New Personal locator/rescue beacon <$199?

[outsidr]

A dual sport buddy of mine emailed this to me from the adventure rider website. Check it out, thought there might be some takers after reading the lost and broken in the back country thread that just started.....Don't know if it would work under snow or not...


SPOT Satellite Messenger



The unit will cost about $150. Annual basic service is $99 and it is an extra $49 per year for the Real Time Tracking feature, which also uses Google Maps.

The OK button is a way you can "phone home" to tell the folks everything is going as planned. It sends a pre-loaded text message to one to four stored email addresses. They can use Google Maps to see your position.

The Help button means "I need assistance but it is not life threatening."

The 911 button means "Send out the troops - I'm bleeding!" and goes directly to the local emergency center.

For a full test of the SPOT unit go here:
http://www.equipped.com/SPOT_ORSummer2007.htm

Here's the SPOT Home Page:
http://www.findmespot.com/

They are predicting a November 2007 startup date

 

[mountainpete]

Thanks for posting that. :wings:

I heard about it here at work a while back and it's nice to see more info. Will have to read that whole review later.

Pete

 

[Hltoppr]

Very cool!

-H-

 

[adventureduo]

I think i'll buy one ... great price and the yearly pricing is well worth surviving any adventure.

 

[dlbrunner]

I'm have one of the demo units. They are pretty cool. If you guys have any questions I may be able to answer them.

 

[Desertdude]

Looks like a great unit and affordable for anyone to own/us.

What happens if it sets off accidently? (and/or how hard is it to accidently set it off?)

 

[dlbrunner]

You have to turn the unit "on" before you can activate the "help" or "911" function.

It takes effort to activate the buttons, the have a deep feel to them.

It is pretty tough to get the 911 to go off because the button is really small.

 

[Desertdude]

Thanks for the info!

 

[BajaXplorer]

Can't say much about it right now, but our racing team is testing a unit this weekend. I have been tracking one of our motos prerunning the B1K section between Loreto and Cabo today. The unit sends a message on the moto position every ten minutes and is trackable on the internet (Google Earth).
This thing will be a real life saver as well as a useful tool for tracking whereabouts of friends and family (but only if they want to be tracked).
Will supply more info when it is OK to do so.
BX

 

[BajaXplorer]

Last thursday some of the team flew from San Diego to Loreto with the Spot test unit. The first screen shot is the track of the airplane with the spot unit on the dash. Along the track three of the position messages were not received (the 3 gaps). The live tracking is called spotcasting. A position is sent every ten minutes and is accessed through a Spot website by username/password. The second screen shot is from the moto with the spot in a backpack worn by the rider. The third is zoom in on track. The track is on the '06 B1K course from Loreto to Todos Santos. I was able to follow his progress through the day with a real time update every ten minutes. As can be seen, a number of position reports did not get received, but overall we feel it was a success as the number not received did not effect the ability of the chase truck to meet the bike for pit stops. The chase truck not having internet access was able to call (sat phone) me or others at computers for position fixes on the moto. Fourth screen is plane track back to San Diego. The last two screens are a snapshot from about noon, first is the map track and then the message history shown for that particular group of track points (as shown on the spot website).
BX

 

[Desertdude]

Excellent real use report. Thanks!

 

[BajaXplorer]

Did I mention, since it is google maps you can use sat images, as well as zoom. The following are of track point 3 in the last two screen shots of my post above. Near Lopez Mateos.
BX

 

[BajaXplorer]

I am posting this link for anyone seeking more info on Spot. I don't know anything about this distributor and cannot vouch for them, just happened upon their site.
BX

http://www.itzcomm.com/SPOT/SatelliteTrackers.html

The official Spot URL
http://www.findmespot.com/

 

[Lynn]

I am posting this link for anyone seeking more info on Spot. I don't know anything about this distributor and cannot vouch for them, just happened upon their site.
BX

From the linked site:

Snort. Snicker.

Not quite a guffaw, but cute.

 

[Lynn]

Actually, you can track anybody who has a cell phone for free at this site.