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       SPOT Satellite Personal Tracker

 The SPOT Satellite Personal Tracker is a small device that allows you to send your location via satellites to your love ones back home and to a response center to be relayed to the proper authorities if needed.  It also allows you to be tracked via a Google map which is way cool.  I will start this review off by saying that in my humble opinion this is a device that should be on every motorcycle in the world.  There are many things I do not like about the first generation SPOT that graces my bike but the benefits far out weigh those little things that I do not care for.  The Generation 2 SPOT just hit the open market and is rumored to address many of these issues.

First lets lay out the technical specs of the SPOT.


Height: 11.1 cm (4.37 in)
Width: 6.9 cm (2.71 in)
Thickness: 4.4 cm (1.73 in)
Weight:  209g (0.46 lbs)
Operating Temp: -45C to 85C (-40F to 185F)
Operating Altitude: -91m to +6,492m    (-300ft to +21,300ft)
Humidity Rated: MIL-STD-810, Method 507.3,  95% to 100% cond.
Vibration Rated: Per SAE J1455

Battery
Type:  AA Lithium
Power ON, unused:  Approx. I year*
Tracking mode:  Approx. 14 days*
S.O.S./911 mode:  up to 7 consecutive days
Check / OK:  1900 messages*
*Under normal usage a full battery charge should meet or exceed these amounts

Just for comparison sake here are the specs for the new Generation 2 SPOT.  They really shrunk this thing.

Height: 9.4 cm
Width: 6.6 cm
Thickness: 2.5 cm
Weight: 5.2 oz (147.4g)
Operating Temp: -30C to 60C (-22F to 140F)
Operating Altitude: -100m to +6,500m (-328ft to +21,320ft)
Humidity Rated: MIL-STD-810F,  Method 507.3, 95% to 100% cond.
Vibration Rated: Per SAE J1455

Battery
Type: AAA Lithium 8x - Energizer

There was no battery life listed from the manufacture.


How does the SPOT work?  This information was pulled from the SPOT website at http://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=101

SOS / 911: This function is used "in the event of a life threatening or other critical emergency to notify emergency services of your GPS location and that you need assistance. The GEOS International Emergency Response Center alerts the appropriate agencies worldwide – for example contacting 9-1-1 responders in North America."  

More about this later.

Help: Use this "in the event of a non-life threatening emergency, you can use this function to notify your personal contacts that you need assistance. Additional SPOT Assist services can be purchased and programmed to your Help button as well. When activated with SPOT Assist, the Help button will notify professional services either on the land or water. SPOT has partnered with national service providers to offer non-life threatening assistance."  

I have this set up to send a text message to my wife to let her know something is wrong with my bike so she can start planing a recovery like finding a trailer.

Check-in / OK: "This feature allows you to let your friends and family know that all is OK with a pre-programmed message along with your GPS location. With a push of a button a message is sent via email or SMS to up to 10 pre-determined contacts and your waypoint is stored in your SPOT account for later reference. Your stored waypoints can be easily integrated into a SPOT Shared Page or SPOT Adventure account."

Track Progress: This feature allows you to send and save your location and allow contacts to track your progress in near real time using Google Maps. With your SPOT account you have the ability to set up a SPOT Shared Page which allows you to show your SPOT GPS locations to others on a Google Map.

This is the main reason I have a SPOT.

What I like.

This unit is fairly small and light weight.  It rides great in the map pocket of my tank bag and sends pretty consistent pings.  I really like the tracking feature so my family can keep up with me on a trip.  Using this feature in conjunction with STM (Spot Trip Manager) provided free by Long Distance riding guru Jason Jonas http://jasonjonas.org/spot/index.jsp makes for a great experence.  SPOT only keeps your tracks for a short period of time but STM keeps them forever allowing you to embed trips into websites like I have done on here.  The tracking feature allows my wife to see that I am still moving on down the road and all is fine in the world.  The OK message to let her know that all is well even if I have stopped moving if I can not call her for what ever reason.  


Now for the things that I do not like.

The 911 button scares the hell out of me.  The SPOT Terms Of Service states that you can be charge an hourly rate for false alarms.  This rate is charged at $345 an hour for a minimum of one hour.  That is a lot of money for an accidental press of that button.  This button is recessed but SPOTs definition of recessed and my definition is very different.  I am seriously thinking about taping a dime over the button to prevent accidental discharges.

Switching from sending an OK message to tracking and from tracking to sending an OK message is cumbersome.  This requires you to cycle the device off and on before moving into the wanted mode.  The instructions I gave my wife is to not worry unless the SPOT has not moved in over a half an hour without a phone call from me.  In the event I am unable to make a call (like dead phone battery or no coverage) I will send an OK message.  This requires me to turn off the SPOT to get it out of tracking mode then turn it back on and send an OK message.  I then have to wait for about five minutes to insure it has had enough time  to send the OK message.  I then have to turn it back off then back on before I can place it back into tracking mode.  This design could have been better.  It would have been nice if you could send an OK message while in tracking mode.  

SPOTs website for tracking is not very user friendly and it does not save trips which is good memories I hate to see go to the recycle bin.  With Jason's site this really has become a non issue for me.  

All in all this is a great product that no rider should be without if they ride long distance or in remote areas.  We recently had a rider run off the road and he was not found for days.  If he had one of these on his bike we may have been able to save him.