The Adventure Life with Steve Casimiro Gear Review: SPOT Satellite Messenger

Text and photo by West Coast Editor Steve Casimiro

The most important outdoor product of the last couple years isn’t a jacket, trail shoe, kayak, or mountain bike. It’s the SPOT Satellite Messenger, which lets you call for help almost anywhere in the world via the Globalstar satellite network.

SPOT costs $170, plus an annual subscription of $99. It’s cheaper and more versatile than a personal locator beacon (PLB), less expensive and more reliable than a sat phone, and works in places where a cell phone signal is impossible. It will alert the GEOS International Emergency Response Center and the Search and Rescue  Satellite-Aided Tracking System to come save your butt, like a PLB. But unlike a PLB—and this is revolutionary—it will send a non-emergency help message to friends or family. Finally, it lets you send an “I’m OK” message to loved ones (or even your boss). In other words, for the first time, it allows three levels of almost instant communication: I’m Fine, I’m Not Fine But in No Serious Danger, and Rescue Me ASAP.

Now, the SPOT has gotten heaps of press. I wrote about it in the May issue of National Geographic ADVENTURE and my comrades at other outdoor outlets have covered it, too. So, why say more? Because you need to know just how significant this device is. It’s not just another gadget, some cool geegaw to impress your friends. It can save your life. It HAS saved lives. It’s cheap and it’s foolproof and it should be in your pack whenever you go into the field. To me, the SPOT is to wilderness travel what shovel, probes, and avalanche transceiver are to backcountry skiing: mandatory.

Look, I’m not a worrier. I’m old school about backcountry skills and conservative about taking chances. I carry a map and compass and know how to use them. I allow margins for safety. But I also carry a GPS and now I carry the SPOT. For eight bucks a month, it seems foolish not to buy myself and my family a little insurance. Like a seat belt or spare tire, the SPOT has a low cost upfront but huge potential rewards if you actually need it. Even if you just use it to signal that you're running a day late on a backcountry trip, it gives a peace of mind you can’t get any other way.

HOW IT WORKS
You buy the seven-ounce orange unit, then activate it online. Once you’ve created a profile and logged in, you create your “I’m OK” message and your “non-emergency help” message, then you designate up to 10 contacts who will receive your messages by email or text message. Turn on the unit, which is run by lithium AA batteries that can operate a year, give it a few minutes to locate one of Globalstar’s low-earth-orbit satellites, and you’re ready to send. Press and hold the OK button and your message zips skyward. Email recipients get your message and coordinates, plus a link to Google Maps showing your exact location. Press the Help button and your “help” message is sent and then resent every five minutes for up to an hour. And if you press the 9-1-1 button, an alert is triggered at GEOS, which calls the emergency contact you listed in your online profile, then sends in the troops.

DOES IT WORK?
Globalstar has suffered numerous problems with its satellite phone network over the last year, which might make you dubious about the SPOT’s reliability. But the dropped calls and unreliable signals stem from failures in the two-way channel of Globalstar’s satellites, known as S-Band. The one-way data channel, L-Band, works unimpeded.

And in my tests, the SPOT worked flawlessly. In Norway, Morocco, the Sierra Nevada, Mojave Desert, and my backyard, it consistently sent my message to email addresses and my phone. I’ll be in New Zealand in a couple of weeks and will try it again there, but I have no reason to believe it won’t continue functioning as it has.

FAILINGS
Globalstar’s satellites don’t reach everywhere on the planet, so SPOT doesn’t work everywhere either. North America is solid, except for Alaska. Africa north of the Equator is pretty good, but points south aren’t serviced. Patagonia, India, and much of Southeast Asia and Indonesia are dark, too.

As with most electronics, the unit could be smaller and lighter. The belt clip seems superfluous—I wouldn’t trust something this important to a belt clip. But that’s just quibbling.

CONCLUSION
It seems silly that I should have to qualify all this by saying that you shouldn’t rely on the SPOT as a lifeline, but if I don’t someone else will. The SPOT is not substitute for common sense and good judgment. You should never justify taking more risks or pushing the margins because you might be able to send for help. SPOT is shockproof, waterproof, and it floats, but it’s not unbreakable. You could be deep in a slot canyon with no view of the sky. Sun spots could mess with satellite transmissions. You could be unconscious after a fall.

That said, SPOT changes the game. For the first time, affordable, reliable emergency communication is available to all of us. Even if you use it for nothing more than reassuring your family when you’re a few hours late from your ride or your paddle or your climb, it’s just plain smart.

Comments

[Tyler]

This is a great post and the comments are even better. I love hearing first hand experiences with the SPOT. I get a little worried that the emergency service will be a bit unreliable like some of you guys mention the tracking and 'ok' services are...but thankfully I too have never had to use it. NileGuide just did a less techy and more practical review of the SPOT too...check it out: http://blog.nileguide.com/2009/04/16/spot-personal-trackerdont-leave-home-without-it/

[Darryl Ramm]

I have no problem with manufactures marketing their products, but I think it is not acceptable when they spam blogs and hide behind false identities. The comment from "DaveP" is likely spam from an (not very bright) employee of ACR Electronics, who make the competing PLB advertised on the YouTube video mentioned.

A "DaveP", posted an identical link to the YouTube video on my blog at http://www.darrylramm.com/2008/03/02/spot-satellite-messenger-2 The comment was posted from an IP address behind the ACR Electronics corporate firewall and it looks like the same person (or people?) have posted multiple similar comments on other blogs all around October 10th. (Google the YouTube url in "DaveP"'s comment). Maybe "DaveP" can tell us all if he is posting here as a representative of ACR Electronics or if this spam is done on his own time.

The administrators of the NG Adventure blog should be able to easily check the originating IP address of "DaveP"'s comment.

Darryl Ramm
Redwood City, CA

[daveP]

This Spot gadget is pretty expensive, almost $900 bucks to keep it going for 5 years. Thats a little too much just to be able to track where I have been.
This YouTube video does a good job of breaking down what SPOT is, and comparing safety products. Hope you find it as helpful as I did.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2IQrQxmv00

[kiwi]

How did the Spot device perform in NZ. I am currently trailing the device here in a marine environment. I am curious about other peoples experiences of the reliability here in NZ.

[Mike Peterson]

I bike and ride motorcycles often. This has been a great addition just in case something goes wrong. Originally I bought it for personal safety, but it has also provided an unintended benefit for family and friends who can track my progress.

I am not affiliated with the vendor, just a very happy customer. I ordered one from http://www.MyLiveTracks.com/ - got a prompt response to my inquiries, a 50% off coupon for the tracking service. The price of $135 included shipping as well. Highly recommend the unit as well as the vendor!

[Markus]

I had almost the same experiences with the device while hiking in the mountains here in Austria. It seems to have a problem with trees blocking the direct view to the satellite. Next week I'm going to take the device with me for a sailing trip. I think the device will me a bit more reliable with a clear view to the sky. Since TripSailor.com has now added support for SPOT OK messages ( http://blog.tripsailor.com/2008/05/supporting-spot-worlds-first-satellite.html ) I would at least able to update the map of my sailing blog while offshore.

- markus

[Steve Casimiro]

My experience even under a tree canopy has been positive. Is there anyone else who has time with the SPOT and can share their results?

[Chris Bailey]

I agree that the SPOT is an awesome device in general, a truly great addition for any of us outdoor adventurers and sports folks. I bought mine to carry with me on mountain and road bike rides, backcountry skiing, snowshoeing, and any other things that it might be good for. However, after having used it for several months now, I have to say, it works quite poorly here in heavily forested Oregon.

Specifically, I should say that the tracking feature works very poorly. I haven't used the emergency features (thankfully!), but have sent OK messages. Both tracking and OK messages have failed at times, and I don't mean just one or two: the tracking is terrible anywhere there are lots of trees. I'm talking about the road cycling I do here in Eugene, OR, the mountain biking everywhere I've ridden in OR, as well as one mtb ride in the Sierras in northern CA.

I still use it, but the usefulness and reliability is less reassuring than I had hoped, simply becuase it just fails to send messages or tracking points in so many cases. I can go for a three hour road bike ride, and get maybe 2-3 data points from the tracking, yet it shoudl be more like 18 points (tracking supposedly sends a tracking point message every 10 minutes). We're talking about regular roads here, it's not like I'm burried in a box canyon or in some super dense forest. On mountain bike rides, I've had times when I'm lucky if I really even get more than one or two points over say a 4-6 hour ride.

That said, in areas with no, or far less trees, it seems to work better. So, I'm a bit disappointed with the tree problems (and in my last conversation with SPOT they acknowledged this can be an issue, so it's not my specific device), but I'm still very glad that a device like this exists, is affordable, and as you said, is really simply something everyone pursuing outdoor activities should have.