Just a quick correction: the Globalstart Simplex network is just that: a simplex network (meaning one-way). The unit is only able to send data to the satellite network, it cannot receive anything. This is also the reason why it can't show you if a message has been successfully sent. It just doesn't know because there's no return path for it to receive the confirmation.

Great review. We've got a web review and podcast review available at http://www.gridlinklabs.com

Fletch, I've been trying SPOT too, and came to similar conclusions. It will work pretty well on boats, though, especially when they come out with the planned cradle so you can secure it outside or under a deep slant windshield.

More here:

www.panbo.com

SPoT is designed to be extremely power efficient. That's why it can send so many messages on one set of two AA batteries. The downside is that it only turns on the GPS receiver when it needs to send a message; therefore, you're not going to get constant reassurance that you have good GPS position data. Since it doesn't have a GlobalStar receiver, no acknowledgment can be sent back to indicate that a message was transmitted successfully as was pointed out earlier.

It's a moot point, but you keep saying that the GPS receiver doesn't work well because you're not receiving position messages, while in reality it's much more likely that the uplink signal to GlobalStar's satellites isn't getting through. That said, I've been told that the GPS receiver isn't cutting edge sensitive as its low-current draw design had some priority.

In my experience it's worked quite well in a car (on dashboard with antenna [logo] facing up). In tracking mode it'll miss a point now and then, but I'd guess 80-90+% of these messages get through. It's never failed to post an 'OK' message although I don't send too many of them.

SPOT works exactly as advertised IF you give it a clear view of the sky and give it 20 minutes to uplink. If I do not follow the instructions I do not get the advertised performance and that is MY fault.

Great review. I had the same experience with the unit not working where I do most of my backwoods travel, under a lot of trees.

I think the problem is the older GPS chip which is not sensitive enough. The LED indicators stay on for 3 seconds or so when it's sending a message. You have to watch them for quite awhile to see this, which is impractical when camping or hiking. However, when I did see the 3 second light, the OK message always went through. But I rarely saw this 3-second light, which tells me it never got a GPS fix.

Help messages are supposed to go through without a GPS fix, so it would be useful to test the unit to see how often help messages go through without GPS info.

I returned the unit for credit. It took 2 months and 5 phone calls to get a refund, after I cancelled the service.

My Spot unit could never acquire a GPS location or send and OK message. I did try one test "Help" message which went through but, it had no location for my position. Good thing that I didn't need help, a smoke signal would have been much more effective.

The company's customer service line is not knowledgeable about their product and insist that you cannot return the unit or cancel service. It looks like a long battle or just writing the $300 unit and service cost off to experience.

I didn't do much research before purchasing after I saw the product in a magazine. Since the technology is so readily available it didn't seem necessary. Big mistake!

Please steer your friends away from this product. It doesn't work and the company isn't interested in helping its customers.

Product works exactly as described. Consistently relayed OK and HELP messages with very accurate positions. Subscription is a little painful, but all round a great product.

I agree with those that have had very poor performance from the Spot tracker. I have been using it for almost a month and I have to leave it outside for more than 15 minutes before it gets a GPS fix. Many of the OK and HELP messages that I have sent do not go through and I am locted in southern Europe which is supposed to have good coverage. In my tests, it only works reliably if you stand still with the unit above your head pointing at the sky...

Hi Ernest,

I have seen that 1 promille of the units behaves in the same way, some difficulties with acquiring GPS fix.
It's a warranty covered case. Regarding the OK and HELP messages that didn't go through, please, let me know the conditions of the visibility of the sky. SPOT was designed for the outdoor usage only.

Thanks,

Vlada

The real problem with SPOT is that it is on the Globalstar system. Which has very poor coverage in the northern hemisphere (especially eastern North America from the 48 parallel northward.

We use satellite phone regularly in Algonquin Park and northern Georgian Bay in Ontario and gave up on Global Star years ago because of poor, spotty or none existent service in the area. I've been told that Gobal Star's satellites are old and some of them are now dead leaving very weak or spotty coverage in the north (don't know how true this is, but makes a lot of sense).

We switched to the Iridium Satellite network and their coverage is amazing, even in tree cover in the areas I talked about.

If the SPOT or a similar device becomes available on any other network I'll be the 1st to sign up. But as long as it remains on the Globalstar network save you money. It is not going to work for you in these areas.

Cheers,

Paul

Hello all, there is no way of telling without confirming with Globalstar whether the GPS signal was not acquired, the unit failed to transmit, or whether the "messages" did not get through. The unit will not transmit a message, except for the 911 message, without a GPS fix. Also, without a clear view of the sky, there is no guarantee that the unit will "see" the satellites.

20 minutes on the phone with Globalstar and look at all of this nice info.

You all say - except for the 911 like that is the least important part. After reading all the posts and understanding how the unit is designed to work, the other is fluff anyway. I just want to know that in a 911 call it works and if 75% of the time the fluff works and costs less than the traditional rescue units that offer no fluff, then what is there to complain about? Guess we would just be bored if we had nothing to $%&%$ about.

Some Globalstar satellites are dead leading to gaps in in coverage from their constellation of low earth orbiting satellites. Thus, the problem is probably not SPOT. The problem is more likely that the only functioning satellites are low on the horizon to cover a given area at a given time. A full constellation of working satellites would lead to more reliable coverage. Just give SPOT some time to allow other satellites to fly more directly overhead.

Having used SPOT for the past 2 months in boating here in coastal New England I have found the service unreliable. Numerous signals have been sent for waypoint confirmation and yet only 1 or 2 are ever received. Today,Saturday my son is out sailing off coastal New England out of Cell Phone range and his signals have not been received. Also, I cannot access my SPOT account, ERROR message comes up. Customer Care could not help out since it is technical in nature. I'll have to wait ubtil Monday to hear back back. Mean while, so much for "Peace of Mind!" Good Concept, Dangerously Un-Reliable. Go to an EPIRB or ELT for quality and reliability. Save your money on SPOT unit!

I just returned from a 8,335 mile bike (07 Goldwing) trip. I carried a Satellite Personal Tracker (SPOT) device that allowed me to let my work, family, and friends know where I was at via an e-mail feature the device has. The device has three features – a tracking function that is supposed to report your location every ten minutes, an OK feature that sends an e-mail with a URL of where you are to pre-determined e-mail recipients, and a 911 feature that is supposed to alert local emergency services. I had the unfortunate occasion to use the 911 feature when I assisted a few folks involved in a 5th wheel trailer accident. Emergency services were not promptly, if ever, notified by SPOT. The device, IMHO, is a toy but one should never depend on it for anything serious (such as 911). The tracking feature didn’t work consistently. The OK feature worked most of the time.

Overall: Great concept but unsatisfied with performance.

As a road cyclist who is often training in areas with no cell phone coverage, I had hoped that Spot would allow me to check in and, more importantly, alert others if I needed help. In areas of even light tree cover (i.e. a two lane road with shoulders and trees growing on the side but not arching over the roadway), the Spot performs reliably about 60% of the time. On this morning's ride of 120 minutes, the unit was able to send 7 tracking messages (its best performance yet). In perfectly open areas, I suppose it would work better but in the well-forested Northeast, there aren't many of those. I can only assume it would work best for boaters/sailors/open water rowers,for hikers who plan on stopping on mountain tops or (one can only hope) for Les Stroud who is their spokesman, after all.

I've been using SPOT this spring for some
Appalachian Trail section hiking and have had
problems with spotty (no pun intended) performance.
The reviews I've seen and user comments here about
tree canopy impact on performance match my own experiences.

I've had Checkin OK messages and Tracking Spotcasting
messages fail to be received when hiking on 4000' ridge-tops
with moderate to heavy tree cover. From camp and trail
shelter sites with some openings in tree-cover, I get
fairly reliable transmission.

I think that the SPOT marketing info way overstates
reliability to the point of lulling users into some
bad decision making based on the assumption that this
unit gets its messages out ok.

I still plan to carry it, but consider Spot-casting
not worth the trouble. For OK checkins and Help/911
use, I feel like the unit works reliably if I get it
literally out from under trees.

I still think it is worthwhile to carry SPOT when
I go hiking and like having another tool in my tool
box to help with problems, but think SPOT marketing
way oversells what the product can do. Users beware...

I have been using a SPOT unit for the past 7 weeks travelling South to North of Australia, and return.
I was testing SPOT for usability, reliability and effectiveness and i must say I had no issues whatsoever using it dash mounted. When checking progress on Google, I found SPOT to have recorded when and where I was very accurately. Maybe Globalstar doesn't have the same problem in the southern hemisphere.
SPOT works, I like it.

I've been using a SPOT since June of this year and have had no issues with it. I've put it in the glove compartment of our Civic, the tour pak of my harley and even clipped to the visor of our Jeep and it's worked every time. Tracking mode has always worked, the messages have always gotten through etc. It's missed the odd tracking point but only when it was unable to "see" the sky. I never have it clipped on my belt, but instead always have it laying flat with the logo facing straight up.

Would I recommend it to someone else? Absolutely.

We were hoping to be able to use SPOT to track (not "every inch", just the broad strokes) where we travel, i.e. hikes, jeep trails, etc. so 10 minute intervals for tracking seemed quite reasonable, in addition to having the theoretical peace of mind of the Help and 911 functions, made SPOT seem like a no-brainer.

But unfortunately the percentage of the track messages that get through (at least in our experience) are way too spotty to be of any use to us.

i.e. one trip we were out for about five hours, in tracking mode the entire time with the device on the dash, out and about on open road w/ sunny skies. 5 tracking messages got through. Given that the tracks are sent every 10 minutes, there should have been close to 30. 16% success rate is not acceptable for us, and that was one of the most successful trips once we figured out how to actually set tracking mode.

Our first several attempts we did not receive *any* tracks when we thought we were tracking. They key word here being “thought”. The user documentation advises to send an “OK” check at the start of every trip, so we’d do that and it would come through no problem. We’d then press the OK button for 5+ seconds to start the track mode, the power and ok buttons would be doing their expected blink-in-unison, and so we’d then set the beast onto the dashboard until the end of the trip.

Turns out though, after many failed attempts to track and after re-reading and re-reading and re-reading/re-interpreting the manual & making educated guesses, that: the OK press is going to be sent 3 times (which we expected, it’s plainly noted as such) and after that 20 minutes or so that it takes to send that OK message 3 times the device will return to just “powered-on” mode. This last is the unexpected part. We set the tracking mode and so expected it to be in tracking mode but apparently the device only works its first directive and doesn't register the fact that we asked it to go to tracking mode right after we asked it to send the OK message.

The indicators are exactly the same for tracking and for sending the OK, so there’s no way the user can tell which mode (OK or Track) it is in just by looking. Our choice: to wait 20+ minutes to see if the indicator light combo goes away or not, or, -- and this is what we’d end up doing -- send the OK test message, turn the device off, turn the device back on again, and then set it to tracking mode. Not a hard thing to do, just annoying to have to do.

It would be nice if ... a 5th button and 5th led could be added specifically for tracking. And it would be especially nice if the OK and tracking would not step on each other’s toes – meaning one could have it in tracking mode and still be able to hit the OK button every now and then, and with both messages message types being sent as expected.

While we had it we thankfully did not have any need to use the HELP or 911 features so I cannot speak to those features. From what I'm reading from other reviews both here and elsewhere the 911 is not all it is supposed to be, thus no peace of mind would be had by us if we kept the device just for that.

Soooo we have returned the device, canceled the service renewal, and we’ll be looking for another solution, probably one geared towards just “gps data logging”.

My wife and I just got back from a 5 day canoe trip up in northern ontario. We took the spot along as a means of communicating in case we ran into trouble. For 4 of the 5 days we didnt see any people at all and this is pretty normal being where we were. As we didnt run into any trouble and needed to use the help function, we sent approx 10 spot check OK messages. When I got back I checked our website and only found 7 messages made it through. I had not been leaving the spot on for the full 20 minutes needed for a spot check to be sent but did see on every occasion a 3 second light indicating a message had been sent. So for each OK message we left the unit on for only 4-5 minutes and got about a 70% success rate. Messages were not always sent in the open but we sent most of our messages from islands.

Compared to other products on the market, the spot represents great value in being able to get a simple message along with a position across to those at home. Committing to buy a satellite phone would be difficult for us, who only make one or two major canoe trips a year. For the difference between being stranded and waiting for rescue - this product is well worth the price.

Unlike other reviews on this site, we found the accuracy of the gps data and the reliability in just getting messages across to make this a very functional piece of emergency equipment. It may not get the first message across, but it only takes one - and eventually the spot will get something through. Thats what counts. For those of you looking for a good GPS tracklogger - this is not your product.

I wouldn't WASTE my money on a SPOT. To me, its a toy.

If I wanted SAR (Search & Rescue), I'd go with a PLB (Personal Locator Beacon).

What happens when the batteries deplete due to location tracking and you then want 911 help? It sort of reminds me of cell phones with all the useless features (MP3) and when I need to make an important call, my batteries are dead because I listened to music.

Oh and by the way, the SPOT does not operate on 406 MHz, so your distress signal doesn't go to Cospas-Sarsat directly, but through another agency. No thank you!

By the time you've paid for the SPOT and 3 years of service, you could have bought a dedicated PLB like an ACR Terrafix or similar unit.

This sounds reassuring...from the GEOS web site...
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The scope of GEOS SAR benefits includes payment, by GEOS, of up to $100,000 in any one year, limited to $50,000 any one incident, for the provision of necessary additional Search and Rescue resources (including helicopter, aircraft, private search teams etc.) up to the single incident limit for a period not exceeding 72 hours from the time of call for assistance where these are requested by the appropriate rescue authorities and which are necessary to prevent injury or illness or danger to human life as a result of an unforeseeable emergency or to pay for any costs and expenses claimed against you by the appropriate rescue authorities. Provision of additional resources under this service must be first authorized by GEOS.

PLEASE NOTE This benefit does not apply if:-
a) your situation is caused by circumstances such as a forecast change of weather conditions, which could reasonably have been anticipated at the date you started your trip
b) you have NOT made adequate provision of resources or training or competence needed to complete your planned trip.
c) In the case of death of the Member, GEOS will not be responsible for the transportation of the body
d) GEOS will endeavour to arrange a successful rescue but cannot accept liability for failed rescues due to unforeseen circumstances beyond their control.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

And after having read some of the comments on here where SPOT works here and not there, I'd hate to be there where I'm about to not be found.

There is real SAR and then there are toys like this unit.

Hi There,

I am looking into devises that could be used to assist in tracking staff carring out remote area work in canyon areas. We are currently testing the SPOT unit and would love to hear of any alternatives for GPS tracking. The idea of the unit seems good allthough we allready carry PLB's/EPIRBs and satphones (with the coverage of the satphones often poor).

I have concerns since the SPOT unit only sends it's distress options when there is GPS coverage (Globalstr satphone based) - coupled with the fact that can't tell if you have sent the distress signal.

Does anyone know of a similar unit that has 2 way comunication- eg where the user can be prompted by flashing lights/ audable alarm that they need to confirm ok. Looking at scope for possibly replacing improving sat based check in calls (required every 2 hours.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers, Sam

I've been using a SPOT for kayaking this year, most of the time (95%) it does exactly what it's advertised to do, though I've not had a need to use the 911 function. The remaining 5% I can attribute to trees/cliffs getting between SPOT and the satellites.....no different than the XM satellite radio in my tuck.

It's very settling to see the comments from all of you who've had the problems with SPOT. We've got four in a nice 42' J that's about 600 miles out on a Boston to BVI journey. Fortunately, calm seas, but the absence of a report for 18 hours after getting one every 5 or 6 for the first two days is unsettling.

Thanks for the detailed experience reports !!

I've had an ACR PLB for the last few years, thankfully I've never had to use it, but I know that they are extremely reliable. My question about the systems like the SPOT is why would anyone want to gamble with their life on a substandard system?
The PLB that I chose may cost a little more at first -about $500- but there are no other fees, since it's a Government run system, run by NOAA I feel pretty certain that they will be around for quite some time.
Mark

I am using Spot for one month now on my light aircraft and also on my motorcycle. It works OK most of the time, not all the messages get through but enough of them do to make it worthwhile.

I would NOT rely on SPOT to save my life. Performance is not up to par.

This is typical of US manufacturers. Build it cheap so we make a profit. If we get enough complaints, we'll sell an upgraded unit at additional cost. Just like the big three auto makers. Cheap cheap.

My guess is there is not a high sensitivity GPS chip set in this unit. Cheaper to produce. As well, the transmitter uses one antenna. More cost cutting.

What can spot do to, or should have done? Put a high sensitivity GPS chip set in this unit and the transmitter section should have had a high gain external antenna.

If I fall off my snowmobile or ATV in the *bush* and I'm trapped under it, this unit would not work. I've tried it and even though the unit tells me it sent the message, the message did not appear on my computer/cell phone.

PLB's are to expensive right now for the average user but that will change. SPOT will have to improve there product and offer a buy back/ replace deal for the consumer, just to keep them as customers.

Another alternative that I use is a basic GPS unit (to relay lat & long) and an aviation transceiver. An aviation radio costs a couple hundred dollars at the most. Aviation radio has access to 121.500 Mhz emergency frequency, that aircraft will continue to monitor after Feb '09 as a courtesy. Plus you will get two way communication with aircraft to ensure your massage has been received.

Emergencies don't happen under "ideal conditions".

I won't be renewing my subscription next year.

Has anyone used this device in Southern California? It seems that the coverage has different quality in different regions; I'd like to know how its doing in mine.

thanks,

Does anyone have experience using Spot in central Mexico? I just sent a new Spot down with 3 young climbers. It worked fine when we tried it out before the trip in Oregon, but I have not received any OK messages since they left the states. Now that I see from these comments that Spot operates on the Globalstar system, I am very suspicious. The Globalstar SAT phones we use at work are practically useless these days. They worked great up until about 2005, then went drastically downhill because they can't hit reliable satellites. If I had realized that Spot operates on the dying Globalstar system, I would not have purchased one.

Although I do not personnally own one of these devices, I recently experienced a tragedy in which it saved the lives of three individuals. Following an avalanche the group was able to send out a 911 signal. The signal was relayed to a search and rescue group, which immediately began looking for the group. Without this device, the group, who were far in the backcountry, would not survived the winter elements. I will be looking at the purchase for my family in the near future.

Although I do not personnally own one of these devices, I recently experienced a tragedy in which it saved the lives of three individuals. Following an avalanche the group was able to send out a 911 signal. The signal was relayed to a search and rescue group, which immediately began looking for the group. Without this device, the group, who were far in the backcountry, would not survived the winter elements. I will be looking at the purchase for my family in the near future.

For anyone who is worried about SPOT using GlobalStars network,, there is nothing to worry about. Globalstar's network uses both "duplex"(two way voice communication) and "Simplex"(one way data). The amplifier arm on their satellites for two way voice communication has degraded, resulting in absolutely terrible coverage for Sat phones, however, the simplex amplifier arm works at near 100% on their satellites. I have used Spot for over a year now and I haven't had any problems. Doesn't work so great in my car, but then again, it was never advertised to work that way anyhow. Sometimes, I miss a few tracking messages, but "ok" and "help" messages work just fine. The user manual was not detailed enough, but I called into their customer care line and they were really helpful. I have seen quite a few posts here describing their customer service line as awful, but my experience with them was just great. I was having trouble using spot properly at first, but they really took the time to guide me through it. One of their reps would not let me off the phone until she was confident I knew what I was doing! I dunno...I believe people when they say they had an awful experience with a product or a company, but my experience was great. I'm holding off on buying another unit for my brother inlaw as I have heard that they are trying to come up with an improved Spot unit.
I give Spot 4 out of 5.

Looking at the unit have have the concern that the buttons not being recessed or covered may get in advertantly pushed in my pack and send an unwanted 911 call.
Is this a concern? What have people's experiences been?

Hi

After several months of reading negative comments I decided to buy the SPOT and spent the day testing it. I am really happy with the product and would recommend it. It works very quickly with SMS text messaging, a bit slower with email. After the first initalization which took about 10 minutes to set the GPS area, I was able to get an SMS message within 5 minutes from the time I turned it on. This works like the old GPS units so you need a fairly open sky to use it. I left it on the dashboard of my Jeep while driving and it worked perfectly well. As long as you know that you need an open area to use this, then I don't think you would be disappointed.

Has anyone used this in California with success?

I just bought one of these and it never really worked right. The people at the support desk kept on blaming my location (I am in sunny arizona with no clouds, tall buildings or trees around?) I tried it at different locations and it seemed to work only once every 10 tries. I called support again and they continued blaming it on my location again (every other gps unit I own works at these locations)... I then took it on a plane (I am private pilot) over arizona and it never worked. They blamed this on the other electronics on my plane, and that I should not use it on a plane(yet they advertise it for -- and target it to private pilots). In short either I got a faulty unit or this thing does not really work. Amazingly the people at support never agred to get me a new unit... I am now trying to return it... Bad experiance and a waste of time for something that does not work as advertised.

Thanks to all for their opinions. Was very helpful as I was going to buy one.

We bought a Spot for my dad for Christmas. He horseback rides in the mountains by himself on a regular basis, often on young horses that are being trained. We started the subscription about a week ago and have been unsuccessfully trying to get the unit to work ever since. Not a single "ok" or tracking message has gone through, even having left the unit sitting outside on a fence post and riding along with it held up towards the sky. We live in the PNW, so of course there's lots of trees, but our practically ancient GPS units all work in these areas. Spot is apparently a total dud for our conditions. We'll be trying to get refunds.

I've used SPOT for over a year in FL, the southwest (NM, AZ, NV, UT) and Yosemite National Park. I've sent out over 100 "OK/Check" messages. SPOT has been extremely reliable as long as it has an open view of the sky--maybe clear view 40' in all directions. No complaints. My experience indicates it does take 15-18 min to get the OK/Check message out (actually, SPOT sends out 3 duplicate messages and the first received is acted upon), starting with turning the device ON. So, my procedure is (1) find an open view of the sky, (2) press the ON/Off button--light blinks, (3) press the OK/Check button--light blinks, (4) forget about the device for 20 minutes; (5) check the device--OK/Check light will be off indicating the message has been sent, (6) hold down the ON/Off button for 3 seconds to turn it off. This routine has never failed me.

I am going on a bike (mc) trip from Sweden to Spain an on to North Africa, Midle East and back to Sweden. Would SPOT do me any good? I'm interested in the tracking and reporting only.

Do not purchase this product if you need it to work as advertised. This divice is difficult to use and my wife has told me to get rid of that stupid thing and lets invest in a SatPhone. What a mistake.

Well....Seems to be alot of unhappyness about the Spot.
For me, the 10 minute ping feature seems to work fine in the car and in the plane.(Private pilot) I have just recently started using it while hiking here in northern NJ, and even though there are no leaves on the trees at this time, March/April, for a 2.5 hour hike there were only 3 pings. 2 at the parking lot when I started & finished, and one from a narrow clearing. I guess when the leaves come out it will be worse? I just dont like that knawing feeling of doubt that is now in the back of my mind if I ever do need the help or 911 feature.....

Last year SPOT offered $50 product discount and 50% off tracking service rebates if purchased by Dec 31st. For this reason, I bought a unit and the tracking service on Dec 31st. About 2 weeks after sending in the paperwork I received an email stating that I wouldn't be getting rebates because the purchase date was too late! It cost me $75 more than expected and left me with a very unfavorable view of them. Have also found the performance to be lacking in places I would need it. My Garmin Summit HC has no problems receiving GPS signals, but I believe the SPOT uses less sensitive antenna and receiver. If there is a clear view of the sky, it probably works well, but I haven't had good success in woods. I believe its antenna works best when the unit is oriented horizontally to ground.

Purchased my unit June 2008 for the purpose of tracking bicycle riding, primarily. Reconfig'd the Help button text to read "End of Day" and the OK button to read "Start of Day". Used in MN BWCA and Canada Quetico for canoeing, and WA, MT, ID for cycling vacation. Wife at home tracked the cycling trip via the web page and knew exactly when we started and ended our day as well as where we had been. No performance issues ever. I admit that you have to know how to operate it, which takes time to read the manual, test it out, watch LEDs to get the hang of it. At one point I called the 800#, weekend night, and got a very pleasant and knowledge person who helped me out. I plan on renewing my annual subscription. Also, I loaned it to the local BSA troop for their Philmont hike. Parents loved knowing the start/end of the day msgs and the places they had been.

Sorry that should be www.safetystar.ca

If you notice some of the positive postings seem almost company like? It seems almost deliberately specifically positive in response to the negatives. Once again, today we had major issues (in the wilderness) with the SPOT help and OK buttons. We are compiling the results and will know more tomorrow. There really must be some truth to the negative comments above on the Global Star Sat. system not working real well in the northern hemisphere?

Ask a SPOT technician this question: Why can a good hand held GPS (like the Garmin 60csx)immediately get a fix in the same location (side by side)as the SPOT but yet the SPOT will not send out an "OK"? Today, it did it again only this time it was "Help" and it sent a message with out a GPS location? It must be the lower quality sat. system? Maybe it's the chip in the SPOT. One thing for sure SPOT knows what it is....they just ain't givin it up yet! Who knows maybe they will fix the problem? Sure hope so. I sure hope market share isn't ruling this company for this kind of device.

You have to understand...I would really like it to work. It has nothing to do with NOT using it right. I've field tested it for one year. Some times it works and most times it does not. Have not had a chance (fortunately) to use the 911. I'm a little worried from the comments above that it will not work. My experience with the OK and Help are marginally poor at best, and have little confidence in the 911. BUT, SPOT reps have told me 911 will get through no matter what OK and Help does. Go figure?

I just want people to know and be careful with this unit and have a back up plan. Don't expect your contacts back home to be pleased with the contact results. Spotty at best!