Spot Gen3 How to Set Up Family Notfications
The SPOT Gen three is the newest device is the SPOT family of satellite-based personal locator beacons and advice devices designed for outdoor adventurers and represents a significant improvement over the earlier SPOT II in terms of usability and functionality.
My History Using a SPOT II
I've carried a SPOT Two Satellite GPS Messenger on every backpacking and day hiking trip I've taken since 2010 because it gives my wife peace-of-listen. That's a small price for the freedom she gives me to trot off and hike so much.
But it's non the ability to call SAR that she like so much. Information technology's the fact that I tin can send her a daily OK message via a Satellite when I'g deep in the backcountry and out of jail cell phone range. She just wants to know that I'm ok and I tin can empathise that.
But the SPOT 2 has some real usability issues, most notably the buttons which you apply to plow it on and off, or employ to send OK or Custom Messages. They don't piece of work over l% of the fourth dimension, and you may need to push them a dozen times before they activate. This is very frustrating!
A True Confession
I in one case got so frustrated with the SPOT 2 buttons that I stabbed them with a swiss army pocketknife to see if that would piece of work better than pushing them with my fingers. They didn't, only REI gave me a full refund, anyway, no questions asked.
Much Better Usability
Rejoice. The usability of the buttons on the new SPOT Gen three Satellite GPS messenger is vastly better than the SPOT 2. Vastly. But the upgrade from a SPOT 2 is very expensive, particularly the almanac subscription fee and the optional new services that the new device enables.
The new Gen iii buttons are made of hard plastic and provide the appropriate tactile feedback that y'all'd wait from triggering a mechanical device. There's fifty-fifty a divide on-off switch now.
The new device besides provides visual feedback (flashing lights) when it's turned on and off, when you enable and disable tracking or when you ship one of your 2 pre-canned message. The quondam SPOT Ii did this poorly and so you never really knew if it was doing what y'all wanted.
In addition, the SPOT Gen 3 is besides waterproof and has a USB port which yous can utilize to add capabilities to information technology, upgrade the device's firmware to fix bugs and future proof your investment, and which brings it into the earth of "smarter" devices.
Unfortunately SPOT hasn't upgraded the usability of their FINDMESPOT.com web site which y'all still need to use to actuate service plans, customize your preprogrammed messages, and create shared route pages. That's still ane of the worst web sites I have to deal with, just once you set things up y'all can avert returning to it near indefinitely.
An Introduction to the SPOT
If you're new to the SPOT and have never seen or heard about it, it's a very popular, consumer-oriented, personal locator beacon that operates on a private satellite network chosen GEOS instead of the public, international one used by other like devices.
The basic thought is elementary – push a button and emergency responders will come up to your rescue, even if you don't have cell phone service, almost anywhere in the world. The benefit of running the SPOT service over a private satellite network instead of a public i, is that y'all can customize the messages that are sent, including the power to send not-emergency or tracking messages to friends or family.
In gild to trigger a message, you press one of the buttons on the front of the SPOT devices, which provide the common set of basic functions:
- Check-In: Let contacts know where you are (GPS location) and that yous're okay (meet above).
- Custom Bulletin: Let contacts know where you are by sending a 2d (possibly different) pre-programmed message with your GPS location.
- Runway: Automatically saves your location data and allow contacts to rails your progress using Google maps via a spider web folio.
- Help/SPOT Assist: Request non-emergency assistance from friends or family at your GPS location.
- SOS: In an emergency, send an SOS with your GPS location to GEOS, who volition contact the advisable agency to come and rescue you.
Unlimited and Enhanced Tracking Services
Besides device usability, the chief deviation between the SPOT Gen three and the SPOT Ii is motion activated tracking and the ability to limit how oftentimes tracking updates are logged, be information technology on 2.5, 5, 10, 30, or sixty minute intervals. Both of these function preserve battery life, but who really needs them?
I reckon backcountry skiers, helicopter pilots, adventure athletes and possibly guidebook authors are the people who would most probable do good from the advanced tracking capabilities. But let'due south face it, sending x minute location updates is only useful for entertainment, documentation, or body recovery purposes. It serves petty purpose from a backcountry condom or rescue perspective because there's no such affair as instant rescue help in the backcountry – unlike urban EMS.
Note: No i should wait a backcountry rescue to exist called in if they've stopped moving for 10 minutes unless they specifically send an SOS message. Even then the rule of thumb is that it takes rescuers 1 60 minutes to reach you for every 1/4 mile yous are from a trail head. There is no substitute for self-sufficiency.
I question whether people really demand unlimited or farthermost tracking.
Improved Battery Life
In improver to the new tracking capabilities, the battery life on the SPOT Gen 3 is over twice that of the SPOT II giving it the power to transmit over ane,000 bank check-in or custom letters on a unmarried set up of batteries. But the SPOT Gen 3 requires four 10 AAA Lithium or NiMH rechargeable batteries or a 5v USB line connection, while the SPOT II requires 3 ten AAA batteries and cannot be powered externally.
Message Reliability
1 of the problems with the SPOT 2 was message reliability, especially for tracking and cheque-in messages, where users reported delayed or lost letters which never arrived. Information technology used to happen to me very oftentimes when the SPOT Ii first came onto the market, but much less so in contempo years, which I think is probably due to improved satellite coverage or network reliability.
Various reasons were given past SPOT for dropped letters including low battery power or that narrow canyons and tree cover blocks satellite message delivery. I was never actually satisfied with those explanations because the device ever reported successful transmission based on its flashing light feedback.
In you're in Due north America or Europe, SPOT claims that in that location is a "99% or better probability of successfully sending a single message in 20 minutes," but when y'all start to pull that statement apart, it'southward actually not clear what it means or if information technology means anything except in the nearly platonic testing scenarios.
While I haven't had whatever problems with dropped check-in messages or tracking since I started testing the SPOT Gen three, I can't definitively say that message reliability has improved. That's why I plan to keep testing this device on backcountry trips for the next few months.
Recommendation
I am excited to see the new usability improvements in the SPOT Gen three. The device is much more idiot-proof and message reliability has improved noticeably. While I question the utility of the enhanced tracking capabilities bachelor in this new version of the product, I'm a dedicated user of the OK check-in letters that you can send using the Spot Gen iii. I rely on this device to let my wife know that I'g ok in the backcountry and will continue to employ it in the future.
Disclaimer: SPOT provided Philip Werner (SectionHiker.com) with a loaner SPOT Gen 3 device and a half dozen month unlimited tracking plan to test the device and write this review.
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Spot Gen3 How to Set Up Family Notfications
Source: https://sectionhiker.com/spot-gen3-satellite-gps-messenger-review/
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