SPOT Personal Tracker Review

My family and I spend a lot of time outdoors and most of the time is spent in hiking in remote wooded areas. I am always concerned about something happening and not being able to contact rescue personnel. I have a friend who carries a SPOT Personal Tracker with him whenever he goes hiking, so I decided to get one.

The SPOT Personal Tracker provides a vital line of communication with friends and family when you want it, and emergency assistance when and where you need it. Spot employs a GPS satellite network to acquire its coordinates, then sends its location to the recipient(s) of your choice, complete with a link to Google Maps and a pre-programmed message.

I use the SpotChecking feature to notify my SpotTeam–the friends and family I’ve chosen as my contacts–and tell them all is well, notify them of your location, or save waypoints so I can review my route at a later date.

 I can also activate the SpotCasting feature to let friends and family follow my progress in real time (every 10 minutes). Anyone with access to my account information can log on and view my route, complete with virtual views provided by Google Maps.

 I use the the messaging service included in the basic subscription for $99.99/year. I also use the tracking service (additional $49.99/year to the basic subscription). The tracking must be re-activated every 24 hours by pressing the Ok button for 5 seconds. Every 10 minutes the current position is sent to the satellite. This position is very accurate (within a few meters accuracy).

The most important feature, however, is Spot’s ability to call 911 in the event of a life-threatening or other critical emergency. Once activated, Spot acquires your exact coordinates from the GPS network, and then sends that location along with a distress message to a GEOS International Emergency Response Center every five minutes until cancelled.

The Emergency Response Center notifies the appropriate emergency responders based on your location and personal information. Responders include local police, the highway patrol, the Coast Guard, or other emergency response and search-and-rescue teams.

Even if Spot can’t acquire its location from the GPS network, it will still attempt to send a distress signal–without your exact location–to the Emergency Response Center, which will still notify your emergency contacts of the signal and continue to monitor the network for further messages.

It is important to understand that the SPOT Personal Tracker needs to have an uninterrupted view to the satellite. In other words, in heavy woods this product does not work very well but in broken canopy or in the open, this product works great. Use in a car is unreliable because the windshield attenuates the sat signal or the car itself blocks the satellites. In any case, use on a car dash is spotty. The most reliable way to use it is to just position the device and leave it for 20minutes, as the manual directs. It is 100% reliable when used as directed. Just be aware of the need to give it an opportunity to get the satellite signal.

There is something else one should be aware of concerning this device- the first time the device is turned on, or when it is turned off, relocated over 300 miles away, and then turned on again, it takes up to 20 or 30 minutes for it to re-locate itself. This “startup” only needs to be completed once if one stays in the same geographical area between power ups and power downs.

I use this product to communicate with family and friends and update my progress when backpacking, biking, or just out and about. I’ve used it in rain, fog, blizzard and sunshine, in the forest, in the mountains and on the highway. I have used 911 once – it took all of 10 minutes – very fast. The SPOT Personal Tracker works as advertised. The SPOT is adequate for 99% of outdoor adventures and offers capabilities found nowhere else.

For more information on the SPOT Personal Tracker, just click on any of the pictures in this article.