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I would like to buy one for my next trip, just for my family peace of mind.

I read a lots of reviews some of them good, but also I found lots of bad reviews too.
Have some of you used this sistem to track your trip, or for emergency, for sending messeges? Are those messeges get to destination?

I appraciate all kind of feedbacks about this unit?
Thank you.

attimount wrote:I would like to buy one for my next trip, just for my family peace of mind.

I read a lots of reviews some of them good, but also I found lots of bad reviews too.
Have some of you used this sistem to track your trip, or for emergency, for sending messeges? Are those messeges get to destination?

I appraciate all kind of feedbacks about this unit?
Thank you.

There have been lots of threads on the subject here. I use the 1st-generation unit a lot, and will upgrade soon. It works for me, but I mainly travel through areas with small, sparse or no trees, and I don't expect it to work when the unit can see just 10% of the sky.

The new unit has an upgrade GPS, so I presume things will only get better for me.

One mode of failure, experienced by a person on SP: the 911 call goes out, gets transferred to a SAR unit, and the unit decides not to respond.

You have to give the 1st generation unit time to lock the GPS and then the satellite to which it will transmit. The best compromise I've found is to have a top pocket on my pack, where the unit faces essentially up, so I can periodically hit the send button and keep walking.

MoapaPk wrote:One mode of failure, experienced by a person on SP: the 911 call goes out, gets transferred to a SAR unit, and the unit decides not to respond.

Sounds like the basis for one hell of a law suit.

you might want to look at the ACR SAR LINK 2883 or 2885 they do not need a clear view of the sky. After being in a capsizing incident 5 miles out in the Atlantic I have been shopping for these pretty hard and I am down to these models.

The ACR SAR LINK 2883 transmit signal is not as depedent on a sky view, but the gps portion has the exact same limitation as the spot.

The spot is not just a distress signal; it is meant to send non-emergency check-in messages as well.

Make sure you understand all of the monthly and yearly fees before buying one. The initial unit is cheap ($50 now after the rebate), but the monthly and yearly fees are really quite expensive if you get all the services.

mconnell wrote:

MoapaPk wrote:One mode of failure, experienced by a person on SP: the 911 call goes out, gets transferred to a SAR unit, and the unit decides not to respond.

Sounds like the basis for one hell of a law suit.

YA can't when a SAR UNIT is Voluntary based.

This exact same thing occurred to me.

The SPOT worked as advertised. Can't say the same for the unit it was dispatching.

The stuff made by ACR seems great, I've never had to use it though.

I've read reviews that say the SPOT is nothing more than a toy, but that may be a bit harsh. Also, stuff about "spotty" (get it?) reception. The ACR and the NOAA monitored PLBs are only for when the shit hits the fan, so there are no "check-in" features to tell people you're status. But, and this is a big but, what if you tell your family/friends you'll check in at 12 noon everyday and the signal doesn't go out or is blocked by trees/whatever? Then what? They get all worried, etc.

The Chief wrote:

mconnell wrote:

MoapaPk wrote:One mode of failure, experienced by a person on SP: the 911 call goes out, gets transferred to a SAR unit, and the unit decides not to respond.

Sounds like the basis for one hell of a law suit.

YA can't when a SAR UNIT is Voluntary based.

This exact same thing occurred to me.

The SPOT worked as advertised. Can't say the same for the unit it was dispatching.

You can absolutely sue volunteers, and people have won suing volunteers that put others at risk by failing to do what the volunteered to do.

lowlands wrote:I've read reviews that say the SPOT is nothing more than a toy, but that may be a bit harsh.

SPOT is not meant for people who hurt themselves with screwdrivers.

yes but if something is volunteer based then they have absolutly no duty to act, thats why a lot of them are reluctant to charge for rescue, as they can't be sued for not responding if they have no duty to act, the sheriffs department however....

-CS

I've had a first generation Spot for a little over a year and I am very happy with it. I've found an area on the top of my shoulder strap of my backpack where it fits nicely and is easily accessible to send check in messages. It's a great tool. My family keeps track of my progress and I get a record of my routes. I've never needed to be rescued but know that if I do I have a way to get help. I have only good things to say about the Spot Personal Tracker.

Another guy carried a gen1 Spot on a trip up Rainier last summer with me. It was of greatest use to my wife, who wants to climb Rainier too; and my mom, who is a nail-biter. She worries anytime she knows I'm in the mountains so she liked following the progress and knowing we were probably okay. After the trip, I plugged all the tracklog data into the Google Maps API on my website to create an interactive map that shows the route.

So, yeah, mostly for novelty is what I've found.

It DID drop the signal a few times in certain places, mainly the period from rapping off the rocks near Camp Hazard and getting up the Kautz ice chute, where there are seracs lining the edge and possibly blocking some signal. However, this chute faces generally southward so I'm surprised it didn't have teriffic signal the whole time. The signal drops resulted in extended straight-line sections on the route form the point it lost to where it regained.

Thank you for all of you.
It looks the Spot 1 it is more reliable then the #2 model. In lots of stores they recall the Spot 2 because of some problems.

attimount wrote:Thank you for all of you.
It looks the Spot 1 it is more reliable then the #2 model. In lots of stores they recall the Spot 2 because of some problems.

I'm told the problem was a malfunctioning battery strength indicator.