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| Brand: SPOT Inc.
Category: Sports
List Price: $169.99
Buy New: $80.00
New (88)
Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 640
Color: Orange
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.9
Dimensions (in): 5.9 x 5.9 x 5.5
MPN: SPOT
Model: SPOT-1
UPC: 893049001059
EAN: 0893049001059
ASIN: B000YTZV74
Release Date: November 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Very unreliable service, especially tracking. September 10, 2008
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
I won't touch on the technical issues -- I want to focus on our groups real life experiences trying to use this product.
A group of us (pilots) bought the SPOT Satellite Personal Tracker and have been completely horrified by its lack of performance. The idea and promise is very compelling, however, the stability of their system is truly absurd. Keep in mind that this is supposed to be your emergency tracking and notification system. The problem is that their website is always crashing - which they call maintenance (never posted on the website beforehand though). Also, many of the messages sent from the Personal tracker never show up on their website. We've done several test where we lay a SPOT out in the middle of the ramp at our airport, press the help button, and about half the time the messages are never delivered. Our hope, for the longest time, was that this company would eventually get their system working correctly, or at least predictably, however that has simply not been the case. In fact, when you contact them by email their responses are very caviler.
Put your money into a system that doesn't have an annual subscription and is run by a very reputable group (the US Air Force) Buy a PLB!
Terrible website stability and lost help messages September 10, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
A group of use (pilots) bought the SPOT Satellite Personal Tracker and have been completely horrified by its lack of performance. The idea and promise is very compelling, however, the stability of their system is truly absurd. Keep in mind that this is supposed to be your emergency tracking and notification system. The problem is that their website is always crashing - which they call maintenance (never posted on the website beforehand though). Also, many of the messages sent from the Personal tracker never show up on their website. We've done several test where we lay a SPOT out in the middle of the ramp at our airport, press the help button, and about half the time the messages are never delivered. Our hope, for the longest time, was that this company would eventually get their system working correctly, or at least predictably, however that has simply not been the case. In fact, when you contact them by email their responses are very caviler.
Put your money into a PLB which doesn't have a subscription fee and has a company with a great track record of rescue service (The US Air Force)
 Good product, works as advertised September 6, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Acquires satellite (GPS) bearing pretty quickly (few minutes), reliably sends OK messages. I haven't had to try 911, thankfully, so I don't know how that whole experience would work.
Carries a bit of heft, but not too large or heavy to take backpacking.
Relatively easy to set up on their web site.
 It does a decent job September 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
For the last 4 years I have been using a GPS for my hikes and I was quite aware of the limitations these products have. I signed for the Track Progress so my family can follow my progress in real time.
On the parking lot they were able to get a signal, but once I went into the forest they "lost" me for couple of hours. Once I arrived to the last part of my hike (an open alpine meadow with clear views of the sky) they were able to track me for the next hour.
Back to the forest I was "lost" for couple of hours but on the parking lot a new "track" let them know I was on my way home.
I always carry my GPS and now my Spot on top of my backpack, otherwise I think will be quite hard to have these devices connected to the satellites.
Just for fun I decided to test Spot while driving, I put the device next to my stick and I got three "tracks" before arriving home (almost 100 miles, two hours drive). I am thinking in getting a portable dash mount so I can put the Spot closer to the windshield.
My only complaint is that I would like to know when the last check in or track progress was sucessfully send because I don't expect miracles for this device to work below trees or middle of downtown.
Always take a screwdriver with you if you need to replace the lithium batteries. Hopefully a second generation product will fix these annoyances.
FIND ME August 4, 2008
I've been out with this device on a number of trips, although I'm still on my first set of batteries. I set it to track and when I come home I download to google earth and smile as I look over my tracks from a heavenly perspective. It's a great lifeline.
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