Now that I'm sitting at home after surviving a heart attack I'm just trying to get some order into my life again. Three weeks post event and I'm back on the bike and another three weeks before returning to work. So now my wife is concerned about me going out on the bike for rides alone, and still planning another trip to western Qld (I did have holidays booked for the end of June for a Birdsville run but that is on hold for a while). I have been looking at The Spot Tracker. Have you had experiences with this brand, reliability, how have you mounted yours? Any advice would be appreciated Regards Ross
thats funny as i had that happen to me with the same medical mishap with my other half thinking the same i got a spot and she follows along on my trips and is a happy camper so to speak i went the ram mount on the bike [just google spot ram mount] but am sure this thread will bring a lot of different thoughts
I have one, had it for awhile, gives my wife and family peace of mind when I travel. I use a message for friends and another for my wife, with the backup from hitting the sos button if all turns to shit or the help button in case of a breakdown.
That's bad news about the heart attack Jake, and good to hear that you're recovering from it. I was a bit surprised to see that you've been a member here since 2005 and apparently haven't read any of the many discussions and references about SPOT personal satellite trackers. I did a quick search and found these I bought myself a SPOT 1 after reading quite a bit on ADVrider about 'em and have, along with many others here, found it to be an invaluable tool.
The Spot is perfect device for piece of mind of the other half at home. If you don't need all the bells and whistles of the current model go for a spot 1 and a tracking subscription. It's a bit bigger and bulkier but it floats and has none of the battery issues the newer generation seem to have and tracking allows the better half to see where you are at any given time. I carry mine on me, the logic being if I get separated from the bike I can still call for help. Reliability seems to be fairly good. I get the occasional missed track point but overall no problems. I've never had an OK message not get through. I've never used the help or 911 functions so can't vouch for them. If however you purely want something to call the cavalry when the shit hits the fan you can't go past a PLB.
Agree with "prestonpaul" I decided to carry mine on my person so that I had it with me if separated from the bike.... But then again I didn't use the tracking function, just sent "OK" messages at predetermined intervals.... IE usually the end of days riding, bit cheaper not to have the tracking function as well...... Also hire a sat phone for longer remote trips The OK messages include Lat Long so can be viewed on mapping program's, google earth etc, so allow recipients to follow progress Certainly a good investment though Cheers Jim
Ive got a spot 2 & it has worked fine. I have it on the arm of my jacket fot the reasons paul stated. The advantage i think it has over a plb is if you have an off & are knocked out you cant set a plb off. Wifey tracks mine & knows that if it sends a couple of tracking "pings" from the same location & i havent sent an ok message time to send the calavary.
I have a Spot1. I was riding alone and was attacked by a wallaby. I had broken ribs, collapsed lung, and concussion. I was out of mobile range and I wasn't carrying my sat phone. I hit the Spot SOS button. The USA base organization checked with my wife that I was indeed out riding, then called the emergency services. They give the emergency services all the GPS position and also your in case of emergency info. The polic ecould not locate me because they did not have a GPS , so they rang my wife who checked my tracking posiitons on our home computer and gave the police / ambos a clue how to get to me. I carry mine in my tank bag map window.
I've got a Spot 3 and it works well. Haven't had any problems with it so far and the friends and family still at home get a kick out of seeing my progress over the day (you have to buy the tracking with the spot 3 units) Now I've got one, I wouldn't leave on a trip without it
I had a spot1 for a few years till it came off the bike at speed and got a few cracks etc in it last year.. Got a spot 3 now.. Its done about 15,000km without missing a beat.. Batteries last longer in it, its easier and more reliable to tie down, and i personally think it gets more dots out in thick forest than spot1.. Id not go back to spot1 from here ..
I've got a Spot 2, and I reckon they are a great thing. I initially bought it for my trips to South America so that my wife could get up in the morning and have a text and email letting her know I made through the day without becoming another hazard on Ruta 40. Last year I broke my collarbone near Davies Plain hut. A 4wder behind me had a satellite phone (Inmarsat) which had very poor coverage at the hut, could not call 000 or 112, so he could only call his wife who had no idea where we were..I set off the SOS button and about an hour later the big bird picked me up and took me to Morwell hospital (and so begins another tale). It was very frustrating to not know what was happening after I pressed the button, but it was much more effective than the satphone in this instance. If you are going to get a satphone, make sure it uses the iridium network, and is Oz based, have you ever tried to to get the normal number for the ambo's? As DD said, a satphone or PLB is pretty useless if you have just had a hearty and can't press the button, but with a spot at least they can see where you were prior to your unfortunate demise. Always use lithium batteries, I get about 6 months out of a set, so cost isn't an issue. Normal batteries last a couple of days. I spoke to the Australian Search and Rescue bloke, and he said they don't have a formal agreement with Spot, but they are well aware of them and follow up on their SOS calls. I had to put in a police report to the Omeo plod so that TAC would pay for my joy flight, and he said all the cops in his area use them. My understanding is that the HELP button is used for a subscription rescue service in the States which is not available here, so it is just another custom button here. Good thing, get one. Just turn it off before you pull into the pub car park.
Recently Immarsat phones advised that 000 works now. I would love to test it out, but I think it is frowned upon!
I have a spot 2 for about 3 years now, actually on our 3rd one now due to warranty replacements. On the claims we made, one just died after a few months and would not power up, another failed during startup, the other one decided to send out help messages for no reason and the only way to stop it was to pull the batteries out. Fortunately it wasn't the SOS message. All the claim were processed quickly, but we'd call the US first, not the local distributor. We get about a week of use from a set of lithium batteries. Haven't tried standard batteries, but I don't expect then to last that long. Reading into the spot 1 comments these ones seen to get a lot more battery life, even from standard batteries. Now looking at the comments on the spot 3, these seem to have a good battery life. How long a life are people getting from these? Also has anyone has warranty claims on their spot 3 yet?
I've done 3 week + trips tracking every day with my spot 1 and never had to change battery's (energizer lithium) I accidentally put it away switched on for at least 6 months once and when I came back to it the light was still flashing. That's why I won't be upgrading any time soon
Yeah, that's what I heard... the spot 1 was really good on batteries. Be interesting to see a comparision with the newer model.
Just a bit of left field thinking: how about apps on mobile phones? Will they make Spots, Epirbs, PLBs etc redundant? I have Cradar on my phone: If I fall off, the phone measures the parameters of the crash (you can set sensitivity - I set mine by throwing it onto the couch on the assumption that anything harder than that will hurt), waits 15 - 90 secs (also settable) - and then sends a txt to preset recipients that I've had a crash - and includes exact lat & long co-ordinates of where I am. It costs nothing: free. While I know this isn't a complete replacement for a Spot and is only suitable for places with decent mobile coverage, is it a sign of things to come? Or perhaps, have those things already come and I'm just ignorant? (Which most would say is the case anyway...)
great if you have reception. I use Glympse on my phone. Useless when remote I noticed the soon to released IsatPhone 2 will have a tracking and emergency response coordination service. Best of both worlds
