Great discussion!
Us? Retired married couple, extensive land based travelers for the last 45 years via 4x4, on foot, and via kayak. Have been a SPOT owner for six years, then I bought a DeLorme InTouch last year. The SPOT is now a paperweight.
I went with the DeLorme because of the two way text communications. At the time of purchase I had a 92 year old mother at home and two adult children who would mildly stress out at their parent's crazy travels. It's funny that WE never stress out about our travels. It's the youngsters who get stressed out and demand that we carry technology to solve problems that aren't problems. Snerk.
Anyway...what I like about the InTouch:
-Like SPOT, my DeLorme webpage that shows cookie crumbs every x minutes of our travels. Friends and family can see where we are. If visiting friends is on our plan, they can figure out when we'll be in their driveway. After an adventure we'll save our trip map to reference later.
-Like SPOT, the InTouch has a messaging feature, but the InTouch allows users to self-defined a dozen messages such as "Start/Stop for the day", "Staying put today", etc. The SPOT only lets you send four basic pre-programmed messages. Sending these custoized messages helps lower family stress. Sending pre-set messages are free btw.
- Pay for only what you need with the InTouch. We pay one, low annual fee to keep the account active, then activate the InTouch only for the month we need it. SPOT makes you pay for the entire year up front. Depending on your plan, you will have a limited number of texts before you start to pay a per-text fee. So be frugal with your texts.
-The InTouch bluetooths to our iPad or iPhone for better ease of use. I download maps from DeLorme into my iPhone's memory before the trip. The maps are very useful and provide a lot of information.
-And the most useful feature is real time texting to people on your contact list. With a 92 year old mother at home, I can text her caregiver from the most remote campsite you can think of and ask "How's mom?"and I'll get an answer in less than a minute. That's pretty cool.
Are there any bad things with the InTouch? You bet! The user documentation absolutely sucks, just like SPOT's does! Actually it's non-existent. I'd suggest any DeLorme user to find a user group and read, read, read and practice at home. The machine is reasonably complex, know how it operates from the comfort of your backyard before you take it into the wild. I created a laminated cheat sheet that I take with me. It fits in my pocket and my disinterested in technology wife can use it if she needs to.
And for you guys who scoff at taking an iPhone or electronic device into the wilderness, we treat our power needs just like we do our water. We conserve at every chance. And like the water filter we carry, we have a small, folding solar panel that does a great job keeping our portable pocket battery topped off, which in turn we use to charge our camera battery, InTouch battery, iPhone battery, Kindle, and headlamp battery. I can hear my fellow backpackers groaning from here. I'm 62 years old, I'm taking some electronics with me!! Especially my Kindle. Boy does it save weight compared with a book!
The longest the wife and I have gone off-grid and with electronics is ten days and we had absolutely no problem with power needs, but you have to pay attention. The DeLorme will go three days without a charge IF you only turn on the tracking feature only when you're on the move. Thus the messaging. When I tell the kids that we are starting or finishing the day, that means that I'm turning on or off the tracking feature. I'll leave the InTouch turned on to exchange texts, if necessary.
Hope this helps.
Us? Retired married couple, extensive land based travelers for the last 45 years via 4x4, on foot, and via kayak. Have been a SPOT owner for six years, then I bought a DeLorme InTouch last year. The SPOT is now a paperweight.
I went with the DeLorme because of the two way text communications. At the time of purchase I had a 92 year old mother at home and two adult children who would mildly stress out at their parent's crazy travels. It's funny that WE never stress out about our travels. It's the youngsters who get stressed out and demand that we carry technology to solve problems that aren't problems. Snerk.
Anyway...what I like about the InTouch:
-Like SPOT, my DeLorme webpage that shows cookie crumbs every x minutes of our travels. Friends and family can see where we are. If visiting friends is on our plan, they can figure out when we'll be in their driveway. After an adventure we'll save our trip map to reference later.
-Like SPOT, the InTouch has a messaging feature, but the InTouch allows users to self-defined a dozen messages such as "Start/Stop for the day", "Staying put today", etc. The SPOT only lets you send four basic pre-programmed messages. Sending these custoized messages helps lower family stress. Sending pre-set messages are free btw.
- Pay for only what you need with the InTouch. We pay one, low annual fee to keep the account active, then activate the InTouch only for the month we need it. SPOT makes you pay for the entire year up front. Depending on your plan, you will have a limited number of texts before you start to pay a per-text fee. So be frugal with your texts.
-The InTouch bluetooths to our iPad or iPhone for better ease of use. I download maps from DeLorme into my iPhone's memory before the trip. The maps are very useful and provide a lot of information.
-And the most useful feature is real time texting to people on your contact list. With a 92 year old mother at home, I can text her caregiver from the most remote campsite you can think of and ask "How's mom?"and I'll get an answer in less than a minute. That's pretty cool.
Are there any bad things with the InTouch? You bet! The user documentation absolutely sucks, just like SPOT's does! Actually it's non-existent. I'd suggest any DeLorme user to find a user group and read, read, read and practice at home. The machine is reasonably complex, know how it operates from the comfort of your backyard before you take it into the wild. I created a laminated cheat sheet that I take with me. It fits in my pocket and my disinterested in technology wife can use it if she needs to.
And for you guys who scoff at taking an iPhone or electronic device into the wilderness, we treat our power needs just like we do our water. We conserve at every chance. And like the water filter we carry, we have a small, folding solar panel that does a great job keeping our portable pocket battery topped off, which in turn we use to charge our camera battery, InTouch battery, iPhone battery, Kindle, and headlamp battery. I can hear my fellow backpackers groaning from here. I'm 62 years old, I'm taking some electronics with me!! Especially my Kindle. Boy does it save weight compared with a book!
The longest the wife and I have gone off-grid and with electronics is ten days and we had absolutely no problem with power needs, but you have to pay attention. The DeLorme will go three days without a charge IF you only turn on the tracking feature only when you're on the move. Thus the messaging. When I tell the kids that we are starting or finishing the day, that means that I'm turning on or off the tracking feature. I'll leave the InTouch turned on to exchange texts, if necessary.
Hope this helps.
