gps screen with the new unit? That way one would not have to carry a gps as well.

My SPOT works exactly as Wade described, and I typically do not let it "warm up". Also, I reprogrammed the "help" button to send a message that I was successful. The unit seems to send this message much faster and at a much quicker interval. The only time I've had a problem was when cloud cover was very thick or I was in tree cover.

 

[HardcoreOutdoor]

Cosa

I am a SPOT Ambassador which simply means that I am a satisfied customer of some renown and an "expert" user that provides feedback and input. Sort of like being a Pro Staffer I guess.

Most people want or require more than just a set of coordinates from their GPS so the inclusion of a simple GPS screen would not allow them to leave their previous GPS receiver at home. If you decided to integrate a full feature GPS into the SPOT unit then it would require a much different form factor. Later models may include that, I don't know.

What do you mean that you reprogrammed your Help button? Do you mean that you configured your Help button message to say that you were successful?

Cloud cover and precipitation should not effect the performance of the first generation SPOT units and heavy tree cover will be less of an issue for the Gen II units.

Wade
www.HardcoreOutdoor.com