Lucky for me, my wife does not hold me back from things I like to do including backpacking. But since I am getting older (59,) a cancer survivor (throat,) and a solo hiker she worries when I am gone . . . a lot.
I have carried a friend's PLB in the past and that helped her but I didn't like it because it was heavy and bulky. I decided that there had to be a better way and began researching my options.
In my mind, there were two choices a personal locator beacon (PLB) and the Spot II Messenger Beacon. The difference in the two was that the PLB was a passive, one way device using military GPS satellites. When a distress signal is sent it is intercepted and processed by the Air Force Search and Rescue center, AFRCC. The current generation of PLB's are much smaller and less expensive, around $250.00 or so. Some will even allow you to send an "I'm OK" message for an additional fee, similar to text messaging.
The SPOT II is a commercial alternative, using commercial communications satellites with their own emergency center. In addition, you have the ability to send out several types of messages.
I decided on the SPOT II and I want to offer my observations from two trips. This is not a detailed review of the hardware, there are plenty of reviews on the net for that. What I want to share with you is how the SPOT II works. I will not discuss the other SPOT devices.
The SPOT documentation is a bit sparse and at times confusing. In reality, using SPOT is very easy and flexible. I apologize in advance if something I report is not completely accurate and will revise this post if anyone finds any errors in this report.
Set up - Before using Spot, you need to activate your SPOT, create an account, and set up a profile from the SPOT home page. The most basic element of the profile is contact information for your primary and secondary emergency contacts. After that contacts for each message type will be added. You can have 10 contacts for each message type and a contact can be either an email address or phone number for a text message. There are two other things worth mentioning, you can have multiple profiles and switch between them as needed. You can also tie your SPOT messages to your Facebook and/or Twitter accounts. This may or may not be a desirable option, depending on how you look at. I don't want the whole world to know that I am away from home and where I am for security reasons and I have not activated this option. On to the specifics about the messages.
You can send five types of messages. Every messages will send the following default information; date, time, and latitude/longitude (if the SPOT can obtain GPS coordinates from the satellites.) The system and message also contain links to Google Maps to make it easier for a contact to follow your trip. The message types are:
1. "I'm OK" - You can send a standard or customized message letting your friends know that everything is ok. It looks like there is a 120 character limit for your messages and that you can send this message as often as you like (keep this point in mind.)
2. Custom Message - Use your imagination, I used "At camp for the evening. Everything is fine. Shutting down & will be back up in the AM."
3. Help/SPOT Assist - You can get help without alerting the National Emergency Center. This allow you to let your contacts know that you need help in non-life threatening situations, especially with prior planning and coordination.
4. SOS - This is the same as activating a PLB and alerts the National Emergency Center.
5. Tracking - Tracking information is sent every 10 minutes. It can be accessed real time. All you have to do is give someone to your Spot account. Tracking is stored for 7 days and can be exported to your My Spot Adventures site, a place where you can post your trip including tracking, pictures, and comments.
The Help/SPOT Assist and SOS buttons are under flip up covers to keep them from being accidently pushed. One more thing, there are indicators that show if the SPOT has good satellite contact and when the SPOT is transmitting messages. You can have more than one button active at a time, and transmission priorities are assigned.
In general:
1/2. I'M OK & Custom - 3 attempts will be made in a 20 minute period. Only one message will actually be sent though. If the communications are successful, the transmission, an email/letter symbol indicator will flash green for 1 hour after the successful transmission. If unsuccessful the transmission indicator will flash red and you should try to find a clear area. More on that later.
3. Help/Spot Assist - Message sent every 5 minutes for an hour. If GPS coordinates/satellite communications cannot be established, SPOT will attempt to send the message any way.
4. SOS - Messages are sent every 5 minutes until batteries are drained or until the SOS function is disabled. Messages are sent to the GEOF International Emergency Rescue Coordination Center. Will attempt to send message even if lat/long cannot be determined.
5. Tracking - Tracking is sent every 10 minutes. Tracking information will not be sent if tracking info cannot be obtained. Battery life is stated at 3 1/2 days with fresh Lithium batteries and continuous tracking.
Basic service for the SPOT; I'm Ok, custom messages, Help/Spot Assist, and SOS is $99.00 per year. Tracking is an additional $49.00 per year. There are other options including replacement coverage and Search and Rescue expense coverage to name a couple.
Enough of the overview. On to real world performance. My son and attempted a clockwise OML trip from March 8-10. We wound up ending the trip at Homer Wilson. I turned tracking on when I left Midland Tuesday morning the 8th and sent an I'M OK message at the trailhead. The first part of the trip was fine, we made it up to Boot Spring and over the ridge to Juniper Canyon with no problems. Unfortunately, my foot slipped off the trail in some leaves just before the wide camp site about 1/2 way down the canyon. It happened quickly and my left leg was hanging off the trail and my right leg and foot wound up underneath me. It hurt like the dickens but I was able to continue. We moved ahead slowly and wound up camping in the brushy area in the flat part of the canyon short of the Juniper backcountry car campsite. I sent out the custom message and shut down for the night to save battery life.
The top of my foot was bruised and blue the next morning, Wednesday the 9th. Walking was painful and slow and I decided to try reach the Juniper camp site and make a decision from there. The plan was to press the Help/Spot Assist button if I couldn't go any further. That way, rangers could drive straight to the campsite.
On reaching Juniper, I adjusted my boot laces and took Ibuprofen. I pressed the I'M ok button and continued on. I was favoring my right foot a bit but that wasn't entirely bad. It was a warm day and my foot helped us to keep our pace down to a reasonable level. I sent out I'm OK messages during the lunch hour and when we stopped at Fresno Creek mid-afternoon. The SPOT was accidently turned off sometime during the break when I was reloading water bottles.
I discovered the error later and turned the unit back on. The custom message was sent when we shut down for the evening. An I'm OK message was sent the next morning when we set out.
On the previous day, my foot got better as the day wore on. It was mostly blue when I woke up on Thursday the 9th and it never seemed to loosen up like it did on Wednesday. We decided to call it quits at Homer Wilson. We caught a rider from a very nice couple from Indiana. I got X-rays and a walking cast when I got back to Midland.
What are my impressions of the SPOT? I will carry and use if from now on. My wife really liked receiving the messages, she took great comfort from the I'm OK and daily custom messages. Other contacts too looked forward to updates during the day. For this and this alone, SPOT is a keeper. You can't put a value on the peace of mind that it gave my friends and family.
Is SPOT perfect, well to be honest, no. I have read complaints about communications satellite coverage. I can't deny that there were definite gaps in our tracking as you can see from the link to our trip.
http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=245355. I carried my SPOT on the top of the lid of my pack facing up with the best view of the sky that I could give it. If you close the altitude profile use the zoom/pan map function you can see that SPOT could not track going up the Boot Canyon Trail, down Juniper Canyon, and part of the last day. The other gap is the self inflicted gap when I accidently shut the SPOT off at Fresno.
At high level, it might be easy for some to dismiss the usefulness of SPOT. I disagree though. I believe that SPOT is an evolving product and feel that service will get better. Tracking is not the only consideration. Remember, even if you cannot get an I'm OK, Custom, or tracking message out, you may be able to get a Help/Spot Assist or SOS message out without GPS coordinates.
And even if the emergency messages don't get out, all is not lost. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that rangers normally don't start looking for you until you are a day over due. I just finished reading Lawrence's powerful and moving "Death in Big Bend" and I realize that it may take many hours to mobilize a search once a decision is made to start looking for you.
SPOT buys you time in several ways. If it gets a message with GPS coordinates out, searches will have a very good idea of where you are and, depending on the type of message, the severity of your problem; i.e. Help/Spot Assist=non-life threatening, SOS=life threatening. But even if coordinates are not sent with a message, searchers have a good idea of where to start looking for you. Consider this, how much time could be saved if searchers knew from previous messaged that you were on the eastern end of the Dodson, past Juniper campsite? Searchers could focus resources on that area rather than spreading them over the entire OML. And in the worst case, if you fail to send an I'm OK or Custom message for a certain period you contacts could alert rangers or other personnel and they could start alerting and assembling there personnel and resources.
Before I close I want to show a better track from another trip and share experiences learned to help you get the most of your SPOT, or for any trip, for that matter.
I am a mission pilot for the Civil Air Patrol, a USAF auxiliary. We received a message on the evening of March 17th from the AFRCC that a 406 mhz beacon had been detected in the Bakersfield, Texas area. We launched with the SPOT and tracking on. This track looks much better than the OML track and it demonstrates SPOT can do with good satellite coverage.
http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=245825. We went to the Bakersfield area and no signal was detected. We were in radio contact with FAA's Albuquerque air traffic control center. We were also able to send and receive text messages with our incident commander over our cell phones. Talking on cell phones used to be easy. With digital cell networks most of the time you can't place calls while airborne but you can send and receive text messages. Keep this in mind if you carry your phone in the back country. You may be able to send a text message out even if you can't place or receive a call. After a period of searching the incident commander told us that the AFRCC said that the beacon had stopped transmitting and to return to base, the the mission was being closed.
I debated getting the tracking option when I activated my SPOT. I went ahead thinking for 4 bucks a month what the heck. I was really disappointed when I learned that no one tracked our OML trip. My most trusted friend tracked me driving to BIBE and then for some inexplicable reason stopped watching or progress on the trail. I guess he just assumed that we would be fine. My wife, daughter, and daughter in law didn't even try to track our progress, come to think of it, I don't think they even know the lat/long system. Our other son tried to log on to my Spot page but couldn't. Even though no one tracked our progress everyone reported getting the messages we sent through the day.
My friend (Bill) that didn't track our OML trip is also in the CAP, and even though he knew that we would be in constant radio communications on the ELT mission, he wanted to monitor our track. Things were much better this time and he followed our entire trip.
From now on this is what I will do. I will have my own incident commander in advance, Bill or someone else. That person will have a detailed plan of my trip, contact numbers and an understanding of the SPOT messages I will be sending. Bill has several Incident Command System (ICS) certifications and has inter agency experience. He also understands maps including Google Maps. If you have a friend or family member in law enforcement, is an EMT or fireman, or works with many government agencies they probably understand the ICS system and mapping and would be a good point of contact for you. The NPS or other agency will ultimately appoint an official incident commander in the who will be responsible in the event of a real search but your contact will be a valuable asset to you and them.
My Incident commander will know who to contact and when. If it is a Help/Spot assist he will let them know that I need help, most likely water or minor first aid. An SOS will be an obvious emergency. But my incident commander will also be able to give the authorities an early warning if I miss a scheduled check in time. He can also help them to determine when and what type of help is needed.
Finally, is the tracking option worth it? I will continue to use it but realistically, if you send messages in the morning, mid-morning, lunch time, mid-afternoon, and at the end of the day at a minimum you could probably do without the tracking option. But don't let me talk you out of it, remember is is only $4 a month and it does provide useful information.
So, is SPOT worth it? I truly believe that it is. It is very light weight and easy to use. It can be customized in many ways that can greatly increase your chances of getting out of a bad situation.
Disclaimer - I have no relationship with SPOT whatsoever. And sorry Homero, no pictures. I will do better next time.
Randy
