Sponsored by SPOT

[OS-Aussie]

Based on the sponsorship of SPOT who has one and how do you use it.

My wife likes me to carry mine in the vehicle when I am solo tripping to anywhere distant. It allows her to check my current location and provides her good times to call or not call. IE If the vehicle has been stopped for a while I may be sleeping, combined with the ability to check Google Maps as often or infrequently as she wants for her peace of mind.

 

[flywgn]

It seems to me that your poll assumes that everyone has SPOT. I don't own one, but certainly can see the usefulness of it.

Allen R

 

[Skylinerider]

I don't own one yet, but I do a lot of solo trips, and I see a very real need for me to get one quite soon.

 

[sinuhexavier]

I've had one since January and it has been out on three trips with me. I have a nice list of family and friends that I keep in contact with and let them know where I am. It really gives the wife piece of mind and that alone is worth the price.

 

[OS-Aussie]

It seems to me that your poll assumes that everyone has SPOT. I don't own one, but certainly can see the usefulness of it.

Allen R

I would have thought that was one of the last two options ????:friday:

 

[SOAZ]

I use mine while mountian biking AND Overlanding to tell my girl that I'm fine if I break something and take forever to get back. I use it to track my trip. I use it so she can watch a trip of mine "real time" if she is not feeling well. I use it to send an Okay message to my blog when I take a bunch of pictures so I can update readers as to where I am. AND so I can later tie those pictures to a specific location on google earth. :victory:
Yes, I love my spot.

I was even thinking about a "catch me if you can" game. I'll carry some cash on me and give it to the first person that uses the live SPOT tracking to find and catch me!!!!! They'll need wireless internet access of course. ; )

 

[FlyNdrive]

It would of been nice to have selection for letting the family know you are OK because most of where we go is off the cellular grid. I use it more as a way to let the family of the status of my trips. I send out the OK message every evening.

Julie and I are off the trail for the day and are in a safe place for the night. I will update you to any changes.

I have never used the HELP or 911 buttons, but I feel safe knowing they are there. I also like the coverage area.

Thank you for supporting ExPo.

-Ben

 

[FurthurOnTheFly]

We use ours for checking in with the OK, but don't necessarily have the tracking on every time out, so I wasn't sure what option to pick on the poll there. Never used 911 or help feature. Still having issues on placement in the truck for good satellite position.

 

[LaOutbackTrail]

I got mine for my Central America moto tour, but I havent gotten the service subscription yet since I'm unable to do the moto tour.

I took it out to play with it and its a cool little device, cant wait to use it. In the mean time its on the shelf.

 

[craig]

Missing poll option

The poll misses the case of, "I manually send I'm OK messages, but didn't pay for the tracking feature."

When I purchased mine, I decided that since it runs off of batteries only (lithium) that I would only turn mine on when I wanted to check in or need help. Most of the people I know that have them use them in this fashion as well. In fact I don't know of anyone that purchased the tracking option... they use a GPS to track and make a map when they are finished. The SPOT is just used to let people back home know that things are going well.

Craig

 

[Von Petrol]

Tour Divide MTB Race

Ever racer has a Spot and is used for leaderboard tracking.

http://www.tourdivide.org/leaderboard

 

[uphill]

I bought the spot.

Setting it off would make me feel somewhat like the old lady on the TV commercial who screams, "I've fallen - and I can't get up."

However if I was with somebody who had a medical problem or some other situation where life hung in the balance and I was out of phone range, this would be a good solution. It's not that expensive and provides great service from what I can ascertain.

 

[pwc]

I just bought one for a trip to Oregon with my daughter. My wife was on a trip herself and we had some unplanned days to just wander. I liked not having to plan where we'd be if it was remote, while still being able to give an OK to family back home. As it was, we stayed on paved roads and had cell signal most of the time, so it was no big deal, but as we headed from Bend down to Crater Lake then over to the coast for a few days, I really liked that at least 4 people knew where we were.

 

[Jerry]

We plan on buying one next year when our travels take us to more remote areas. We would turn it on for the duration of any remote or long distance trip.

 

[Tress]

My girlfriend and i are driving the PanAmerican highway, she is an only child and both our familes and friends are very eager to know where we are and how we are doing so this device has been awesome. The rents love to know that all is well even when we are out of cell range or wifi service and more than anything they have loved seeing where we are and what the area looks like. Personally my favorite part is looking at the macro scale topo images, its soo cool to see what all is around....