01-11-2015, 04:47 AM
I have a SPOT Gen3. I purchased the device because I took a solo ride and was traveling through mountains where cell reception was spotty. I had two separate lists of contacts that I could notify with a preset message simply by pushing a button. One set of contacts (my family) got multiple messages every day (whenever I stopped for gas or for food) and the other contacts got a message at the end of the day. My device was set to send emails with a map of my location, but I believe you could send text messages as well. My friends loved the daily messages.
There are much cheaper ways to communicate and track, with cell phone apps, if that is all you are interested in. To use the SPOT you must sign up for a year-long activation, and my SPOT has sat unused since my trip last summer. I purchased it for the emergency features. With the push of a button I could send a message to have a contact request road-side assistance. There is a separate SOS button that sends a message to local responders along with your GPS coordinates. Of course, you need to be able to push that button!
At the end of the trip, I downloaded the GPS tracking information to record my trip on a map. You can keep the list of coordinates and you can keep the maps that you create from those coordinates. But the data is stored for only 30 days so you must download it within that time frame. If you want to use the SPOT software to create a map from the tracking data you must do it within 30 days. Of course, once you download the tracking data you can keep it, but after 30 days you must find another way to create a map. I hadn’t intended to be away from home for 30 days, so didn’t pay attention to this issue, and when I returned home after more than 30 days, I found I had lost some of my tracking data.
I was satisfied with the peace of mind offered by the emergency features. The battery lasted over 3 weeks and the warning to replace it gave me time to buy another one. The other communication features were simply a side benefit. The SPOT software was not ideal for creating a map, since the software only interacts with the data stored in the SPOT database, and the data is stored only for 30 days.
There are much cheaper ways to communicate and track, with cell phone apps, if that is all you are interested in. To use the SPOT you must sign up for a year-long activation, and my SPOT has sat unused since my trip last summer. I purchased it for the emergency features. With the push of a button I could send a message to have a contact request road-side assistance. There is a separate SOS button that sends a message to local responders along with your GPS coordinates. Of course, you need to be able to push that button!
At the end of the trip, I downloaded the GPS tracking information to record my trip on a map. You can keep the list of coordinates and you can keep the maps that you create from those coordinates. But the data is stored for only 30 days so you must download it within that time frame. If you want to use the SPOT software to create a map from the tracking data you must do it within 30 days. Of course, once you download the tracking data you can keep it, but after 30 days you must find another way to create a map. I hadn’t intended to be away from home for 30 days, so didn’t pay attention to this issue, and when I returned home after more than 30 days, I found I had lost some of my tracking data.
I was satisfied with the peace of mind offered by the emergency features. The battery lasted over 3 weeks and the warning to replace it gave me time to buy another one. The other communication features were simply a side benefit. The SPOT software was not ideal for creating a map, since the software only interacts with the data stored in the SPOT database, and the data is stored only for 30 days.