I received a wonderful gift at Christmas -- a SPOT emergency GPS tracker. My wife got it for me so that she would not worry about me so much when I go solo (which is most of the time).

Well I am here to report that on each of the four short treks I have taken since then, This unit has failed miserably. I would send my signal that I am OK at least 3 times a day mostly from locations with clear views of the sky. Occassionally, it would be from lightly tree shaded locations. All of these trips have been in the San Gabriels north of LA. I usually would send at least one OK from the trailhead starting and ending the trek. Most of the time my wife would receive at best 50% of the OK signals. This last time she recieved none of the 5 signals I sent, including one from an open parking lot with a 100 degree arc of open sky.

SO, what are the experiences of others here on BPL?

I am really disappointed with this unit and have gotten little response if any reponse from SPOT customer service.

Mixed reviews on the SPoT Mitchell. One person has posted that the device led to his rescue while participating on the TGO Challenge in Scotland. His story is posted on there website at http://www.tgochallenge.co.uk/

Others have tested it in the UK and praised it. One was Peter Macfarlane, he did a review at http://www.petesy.co.uk/?p=190 and he rated it. Others don’t.

Mountain Rescue teams have concerns that the emergency button will be used unnecessary hear in the UK if they become popular. I’m thinking of getting one to keep the wife happy if I go backpacking on my own. But ill look for some more reviews before I buy.

I've seen a number of posts around the web. The track record seems to be a bit SPoTty.

There will be a full Review published soon here. Both extensive field testing and considerable lab testing were done, by several Senior Editors.

The delay in publishing is partly due to our wish to make very sure what we have written is fully justified by the research. You may infer from this that our results are not good. We think we understand the reasons for this: they are inherent in the design. We have made a number of suggestions for version 2.

Personally, I was not able to get a single fix with the SPOT while it was moving.

Cheers

...and yet, when I first got my SPOT, I'd turn it on, press OK, toss it on the dashboard of my car, and drive to work. Almost always, the message would be sent from some location ~5 miles from home, along the freeway where I had be driving a comfortable fast-lane speed. I stopped doing this experiment because the results were consistent; I can't remember one failure. I've also successfully sent messages from the SPOT in a cargo-pant pocket while walking, although not with 100% accuracy.

Over the past several months, I can think of only *one* message I sent from SPOT that I thought should have been received, but wasn't (from Union Point above Yosemite Valley: no overhead trees, good horizon, and no "no fix" alternating flashing). On the other hand, the unit has surprised me with several sucessful messages where the unit was placed on a railing of a covered porch, with at least 1/2 the sky blocked.

Perhaps there's some sample-to-sample variation--I remember this being an issue with GPS-enabled PLBs, where there was sufficient variation in the GPS chipsets that some units could not get a fix under optimal conditions.

FWIW, I don't use the optional tracking mode, which seems (based on web reports) to be much less reliable than pressing OK (or Help).

I own the following techno gadets:

1. SteriPen Adventerurer UV water purifier.
2. Garmin Colorado 300 GPS
3. Princeton Tec Quad regulated LED headlamp (yeah, still a techie item)
AND 4. I will have to buy an avalanche beacon for my ski patrol duties this coming season.

AND (5.?) I'd love to get a SPOT p.l.r.b. for when I'm in avalanche country for calling for help NOW.

It's true, we are relying more and more on high tech devices for our sport. At some point we're going to have to ask ourselves individually, "When do we have too many of these way cool devices?" I guess it's all determined, within reason, by each trip's demands... and our pocketbooks. I hope they never become a substitute for solid outdoor skills.

Eric

I have found the spot performs well if I allow ample time for it to get a satellite fix first.
It seems to not take a fix if it is just turned on? It seems to need to attempt to send an ok signal to get a satellite fix.
My experiences:
When I have traveled a long distance since last successful outing (i.e.: driving a hundred miles): Spot needed about an hour (set out still- not hiking) to get a fix and send a successful message. Then it worked well sending messages, even from partial cover.
Spot does not do well with the initial fix while moving- I've given it it's 20 minutes on the car, then hiking with the spot well placed on top of my pack = messages didn't transmit, even tho the lights were not indicating a transmission problem. It eventually started sending messages, but it was 4 hours into the hike.
Once I've gotten a good fix in an area, I can simply turn on the spot and go- and have good message sending.
I am treating the spot as a beta product and we are the paying testers!