Personal Tracker

[gammer]

What do you think of Personal Trackers, like SPOT:
http://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=101

From what I can see, they are after two niche markets: adventurists and folks who might work in unsafe conditions.
However, do you think you would ever use one if you went on a bike trip...for safety?

p.s. I hear the monthly licensing costs are expensive.

[JB1290]

It's a cool idea but per the website, it doesnt work indoors, caves or dense forests. So, for those adventure riders, hikers and campers that like to get into some serious wildeness, its useless.

I would he a little pi$$ed off if I paid for something like this and it didn't work because of the area I was lost or injured in.

It's a great concept but, it sounds like there are a few more kinks to be ironed out before it would be truly worth paying for.

Just my .02 cents worth.

[bajakirch]

SPOT was a client of mine at my last job, so I learned a lot about the devices.

I think they're good for those people who are really going into extreme situations where there's a better-than-average chance of getting into a sticky situation. And the feature that lets people follow your progress on the web is kind of cool for the folks back home.

But I was never convinced the cost of the regular fees warranted the service it was providing for most people that might consider it.

On a side note, I saw SPOT devices (kind of hard to miss, with them being bright orange and all) being used on a couple of wilderness experience shows on The Discovery Channel. The first show I saw it on was The Alaska Experience, and I was still in regular contact with SPOT at that time. I noticed on the show that the devices' logos were covered with what appeared to be black tape. I asked my contact at the company what was up. She said Discovery hit them up for a product placement deal, but SPOT wouldn't pay the fee for the full package. So they just donated the devices and the service for the term of the show, but Discover wouldn't let them show their company name or logo in the broadcast.

[gammer]

I think they're good for those people who are really going into extreme situations where there's a better-than-average chance of getting into a sticky situation. And the feature that lets people follow your progress on the web is kind of cool for the folks back home.

This is what we are challenged with where I work. We have social workers who go to homes in the country where cell reception is poor to non existent. These visits can be hi risk visits. So I can see the benefit of such devices in this situation.

I wonder if there is a way to get an app for my smartphone that does something like that SPOT does? My smart phone has built in GPS.

[Bumblebee]

406mhz EPIRB with GPS capability would be my emergency beacon if I had one. It's worldwide coverage and I think they finally got the few places it wouldn't reach covered now.
The ones I looked at a while back were $600. You then registered with the organization that watches over it for some trivial fee. You gave them your personal information and your primary emergency contact that they could get hold of to start the search procedure. Their program was quite good. If you set that puppy off, they started making phone or radio calls within 15 minutes to find out what's going on and the GPS portion transmits your position to within 50 feet very few minutes.
It however is not meant to be a fun SPOT type tracking device for your friends and goofing off. It's strictly a I'm in trouble come get me now kind of device.

As it is, the only thing I'm carrying with me at any given time is self rescue equipment. If I have a problem, I either self rescue or I'm bear poop. But that's another discussion entirely.

[drdubb]

I've thought about one for sailing, primarily for my wife to know where I'm at. I tried that glympse app during the rally and that worked well, but you have to resend every 4 hrs. and if the battery goes on the cell phone, (which mine did) they might think you crashed.

[bajakirch]

This is what we are challenged with where I work. We have social workers who go to homes in the country where cell reception is poor to non existent. These visits can be hi risk visits. So I can see the benefit of such devices in this situation.

I think the 'panic button' style of device that SPOT offers might be better in these kinds of situation, especially in higher-risk situations where you may not be able to trust the cell coverage. But, as you pointed out, they may be less effective indoors where these may be more likely to occur.

406mhz EPIRB with GPS capability would be my emergency beacon if I had one. It's worldwide coverage and I think they finally got the few places it wouldn't reach covered now.
The ones I looked at a while back were $600. You then registered with the organization that watches over it for some trivial fee. You gave them your personal information and your primary emergency contact that they could get hold of to start the search procedure. Their program was quite good. If you set that puppy off, they started making phone or radio calls within 15 minutes to find out what's going on and the GPS portion transmits your position to within 50 feet very few minutes.

I had lengthy discussions with SPOT about their advantages/disadvantages compared to EPIRBs...but that was a few years ago and I really can't recall much about it. Their main selling point was the web-interface and the tracking features.

[Snoopy]

I have the app (i think sobek had it for the rally trip) that shows where you have been and where you are going... called glympse...on my smart phone, same thing but free. just have to brodacast it.

[cjbear11]

I used a spot tracker during the Nighthawk rally just for the sake of curiosity. It supposed to update your location every 10 minutes, and then you can use the website to see the "route" that you took. However it just draws straight lines from one dot to another. So you really only get a vague interpretation of your route. Also I found out that it had a hard time finding me in the mountains. The spot has a feature that lets you send a message to whomever you want, letting them know you got to your destination safely. The issue I found with that was my person didn't receive the message until the next day, if at all. So, like JB1290 said, it's a good idea, but it's still got some kinks that need worked out.

I also have an app on my iPhone that lets you do basically the same thing. You even use the same SPOT website. However, it's really bad at find locations, and you have to have phone signal. The GPS doesnt work without it. So if I'm in an area with no service, then the tracking is a no go.