Spot Satellite Messenger deal

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	Spot Satellite Messenger deal
Jdluke Joined: Mar 27, 2007 Location: Ridgewood, NJ	Don't know if any of you have been interested in this product, but the Spot Satellite Messenger is a GPS based device designed to allow for location tracking, help requests, and emergency assistance. Nice little device, tough, costs about 160 bucks before you subscribe to the service. It's been one of those 'thinking about but a little pricey' items to me. Well that changed this morning, when I read a post at ADVrider talking about a deal. Yahoo has this new 'fireeagle' product they're pushing, which involves user location recording. They have hooked up with a number of vendors, and Spot is amongst them. So there's a deal: Sign up at fireeagle.yahoo.com and visit the applications page The link there lets you get the Spot for 150 bucks, free two-day delivery. Keep the code! Because when you activate the Spot, you get one year's service free. This includes the 50 dollar 10 minute tracking service as well, which allows people to follow your progress on Google Maps. That kind of thing is REALLY nice for RTW travellers of course, but I don't mind my wife getting some peace of mind when I'm away for a weekend or something. When it went from being a 350+ dollar purchase to a 150 doller purchase, I jumped on it. Just thought I'd share the info here if anyone's interested. Posted on 08/16/2008 at 07:10
Trex63 Joined: Nov 12, 2006 Location: Stone Mountain, GA	Re: Spot Satellite Messenger deal Interesting you bring this up, there was just a hunt for a lost Spot Finder on ADVrider forum. Klebel lost his on the Dalton Hwy. The unit was still turned on, he could pin-point it and posted the coords on the forum. Somebody found it a couple of days before we were passing through there... I'm all for those kind of gadget, piece of mind for the wify, why not. http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=360557&highlight=Spot+finder --------------------------------- Thomas - I'll worry about assisted living later... IBA# 28109 '07 R1200GS Adventure Posted on 08/16/2008 at 08:16
Globalrider Joined: Nov 22, 2006	Re: Spot Satellite Messenger deal Jdluke said: Don't know if any of you have been interested in this product, but the Spot Satellite Messenger is a GPS based device designed to allow for location tracking, help requests, and emergency assistance. For tracking and help requests, the unit is fine, but there is no way I would bet my life on it for emergency assistance. For those who don't care for the frills, but want a device that they can count on for life threatening situations, then consider a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB). The SPOT has too many short comings when it comes to that feature. And I'm not going to put my life int he hands of a sat-phone company. PLBs are serviced by a world-wide government network, here yesterday and here tomorrow. Furthermore, if the SPOT was that reliable, wouldn't the airlines and ships use them instead of the system that PLBs use. --------------------------------- All the best, Alex Posted on 10/03/2008 at 21:43
Roborider Joined: Nov 17, 2006 Location: Raleigh, NC	Re: Spot Satellite Messenger deal I don't know about longevity, but my buddy took a SPOT with him on a 21 day John Muir Trail hike. I got updates emailed to me on his location and status, as well as a google type map to follow his progress. So I guess if you have a buddy looking at the emails it's good. Again, don't know about the longevity of the company but the device was pretty cool. Robo Posted on 10/03/2008 at 22:42
Globalrider Joined: Nov 22, 2006	Re: Spot Satellite Messenger deal Roborider said: I don't know about longevity, but my buddy took a SPOT with him on a 21 day John Muir Trail hike. I got updates emailed to me on his location and status, as well as a google type map to follow his progress. So I guess if you have a buddy looking at the emails it's good. Again, don't know about the longevity of the company but the device was pretty cool. Robo This month's BMWMOA ON has a write-up on the SPOT, but like most write-ups, they talk about the frosting on the cake instead of the really important stuff like specifications, how the device works in detail, its limitations and most importantly, they don't perform unbiased testing. I've read too many users complain about the signal not getting through unless they have a near clear unobstructed view of the sky. Now missing a track point here and there is no big deal and if I owned a SPOT I couldn't care less, but when it comes to Search & Rescue, it is a big deal. I took the time to actually call the Search & Rescue (SAR) Secretariat who then passed me onto the Mission Control Center and the Rescue Coordination Center. It cleared up a lot of questions I had between a PLB and SPOT. The Cospas-Sarsat system is government run (world-wide) on your tax dollar, so why not use it IF SAR is your primary concern. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to call the 911 feature a "bonus" as so many users do. Your life shouldn't depend on a "bonus" feature. For its other "here I am" and "help" features, it meets those needs. For more information: http://www.cospas-sarsat.org BTW, I don't have either device yet, so I'm not biased, but I will be buying a PLB before that tour to Iceland or any other really remote area. --------------------------------- All the best, Alex Posted on 10/04/2008 at 10:23