HikeArizona.COM

NEW PRODUCT- "SPOT" IS A PERSONAL SATELLITE MESSENGER. LIGHTER-CHEAPER THAN A SATELLITE PHONE OR EPERB.

JUST OUT-THIS IS THE FIRST GENERATION AND I'M SURE THEY WILL GET EVEN BETTER. i'VE TESTED IT AND VERY HAPPY SO FAR. IT WORKS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SUPERSTITIONS-FAR AWAY FROM CELL SIGNALS. BESIDES CALLING FOR SEARCH AND RESCUE YOU CAN ALERT AS MANY AS FIVE PHONES VIA TEXT MESSAGE, AND OR COMPUTERS THAT YOU ARE OK AND IT SENDS A MESSAGE WITH YOUR CURRENT GPS COORDINATES AND A LINK TO GOOGLE EARTH WHICH SHOWS EXACTLY WHERE YOU ARE AT. I HIKE ALONE OFTEN SO THIS ASSURES ME AND OTHERS.

Spot does have a breadcrumb option that sends a message every so often. That would allow my SO to direct SAR to a good place to look if I stopped moving and was unable to activate the help button.

@azhiker96
Yes, if you subscribe for breadcrumbs. I'm pretty sure It sends a location every 10 minutes, but it's been awhile since I've been to the website and I don't have the subscription so it may have changed.

@MtnBart01
You are correct sir. Just verified by checking my Spot track from last week

MtnBart01 wrote:It sends a location every 10 minutes...

In the case of the Insomnia Canyon rescue, with 7 canyoneers in their group, even if they had subscribed to that feature it's likely they weren't using it.
And when it didn't work, four of the group continued down-canyon for hours until they could get an intermittent cell signal to call for help.

If I ever do anything it would be a sat phone. Otherwise probably not. Guess I get that from the caving I've done---nothing's gonna help you there, of an electronic nature. I know some work has been done on "Cave Radio" but last I know it was very short distance and only if the cave was basically in a thin layer of limestone or like an open direct lava tube and never got very deep.