EPIRB Alternative

[El and Bill]

Here's a little side tale on the Spot device. We took the Spot with us to Greece the past three weeks -- worked great, for the purpose of letting the family know where we were and that all was fine with us.

1. Grandkids belong to a geography club at school -- we sent them a Spot location every time we were at an interesting location (Greek ruin, usually) on our trip. They (and their club) could google earth the exact location, then use google's satellite photo option and zoom down to see the site close up. So the class 'joined' us at the Acropolis, Aphea, Delphi and Olympic stadium -- they then 'wikied' info on the sites and had a great time learning about Greek history.

2. There was a sharp earthquake while we were there -- we sent the family a Spot location and 'We're OK' message, within an hour of the quake -- they knew we were fine and located on a boat off the island of Spetses, so no hazard from ground shaking. Good peace of mind for them.

3. We sent Spot locations from each airport on flight over and return --so they knew where we were and that all was fine. We had 4 flights in succession cancelled at JFK due to winter storm on our return, and finally made it out on the last flight to leave JFK that day -- it came to Denver via Salt Lake and our Spot locations let them know when we left JFK, that we were in Salt Lake, and then at our midnight arrival back in Denver (we should have arrived at 11:00 am that morning).

4. Will this work for us in our travels and cruising? No doubt about it! They will get our 'We're OK' messages and know our location and condition. The locations were excellent, the ease of use superior, and generally a great addition to our (and our family's) lives. We did not test either the 'Help' or '911' capability of the Spot, since this was unnecessary, but have confidence that it will work fine.

Is this a substitute for an EPIRB? No -- Spot is waterproof, but takes a few minutes to send a message. You may not have time to be sure the message is received or if it will be acted upon, in an emergency. VHF Mayday is surely the best -- you talk to a person and know they have your location and problem. (But we have sent Mayday without contact, so that is certainly not foolproof). But it certainly is a most useful device for us, on the water and off. Our kids will know our location (and that we're fine) when we are out of range for phone or aircard. And it doesn't interupt the routine of their lives.
http://findmespot.com/ if you want more info.

[JamesTXSD]

We appreciate your evaluation of the SPOT device. Missed seeing posts from you the last few weeks... but, we'll look forward to Halcyon Days for the photo essay of your travels.

Welcome home!

Best wishes,
Jim

[timflan]

Thanks for the review, Bill, and for letting me repost it over at Navagear. Here's a direct link so you can make sure I credited you appropriately.

[hardee]

We have been using SPOT now for almost a year and have been very satisfied. No it is not an EPIRB, and yes it does have it's limitations, (no locator beacon). Also, Yes, it has communication features that are not available with the EPIRB, and no we have not tried the 911 or Emergency help buttons even in a test, but the digital signal takes, on the average), 2-3 minutes to go from the button push to the receipt, (tested because we also list our own phone to receive the text message) and it has never failed to respond.

For us, the tracking feature is still a bit of a novelty, but on any water trip, it could be part of the answer to being rescued. Hope I don't ever have to find out the hard way.

Getting toward Christmas this year I would expect some very good deals to show up. SPOT unit typically $150, annual fee $50 - 100, and tracking also $50-100 per year.

And no I don't own stock nor am I a dealer, just trying to help ad another layer of safety to my boating experience.

Harvey
SleepyC

[Knotty C]

We purchased both a SPOT and a personal location beacon, Fast Find, before leaving on our trip to Alaska. We used our SPOT along the way and linked our adventure to our Blog page. We knew, however, that it was not a replacement for an EPIRB. That is why we also purchased the Fast Find.

Besides the amount of time required to send a signal, other differences include that the SPOT requires an annual subscription in the service and Fast Find does not. However, Fast Find requires that you register the unit with NOAA and we must reregister it every two years.

We found SPOT to be a great tool for not only letting family know you are okay, but also for keeping track of your adventures. Now that we are back, we have a record of exactly where we went and when. We used it every day on our trip.

[Noreaster]

406 MHz EPIRBs rock. The coast guard will contact you within minutes if yours activates (if they can). Accuracy of homing signal (121MHZ) is not great but the 406 signal has your position embedded when linked to a gps receiver or an internal GPS. Negative response starts the rescue process immediately. No worrys about subscription costs or whether the government will still be around next year. EPIRBS get my vote!

[thataway]

Timely message, and I agree with all of the recent posts. There have been a few snafu's with notification on the 911 of the SPOT, but also some good Rescues.

HOWEVER: There is a new spot. It is smaller, and has slightly different features:

See: http://www.equipped.org/blog/?p=113

Doug Ritter's excellent blogs on Equipped to Survive. Incidently this web site along with Panbo, and a few others is first on my reading list.

If I had anyone who was interested in tracking me, I would get a SPOT. But since I am only interested in the safety the Personal Locator Beacons (two of them) get my pick. Again the reasons: They can be easily carried on your person. They are GPS enabled. They are not registered to the BOAT--which an EPRIB is. The PLB is good on land as well as sea. When we sold Frequent Sea, we took that boat off the list. Our contacts know our approximate locations and are usually available 24/7.

[hardee]

Dr Bob, Thank you for that link. SPOT sounds like it does have some worthwhile improvements. Doug Ritter's comments on the SAR interaction with GEOS are well taken. Although we are happy with the current SPOT, there are occasions that a tracking point has been missed. This has not been true when we are tracking on the water, only on land, where I suspect it is due to overhead foliage or topographic interference. I suspect our next purchase in that direction would be in the PLB market. that would be prior to venturing farther from the more populated areas we current boat in.

Harvey
SleepyC