Science and Technology news... :: View topic - SPOT

pluscount · Guest

On Jul 13, 1:42 pm, "ps56k" <pschuman_no_spam...@interserv.com> wrote:
[quote]anyone know more about how these things work
with no external antenna...
Also - looking at the global coverage map - it>s interesting,
in that it is mostly the northern hemi - but not over the complete oceans ??

FYI - had read about this new device in a Backpacker magazine.
Here it is live -http://adventurescience.ca/follow-the-team.html

here>s the device websitehttp://www.findmespot.com/explorespot/spotmessenger.aspx

--
----------------------------------
"If everything seems to be going well,
you have obviously overlooked something." - Steven Wright
[/quote]
I>ve had one for 3 weeks. Works as advertised. Sent over 15 test
messages. The only time if failed to send a message with my location
was when it was in a moving vehicle. To be sure, you need to give it
a good view of the sky for about 5 min. I feel much more comfortable
in the desert alone.

David Chamberlain · Guest

pluscount wrote:
[quote]On Jul 13, 1:42 pm, "ps56k" <pschuman_no_spam...@interserv.com> wrote:
anyone know more about how these things work
with no external antenna...
Also - looking at the global coverage map - it>s interesting,
in that it is mostly the northern hemi - but not over the complete oceans ??

FYI - had read about this new device in a Backpacker magazine.
Here it is live -http://adventurescience.ca/follow-the-team.html

here>s the device websitehttp://www.findmespot.com/explorespot/spotmessenger.aspx

--
----------------------------------
"If everything seems to be going well,
you have obviously overlooked something." - Steven Wright

I>ve had one for 3 weeks. Works as advertised. Sent over 15 test
messages. The only time if failed to send a message with my location
was when it was in a moving vehicle. To be sure, you need to give it
a good view of the sky for about 5 min. I feel much more comfortable
in the desert alone.
[/quote]
That>s pretty much been my experience. I>ve owned it for a few months
now. I>ve pretty much just sent test messages, but have yet to have a
message fail.

I>m well aware that it>s not as good as the $500+ PLB>s that a person
can buy. But it is, to me, a fairly inexpensive insurance policy for my
occasional excursions out into the wilderness.

I think that if a person is simply aware that it needs to be face up
with very little obstruction above it, that they should get along fine
with it.

The "SPOTcasting" feature is of little interest to me, I have a GPS that
tracks my progress.

--
David Chamberlain

Keith · Guest

[quote]in the desert alone.

That>s pretty much been my experience. I>ve owned it for a few months
now. I>ve pretty much just sent test messages, but have yet to have a
message fail.

I>m well aware that it>s not as good as the $500+ PLB>s that a person
can buy. But it is, to me, a fairly inexpensive insurance policy for my
occasional excursions out into the wilderness.

I think that if a person is simply aware that it needs to be face up
with very little obstruction above it, that they should get along fine
with it.

The "SPOTcasting" feature is of little interest to me, I have a GPS that
tracks my progress.
[/quote]
But does it broadcast your progress over the internet like SPOT
casting does ?

David Chamberlain · Guest

Keith wrote:
[quote]in the desert alone.
That>s pretty much been my experience. I>ve owned it for a few months
now. I>ve pretty much just sent test messages, but have yet to have a
message fail.

I>m well aware that it>s not as good as the $500+ PLB>s that a person
can buy. But it is, to me, a fairly inexpensive insurance policy for my
occasional excursions out into the wilderness.

I think that if a person is simply aware that it needs to be face up
with very little obstruction above it, that they should get along fine
with it.

The "SPOTcasting" feature is of little interest to me, I have a GPS that
tracks my progress.

But does it broadcast your progress over the internet like SPOT
casting does ?
[/quote]
No, it doesn>t. But then, no one really cares much where I>m going but
me, so for me it>s a non-issue. I>m only speaking for myself. For me,
it>s a device that allows me to send for help if I need it, or to send
an OK message if I>m out longer than I expect, so my Dad doesn>t worry.
For that purpose it appears to work well.

--
David Chamberlain

Kraft bottling · Guest

On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:42:44 -0500, "ps56k"
<pschuman_no_spam_me@interserv.com> wrote:

[quote]anyone know more about how these things work
with no external antenna...
Also - looking at the global coverage map - it>s interesting,
in that it is mostly the northern hemi - but not over the complete oceans ??

FYI - had read about this new device in a Backpacker magazine.
Here it is live -
http://adventurescience.ca/follow-the-team.html

here>s the device website
http://www.findmespot.com/explorespot/spotmessenger.aspx
[/quote]
Not exactly an answer to your antenna question but something of
interest for people who are/may be relying on SPOT for emergency use:
Check here http://www.equipped.org/ and go down the page and check
the item titled "What Price Your Life? Distress Alerting as a
Commercial Service " If interested, download and play the .wav file
which sums up the subject the site>s author is trying to make.

YMMV....

..Kraft

Guest

On Jul 15, 5:49 pm, David Chamberlain
<david.chamberl...@attglobal.net> wrote:
[quote]pluscount wrote:
On Jul 13, 1:42 pm, "ps56k" <pschuman_no_spam...@interserv.com> wrote:
anyone know more about how these things work
with no external antenna...
Also - looking at the global coverage map - it>s interesting,
in that it is mostly the northern hemi - but not over the complete oceans ??

FYI - had read about this new device in a Backpacker magazine.
Here it is live -http://adventurescience.ca/follow-the-team.html

here>s the device websitehttp://www.findmespot.com/explorespot/spotmessenger.aspx

--
----------------------------------
"If everything seems to be going well,
you have obviously overlooked something." - Steven Wright

I>ve had one for 3 weeks. Works as advertised. Sent over 15 test
messages. The only time if failed to send a message with my location
was when it was in a moving vehicle. To be sure, you need to give it
a good view of the sky for about 5 min. I feel much more comfortable
in the desert alone.

That>s pretty much been my experience. I>ve owned it for a few months
now. I>ve pretty much just sent test messages, but have yet to have a
message fail.

I>m well aware that it>s not as good as the $500+ PLB>s that a person
can buy. But it is, to me, a fairly inexpensive insurance policy for my
occasional excursions out into the wilderness.

I think that if a person is simply aware that it needs to be face up
with very little obstruction above it, that they should get along fine
with it.

The "SPOTcasting" feature is of little interest to me, I have a GPS that
tracks my progress.

--
David Chamberlain
[/quote]
I got one a few months ago. It works well if you are just checking in.
I expected the tracking to be marginal since I>ve seen sat phone users
have trouble when moving. No failed messages thus far.

The price is reasonable. It is much cheaper than a sat phone, and who
wants another monthly fee. The alternative is EPIRB, but then all you
can do with that is call for help, not just report in when you are
OK.

My OK message is kind of obvious. My help message gives the phone
number of the highway patrol because that is my most likely "help"
message. The 911 of course is when the fecal matter hits the fan.

I don>t like the idea of tracking. That means I have yet another thing
to keep juiced (powered). I rather just turn on the box, send my
message, and turn it off.

Pegleg · Guest

On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:59:28 -0400, Kraft bottling <me@privacy.com>
wrote:

[quote]Not exactly an answer to your antenna question but something of
interest for people who are/may be relying on SPOT for emergency use:
Check here http://www.equipped.org/ and go down the page and check
the item titled "What Price Your Life? Distress Alerting as a
Commercial Service " If interested, download and play the .wav file
which sums up the subject the site>s author is trying to make.

YMMV....

.Kraft
[/quote]
That is an excellent web site for those that haven>t visited it yet.
There are many, many issues with a "for profit" emergency service that
range from what if the company goes bust to do they have the $$$$ to
keep functional satellites in the air and more.

Full service for Spot is $150/year, the unit is $150 = $300...for couple
hundred more you have a unit that is 100% more reliable and effective in
the event a rescue is needed and no service charges!

Guest

On Jul 19, 10:58 am, Pegleg <Peg...@usnavyret.mil> wrote:
[quote]On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:59:28 -0400, Kraft bottling <m...@privacy.com
wrote:

Not exactly an answer to your antenna question but something of
interest for people who are/may be relying on SPOT for emergency use:
Check herehttp://www.equipped.org/ and go down the page and check
the item titled "What Price Your Life? Distress Alerting as a
Commercial Service " If interested, download and play the .wav file
which sums up the subject the site>s author is trying to make.

YMMV....

.Kraft

That is an excellent web site for those that haven>t visited it yet.
There are many, many issues with a "for profit" emergency service that
range from what if the company goes bust to do they have the $$$$ to
keep functional satellites in the air and more.

Full service for Spot is $150/year, the unit is $150 = $300...for couple
hundred more you have a unit that is 100% more reliable and effective in
the event a rescue is needed and no service charges!
[/quote]
No service charges: yes.
100% more reliable: no justification presented in your post, so I
assume this is just fact less opinion.

What you fail to understand is that the SPOT has a multiple levels of
signaling. Rather than have people worry about you, the spot lets you
check in. That is a feature you don>t get with personal beacons.

Pegleg · Guest

On Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:20:58 -0700 (PDT), miso@sushi.com wrote:

[quote]No service charges: yes.
100% more reliable: no justification presented in your post, so I
assume this is just fact less opinion.
[/quote]
I would consider the Coast Guard/NOAA and local SAR Units 100% more
reliable.

Read/listen to Doug Ritter>s presentation at the RTCM Conference at the
web site mentioned.
[quote]
What you fail to understand is that the SPOT has a multiple levels of
signaling. Rather than have people worry about you, the spot lets you
check in. That is a feature you don>t get with personal beacons.
[/quote]
I could care less about "checking in". When I go into the wilderness
people have a time window to give me past when I expect to be back.
If I am not back by the expiration of that window cushion they start
calling.

Guest

On Jul 19, 7:50 pm, Pegleg <Peg...@usnavyret.mil> wrote:
[quote]On Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:20:58 -0700 (PDT), m...@sushi.com wrote:
No service charges: yes.
100% more reliable: no justification presented in your post, so I
assume this is just fact less opinion.

I would consider the Coast Guard/NOAA and local SAR Units 100% more
reliable.

Read/listen to Doug Ritter>s presentation at the RTCM Conference at the
web site mentioned.

What you fail to understand is that the SPOT has a multiple levels of
signaling. Rather than have people worry about you, the spot lets you
check in. That is a feature you don>t get with personal beacons.

I could care less about "checking in". When I go into the wilderness
people have a time window to give me past when I expect to be back.
If I am not back by the expiration of that window cushion they start
calling.
[/quote]
I listened to the recording and checked out the powerpoint. It doesn>t
change my opinion of the product.

You don>t want to check in, well fine for you. If I>m gone for 10
days, there are a few people that want a clue as to my location. The
beacon is completely useless for that purpose. In fact, I>d just get a
sat phone before buying a beacon.

Somehow I gather you believe that SPOT purchasers were not aware of
the alternatives. This is hardly the case.

jeff feehan · Guest

Pegleg wrote:
[quote]On Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:20:58 -0700 (PDT), miso@sushi.com wrote:

No service charges: yes.
100% more reliable: no justification presented in your post, so I
assume this is just fact less opinion.

I would consider the Coast Guard/NOAA and local SAR Units 100% more
reliable.

Read/listen to Doug Ritter>s presentation at the RTCM Conference at the
web site mentioned.
What you fail to understand is that the SPOT has a multiple levels of
signaling. Rather than have people worry about you, the spot lets you
check in. That is a feature you don>t get with personal beacons.

I could care less about "checking in". When I go into the wilderness
people have a time window to give me past when I expect to be back.
If I am not back by the expiration of that window cushion they start
calling.
[/quote]

I do quite a bit of of offshore sailing, and find the SPOT to offer
a pretty incredible value for money - if you need/want the tracking feature.

Generally, I only go offshore with all the other safety/communication devices,
including; GPIRB (often more than one), Iridium sat phone (again, often more
than one), SSB radio, etc.

In my experience, the SPOT works pretty reliably - in the "track" mode, it is
supposed to send updates to the website every 10 minutes, and I would estimate
that over trips lasting a week or more, it misses maybe 10 per day. the "ok"
feature seems to work nearly every time. I have never used the rescue "SOS"
button.

There is no easier way to let others track your progress.

The main problem I have is with the tracking website - it will only display about
24 hrs of data on the "public" page. the system will save data for a month (i
think), but people checking your progress will only see the last 24hrs. Also,
there isn>t much flexibility in what gets displayed - a location every 10
minutes is more than is needed for tracking a sailboat, and the page gets
cluttered with icons. the icons are big, and you don>t have any choice of
what kind of icon is used. Supposedly, this page is in beta testing now,
and I imagine they will make it better.

Sure, Globalstar isn>t the best satphones ystem, and i wouldn>t buy a globalstar
phone. And, I agree that GPIRB>s are better emergency signaling devices. But
the SPOT is still a pretty good piece of gear, at an amazing price. I think
it>ll be pretty successful.

Roy Lewallen · Guest

I just returned from a month-long trip to Alaska in a (very) small plane
with a friend. We took a Spot locator along both as an emergency device
and also to let the folks at home know where we were. It was on at all
times while we were in the airplane, in its ten-minute automatic
transmission mode. I had given the "sharing" URL to a list of people so
they could see our locations each day, superimposed on a map. Here are
some comments based on this experience:

1. Although the Spot occasionally missed a ten-minute location now and
then, the vast majority of locations were properly sent.
2. Experiments conducted before leaving showed that the Spot needs a
very clear view of the sky, even at my Oregon home. That requirement
would presumably become even more stringent at more northern latitudes,
so the device might not be able to send a useful signal from the ground
unless the terrain was flat and relatively unwooded. But it did fine
from the aircraft where it had an unrestricted view of the sky.
3. People loved it! I got lots of comments about how much they enjoyed
being able to travel along with us and see exactly where we>d been each day.
4. Locations sent to the shared web site are only there for 24 hours,
and there>s no way to make them last longer. So people wanting to follow
along had to check daily. I consider this a shortcoming.
5. The device was still on its first set of batteries at the end of the
trip! The manufacturer claims it>ll run in the ten-minute auto-send mode
for 14 days. I was skeptical, but now I>m a believer.
6. The manufacturer shows reduced to no coverage in northern and western
Alaska. But it worked flawlessly out to Nome and back, and as far north
in central Alaska and Yukon as Fairbanks and Dawson City.
7. On a few occasions when I wasn>t able to contact people by email or
phone, and we were at an unexpected location, it was very nice to be
able to send and explicit "Ok" message.

It>s not a perfect device for all purposes, but I sure got my money>s
worth out of it. I highly recommend it for anyone making a similar trip.

Roy Lewallen

the Moderator · Guest

"Keith" <nospam@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:6rkq74ldiomp0t3aq7t2b9jf80r14q9sk0@4ax.com...
[quote]in the desert alone.

That>s pretty much been my experience. I>ve owned it for a few months
now. I>ve pretty much just sent test messages, but have yet to have a
message fail.

I>m well aware that it>s not as good as the $500+ PLB>s that a person
can buy. But it is, to me, a fairly inexpensive insurance policy for my
occasional excursions out into the wilderness.

I think that if a person is simply aware that it needs to be face up
with very little obstruction above it, that they should get along fine
with it.

The "SPOTcasting" feature is of little interest to me, I have a GPS that
tracks my progress.

But does it broadcast your progress over the internet like SPOT
casting does ?
[/quote]
I tried to follow the Primal Quest teams progress. The website with the
Spot casting never made any sense. Some of the teams jumped around and some
seemed to go backwards.

Pegleg · Guest

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:57:25 -0700, Roy Lewallen <w7el@eznec.com> wrote:

[quote]4. Locations sent to the shared web site are only there for 24 hours,
and there>s no way to make them last longer. So people wanting to follow
along had to check daily. I consider this a shortcoming.
[/quote]

[quote]6. The manufacturer shows reduced to no coverage in northern and western
Alaska. But it worked flawlessly out to Nome and back, and as far north
in central Alaska and Yukon as Fairbanks and Dawson City.

7. On a few occasions when I wasn>t able to contact people by email or
phone, and we were at an unexpected location, it was very nice to be
able to send and explicit "Ok" message.

It>s not a perfect device for all purposes, but I sure got my money>s
worth out of it. I highly recommend it for anyone making a similar trip.

Roy Lewallen
[/quote]
Hi Roy,

Thought you might be interested to learn of the following information
which I recently received from Derek Moore of SPOT:

"The shared page function will be increasing from 24 hours of data
displayed to 7 days within a month or so. In addition, SPOT just added
increased coverage throughout all of Alaska and offshore with the
installation of new appliques to a ground station in AK."

Regards,
Brian

Roy Lewallen · Guest

Pegleg wrote:
[quote]
Hi Roy,

Thought you might be interested to learn of the following information
which I recently received from Derek Moore of SPOT:

"The shared page function will be increasing from 24 hours of data
displayed to 7 days within a month or so. In addition, SPOT just added
increased coverage throughout all of Alaska and offshore with the
installation of new appliques to a ground station in AK."

Regards,
Brian
[/quote]
Thanks for the info. My only real disappointment with the system was the
24 hour display limit, requiring daily checks by anyone who wanted to
monitor our location. So I>m really glad to see that>s being fixed. And
the increased Alaska coverage explains why it held up out to Nome. Looks
like they>re continuing to improve what>s already a very useful system.

Roy Lewallen


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