SPOT, the testing continues
Though my first SPOT test entry garnered no comments, I remain convinced that some boaters will go for this gadget/service once they fully understand what it can do for them. Actually, out on the water is where it may perform the most reliably. I’ve been trying SPOT in some tough situations and am learning that it needs a good sky view to work well. I had it out in the streets of New York City for several hours last week, and I don’t think it ever got a GPS position, and it only twice got a message off. By contrast, a little Lowrance XOG I’m testing could regularly get a fix on these same streets (which is where I last tried the AnyTrack, not midtown Manhattan but with many tall buildings). Of course SPOT does not claim to work in urban canyons, but I wonder about wilderness canyons or places with heavy, wet leaf cover. And I don’t understand why it isn’t able to indicate if it has a GPS fix, despite having four bi-color LEDs. {Correction: when you activate a SPOT function, it will indicate after a while if it does not have GPS fix, as—ahem!—explained in the manual.)
On the other hand, it did pretty well—much better than AnyTrack— recording a two way Portland-Camden road trip, only missing maybe 20% of its every-10-minute track points with only a dashboard sky view. And you can see above and below how well it sent a “Help” message from my driveway yesterday…accurate to about 20’ despite all the wet snow that was glommed onto the trees. According to the manual, SPOT will send the help message and position every five minutes for an hour, thus assuring delivery. You can see below how I got four emails in 40 minutes. Note that the message—“This is a HELP message from…” —is customizable at the SPOT Web site, and might have sent something like, “Hey, dudes, they’re biting over here” to a bunch of fishing buddies. After all, unlike SPOT’s 911 button, the “Help” and “OK” messages only go to your list of email and cell phone text addresses, and no doubt people will think of many unusual ways to use that ability. I’m going to keep trying SPOT, but am really looking forward to Doug Ritter’s testing, which will be much more thorough than mine. I emailed him about it today, and he agreed that SPOT users may find “sky view” critical. His test results, though, are “still weeks away.”
I'm sold on it. Already bought two units. Have setup a unit for demonstration in our store. Have orders for 2 units in just a few days. Everyone thinks it's a great product. I'm recommending that the unit be upgraded to solar powered and also allow you to save waypoints on the unit its self for later uploading as an option. Also, it should allow you to control how often you automatically track. Say, by time, distance and speed. Like the i.TrekZ1.
Thanks for you great reviews. I check your site daily.
Ari Castano
Advanced Marine Electronics.