SPOT Satellite Tracker

If you are like me, you have a spouse or partner that doesn't share your love of being out in the great outdoors and gets a little worried when you do go. The very nature of the places that we like to go to means that cell phone coverage is usually pretty spotty if not nonexistant. How cool would it be to have a small, light weight, long battery life device that could send a preconfigured email message to someone at the push of a button? That is what the SPOT Satellite Messenger does.

The device weights 209g (7.3 oz) and is waterproof to 1m for 30 minutes but it does float. The unit costs $169 CDN for the unit plus $100 USD/Year for the subscription. For this you get three functions: Check-in, Help and 911. When you press the Check-in button on the device an email is sent to an email address that you have setup before you left saying that you are OK, tells them your latitude and longitude and contains a link to Google Maps so they can see exactly where you are. The Help button sends a different message to an email address (which can be different than the Check-in email address) but it still contains your location and the Google Maps link. The 911 button sends a message directly to SPOT's emergency service provider who will then send out the closest help for you.

Coverage seems be everywhere in the world except for south Africa and India but I'm sure that will come. There are some extra services that you can subscribe to as well. For $50/year you can have progress monitoring and for $8/year you will be covered for up to $100,000 USD for the cost of your rescue.

There is a more complete review on Gearlog. You can purchase SPOT directly from their website or in BC from London Drugs.

I think I'll be adding this to my wish list.

UPDATE - April 22, 2008
I came across a thread on Backpacking Light that has some SPOT owners saying that OK and Help messages aren't getting through. This could be due to misuse by the owners but it doesn't sound like it. Maybe I'll wait for the version 2 product to come out instead.

UPDATE - May 14, 2008
I ended up buying a SPOT for the West Coast Trail 2008. I'll link to a review later.