4-10-08

I recently bought a SPOT personal satellite locator for this trip.  Actually, I probably would have bought one anyway since I do a lot of things on my own and it seems like a good idea.  The SPOT is a personal locator that communicates several types of messages via satellite.  It is much like the system used on the sailboat I was on while sailing from San Diego to New Zealand.  In that case our location was reported once a day and put on a map for all to see.

The SPOT has four different features that make it interesting.  These features include these modes; OK, tracking, HELP, and 911.  The modes are pretty much how they sound.  If you make a quick depress of the OK button it will send a pre-edited message to e-mail and text mail addresses that you want it to.  IN the recipients e-mail will be a like that shows the location on a Google map.  This is probably the feature I’ll use most as it will allow friends to know where I am and that I am OK

The next mode is for tracking and it is activated by holding the OK button for about 5 seconds.  In this mode it will send a location message every 10 minutes.  It will not however e-mail or text anyone in this mode (which is good since I don’t know of anyone who cares about my position that much anyway).  You can see the record by accessing your online account and choosing to see the location in a spreadsheet or Google map form.  This is pretty cool, but I’m not sure how interesting it will be for my trip, which I’ll record on GPS anyhow.

The next mode is HELP.  When the help button is depress it sends an e-mail and text to those you want to receive it.  The message is again pre-edited online to say what you want it to.  It is not a message you can simply change on the fly from the SPOT itself.  In this mode only your contacts are sent messages, authorities are not.  I think it’s a mode created to freak your loved ones out, but not the authorities.  This will be really a cool feature it you are ever able to edit it from the SPOT itself.  None-the-less, I think a person can think of some worthy applications, but I’m still trying to figure out how to do it on my trip.

The last is 911.  It does what you think it would do and contacts the authorities.  Supposedly if you are in a foreign country it will contact your country’s embassy.  I sent SPOT’s head of sales a message about this, but he never responded.  I hope that’s not an omen telling me it’s less than perfect for overseas travel.

I’ve been testing the SPOT around Michigan as I have already done my winter motorcycle ride across the US to Seattle.  I find it works quite well for the most part.  The most part being a couple of missed signals.  I have read reports by some who feel it works best when it has a clear view to the southern sky, but I’m not sure that my data concurs or not.  Below is a tracking I did on my motorcycle ride from Ann Arbor to Grand Rapids to Traverse CIty.  The SPOT was located under the map cover on my LT.  You will notice I was heading north through Michigan and it didn’t miss a beat, even though my body was blocking a good part of it’s southern view.

Overall I’m pretty intrigued by the SPOT.  In time I’ll learn it’s shortcomings and how consequential they are.  The one problem with it, and it’s only a problem if you have several people following your track, is that the only way to access the track map is to log into your account.   Unless you want to give everyone your sensitive account data, this is a short coming.  That said, who wants to know my position every 10 minutes anyway? This BTW isn’t the case for the individual OK signals.  I was able to access those from my iPhone as well as post them on a separate blog (see above), they just don’t form a track map.  For those following me it may not be ideal, but hey not long ago none of it was possible, at least not at an affordable price.

As I use this thing overseas I’ll periodically update this page with any new info I gain about the SPOT.  We always expect things to be perfect and are disappointed when they’re not.  I guess what counts most is that it works in emergencies.   Anyhow, I’ll have a lot of tim to play with it, so we’ll see what happens.  Till then, happy riding, paddling, sailing, flying, or whatever it is your doing!

The SPOT also has two other modes, HELP and 911.  If you depress help, it will send off an e-mail or text stating a message for help that you edited in the online preferences.  In this case the e-mail only goes to those addresses you put in manually on the SPOT website and does not call the authorities.  In 911 mode it supposedly contacts the local authorities and if your in another country your respective consulet.  I emailed the head sales guy at SPOT about this function, but haven’t heard back...  I hope that’s not an omen.

Anyhow, I will be using this on the trip to let the people close to me know where I am.  I will periodically update this review as I learn more about it or have any problems with it.  Even if it doesn’t work perfectly, it really is amazing that technology can do this now, pretty much all over the world.

4-11-08

Uh oh.  It took three times for the OK signal to be sent.  That’s a first and I’ve pressed it a lot of times.  The weather is heavily overcast, but it was last night too and it worked fine.  It begs the question, when I’m sitting in BFE Russia, how will I know if it got sent?  I guess I won’t, will I?

July 3, 2008

I used the Spot to mark my daily position from China to Germany.  It worked well at this and I am only missing one mark, and I can’t recall if that was the Spots fault or I forgot to press the button.  After longs days I sometimes forget about it.

I did press the Help button (not 911) three times to mark accidents or breakdowns for me or others.  This surprised me because during the same time it would take to get a signal through to mark my location as OK, the help signal got through many times.  In fact, after 20 minutes of leaving it on, I would have 10 or more markings.  I was impressed by that.

I did occasionally use the track mode and it worked fine.  I didn’t examine it too closely, because marking every 10 minutes over an entire day is just way too much.  Perhaps every half hour would be better.  Even better would be an option allowing you to choose what’s right for your sport.

Of all my technological devices on this trip, this one has performed the best.  My phones, however, did not.

Where Am I know?