oh-there-you-is
Jan. 5th, 2009 02:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tugrikAbout two months ago my satellite phone went missing. I'd bought it some years back for my little sister when she was shipped overseas on military duty (Iridium calls were much cheaper than long distance from Oman) and kept it around for travel & emergency use ever since. As it normally lives in a little pelican case off in the storage locker I had no idea it was missing until I got nailed with $150 of bogus calls made on it. I'm still not quite sure how I lost it, but I suspect it was while moving stuff back and forth from the storage to the house. I vaguely remember setting its little case on top of my car at one point, and there y'go.
As it was an old-and-clunky Iridium model I had always wanted to upgrade it, but doing so would have meant losing the sweet "military family plan" that made it affordable. Looking at the cost of modern phones and their plans made replacing it a really crappy option. Globalstar's voice service being offline meant that the 'cheaper' provider wasn't reliable. No more sat-phone for me. This bums me out because I'd actually had some very good results with a satphone. I've never needed 'rescue' myself, but I've summoned aid for two other motorcyclists and one Burning-Man friend, all outside of cel-coverage areas. Those three incidents made having one worthwhile.
My backup plan was to someday get a PLB (Personal Locator Beacon), a little survival-gadget I'd written about some time ago here in my journal. The only thing that stops me is that they're purely a rescue device. The only thing they can do is send out a 'save me now' call with your location; nothing more, nothing less. Press the button and the cavalry comes -- often at great expense -- but it's better than dying. While this would indeed be handy for mountain climbers, back-country hikers and other extreme travel, it's not got the best use for just an occasional off-gridder like myself.
Until the more-affordable Globalstar system is fixed in mid/late 2009 I figured I'd just do without. Then I saw the SPOT Messenger.
I'd previously discounted it because I thought it was a cel-phone based toy, and I already have that built into my iPhone. It wasn't until I lost the satphone and did real research that I found out this is an actual satellite two-way system with no cellular components involved! The SPOT Messenger is a $149 ($99 after rebate when I bought it) tracking gadget. It's a funky hybrid of an Orbcomm-style system and a PLB, fitting in somewhere between a satphone and a beacon. While it lacks some of the reliability and 'seriousness' of a PLB it has many more options for use.
Satellite services are scary-spendy, though... so how could this be so affordable? The scoop behind this is that Globalstar had to do something to keep afloat while their voice network is in shambles. While the two-way voice components on their satellites (in particular, the downlink portion) are all messed up, the two way short-message data systems are A-OK. This makes them hungry and ready to deal. The company that made the SPOT has greatly benefitted from this, and sells unlimited-use plans for $100-150 a year atop the comparatively cheap $100-149 unit price. Compare this to the costs on an Iridium phone: $700-1800 for a handset, $20-50 minimums for monthly service, plus per-minute fees. Even on the 'military family plan' I was paying $20/mo just to keep the phone alive, and then about $0.90 for every minute used. Uuugh!
So what does it do? Well, like a PLB, it has a 'bring the cavalry' button. Press and hold the "911" key and it'll update emergency services as to your location. Coupled with pre-filled-out information on your account (done before every major trip), it's just as useful as the first PLB notifications. They'll contact your emergency contact list and make sure it's not a false alarm, then send the appropriate emergency services. The downside, though, is that it has no fixed transmitter becaon for ground crews with search-and-rescue directional radios to follow. It only uplinks your GPS data, no more. And if you're under heavy cover or otherwise can't get GPS signals, it'll still send out the shout for help but won't be able to tell rescuers where you are. It's because of this that the PLB survival-die-hards hate this device. More on that later.
More importantly to the casual user like myself, it has two other keys: Help and OK. The OK button is just that. It sends a "It's all cool, dudes" check-in message to your pre-specified contact list (email, SMS or both). If you have friends or family watching you during your travels, this lets them know when you arrive safely at certain times or places, as you choose. The "Help" button is exactly the same thing, but instead it sends a "Please send help" message instead of an "OK". This only goes to your specified contact list, though, and no official agency... so it's safe to use for mild or annoyance-level problems where you just need your contact list to know, but you're out of cel range. This is a big advantage over a PLB-like device. You can use a SPOT for things like vehicle problems or other attention-needed events without it having to be life threatening.
In the slightly more fun category, it has the ability to do real time tracking. When put in tracking mode it'll send its position once every ten minutes as best it can.
The cool part? They've done a good job with how you can use that tracking data.
The company keeps 30 days of history on their servers which you can download at any time in .CSV, .GPX or Google Earth formats. Additionally they have a wonderful "shared tracking page" system that's integrated with Google Maps. If you've paid for the full version of their service ($149) you can use the tracking and the share system as much as you want. It lets you create public and private pages (with or without password) that you can turn on and off as you wish. I have one private page that my family can use at any time with the password I gave them. I have one public page that anybody can view, but it only works when I turn it on. Most of the time you'll find it blank as I value my location privacy, but during Grand Excursions or motorcycle rides I'll post that I've turned it on. Since you can create and destroy these pages at will it's easy to control access. Too many people have the password or the URL to your private location page? Nuke it and create a new one, no problemo. I can even do that from the iPhone while out in the field as long as I'm near a cel tower.
The system also has a useful 'message profile' feature. You can create specific batch lists of folks to notify for OK and "help" messages and turn them on or off as you wish. It's trivial to turn them on or off with the web interface. For instance, when my roomie![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
revar went up to visit his relatives for the holidays I set up a custom list that included his brother-in-law and mom. They got updates as he drove and could check his find-me page to see how he was doing. As his trip went right through some incredibly bad Oregonian weather, it took him three solid days to get there and some scary times through chain-controlled passes. Being able to watch his progress really lowered his family's stress level, so I consider the tracker's use a success.
~~~~
All gadgets have their pros and cons. On the upside, the SPOT is physically made well. It's plastic but very impact-tough. It's vibration-proof, waterproof and it floats, so you can just toss it in a backpack or a kayak as you wish. The buttons are easy to use and hard to accidentally trigger. There are no jacks or antennas to break or get clogged. When used with the recommended Lithium AA batteries (about $5 for a two-pack at any drugstore) it will work from -40F to 185F. (yes, you can use it with normal AA batteries in a pinch, but then it has temperature and lifespan limitations.) It's a battery miser, too. The batteries will hold a charge for a decade if left unused, so it can safely just live in a glove compartment or a backpack in your garage until you need it, without having to worry if the batteries have gone dead. If you accidentally leave it on it'll run for about a year (!!). When you actually do something with it, it's still pretty good: about 1900 "I'm OK messages", 14 solid days of live tracking or 7 days of constantly-relayed 911/Help messages. If you forget and leave tracking on it'll automatically go back to standby mode in 24 hours to keep it from simply running the batteries dry. While it's always wise to put fresh batteries in before any big trip, if you forget you're probably still just fine.
On the downside, it really does need to have good open-sky conditions to work. If you're hiking you'd want it on your backpacking shoulder-strap. If you're bicycling or motorcycling you'd want it on a mount where it could face upwards and not be under any covers. If you're driving, leave it on the dash or under a sunroof so it can see sky -- just be careful about leaving it there when stopped in summer (exceeding 185F is easier than you think). Sure, it's robust, and will keep retrying for 20 minutes on an OK (and indefinitely on a help/911), but the way track-logs gap show just how much it really does want a good sky-view to be reliable. The unit is also somewhat bulky if you're used to the modern, palm-sized GPS units of today. It's not exactly something you'd keep in your pocket.
~~~~
As I mentioned before, the SPOT system has gotten a bit of the ol' Internet Hatred. Most of this comes from the "survival" communities and their various forums. They have some good points, but I think they're also being a little myopic. There are two major arguments: half-assedness is never to be tolerated, and Joe Public has no respect for Search and Rescue.
The latter argument isn't just against the SPOT; it's against most forms of locator beacons in general. The idea is that adventuresome people need to be well thought out and self reliant. A beacon should never be seen as a last-ditch survival tool, not a 'safety net'. The moment you start counting on a search-and-rescue infrastructure as part of your plans, You're Doing It Wrong&trade . The die-hards behind this argument think that if Joe Public gets their hands on a safety beacon they'll use it as a license to go do stupid things, expecting someone to save their butt if anything goes wrong. Less charitably, some believe that we'll have a rash of "Oh, Martha... we forgot the sandwiches! Press the beacon and see if the nice park ranger can bring us some nibbles for our elevenses!" incidents. Other quotes I've seen are things such as "we'll be getting satellite help calls when Granny wants us to change a tire for her in the suburbs". While they do have a point, it's a little over-reactionary. Proper fines have been set up for mis-using an emergency beacon in a non-life-threatening situation and that should be enough of a deterrent. While I agree we do need these devils-advocates to remind us that we should never use a beacon in place of common sense, I worry they go overboard a bit.
The "half-assed" argument is a little more realistic, though. The folks behind this one are mostly angry that the SPOT messenger puts itself squarely in the "PLB" bracket without ever calling itself one. They are indeed trying to capture the 'arrive alive, survive with our product' market but without going through the stringent rules and approvals required of official rescue beacons like PLBs and EPIRBs. The fact that they have non-emergency uses such as tracking and "I'm OK!" checkins disqualifies them from those certifications in the first place. The "no half-assing it" arguers say that the SPOT device should only market itself amongst the other GPS tracking products and stay clear of any kind of association with emergency services and safety since their device clearly isn't an official beacon that meets specs. Of all their worries the most predominant one is that a consumer will buy their product specifically to help in a life-saving situation and the product will fail, resulting in the user's death.
I agree in that they may be stepping over a "marketing vs. safety" boundary line here. While their product is really dang good and can/will indeed save lives, it is not as reliable as a pure rescue beacon would be. It will not auto-deploy or float with the antenna in a guaranteed-skyward position like an EPIRB. It does not have a ground-based transmitter for SAR to follow in rough terrain once they arrive in the right area. It does not have standard self-test modes that are accepted by safety officials. And, due to the "convenience over function" design of the small, internal-only patch antenna, it is not nearly as sensitive. If you're under heavy tree cover or other obstructions and cannot move, a SPOT may be useless where a PLB might get the signal through.
On the flipside... as a consumer convenience device this thing rules. You can 'check in' and say "I'm OK!" anywhere. You can ask for help from buddies and family without it being a real emergency that gets 911 or SAR involved. Or you can simply make google-map-tracks of your long rides, just for fun. Hell, you can location-blog with it. They just won't market it purely as that or it'll get lost among all the other cheapie cel-based trackers out there.
~~~~
This little review has gone on long enough; thanks for reading along if you've gotten this far. :) I'll close up by saying that my only real disappointment with the unit is that its messaging capabilities are under-used. Since it's not a full PLB-level device anyways, I say consumerize it just a little more. Why limit it to only one "I'm OK" button? It'd be great to have a batch of, say, 10 customizable messages like the 2-way-pagers of yore. "Stopping for the night". "Getting gas." "Aborting trip, returning home." Etc.
I know they can't just put a keypad and LCD on it because that'd break their revenue model. If you could use it as a general text messenger, via satellite, for a flat $149 a year it'd be so easy to abuse. Goodness knows I would. Heck, I'd hook the thing up to a weather system or other remote-sensing device and a million other projects. Keeping the message types limited to its targeted use keeps the traffic down, and thus keeps them within the affordable yearly plans that will still make them a profit. I recognize that. But for just a few extra messages... there's still a better balance to be had.
Mostly this review goes as a shout-out to my "let's go do fun and crazy travel things" LJ-friends, likeionotter and skorzy. This gadget is an affordable way to add a little extra safety and some tracking fun to your already interesting travels. It'd also be useful for trip-blogging wanderers like chipotle, as it makes pretty Googlemaps of where you've been touring around.
As I'll only be using it on motorcycle rides, Burning Man trips and the occasional photo-trek, there'll be many days it sits unloved/unused in my glove compartment. If any local friends want to borrow it (either for fun or for a little added safety) for a temporary road-trip, just holler. I'll gladly lend it.
As it was an old-and-clunky Iridium model I had always wanted to upgrade it, but doing so would have meant losing the sweet "military family plan" that made it affordable. Looking at the cost of modern phones and their plans made replacing it a really crappy option. Globalstar's voice service being offline meant that the 'cheaper' provider wasn't reliable. No more sat-phone for me. This bums me out because I'd actually had some very good results with a satphone. I've never needed 'rescue' myself, but I've summoned aid for two other motorcyclists and one Burning-Man friend, all outside of cel-coverage areas. Those three incidents made having one worthwhile.
My backup plan was to someday get a PLB (Personal Locator Beacon), a little survival-gadget I'd written about some time ago here in my journal. The only thing that stops me is that they're purely a rescue device. The only thing they can do is send out a 'save me now' call with your location; nothing more, nothing less. Press the button and the cavalry comes -- often at great expense -- but it's better than dying. While this would indeed be handy for mountain climbers, back-country hikers and other extreme travel, it's not got the best use for just an occasional off-gridder like myself.
Until the more-affordable Globalstar system is fixed in mid/late 2009 I figured I'd just do without. Then I saw the SPOT Messenger.
I'd previously discounted it because I thought it was a cel-phone based toy, and I already have that built into my iPhone. It wasn't until I lost the satphone and did real research that I found out this is an actual satellite two-way system with no cellular components involved! The SPOT Messenger is a $149 ($99 after rebate when I bought it) tracking gadget. It's a funky hybrid of an Orbcomm-style system and a PLB, fitting in somewhere between a satphone and a beacon. While it lacks some of the reliability and 'seriousness' of a PLB it has many more options for use.
Satellite services are scary-spendy, though... so how could this be so affordable? The scoop behind this is that Globalstar had to do something to keep afloat while their voice network is in shambles. While the two-way voice components on their satellites (in particular, the downlink portion) are all messed up, the two way short-message data systems are A-OK. This makes them hungry and ready to deal. The company that made the SPOT has greatly benefitted from this, and sells unlimited-use plans for $100-150 a year atop the comparatively cheap $100-149 unit price. Compare this to the costs on an Iridium phone: $700-1800 for a handset, $20-50 minimums for monthly service, plus per-minute fees. Even on the 'military family plan' I was paying $20/mo just to keep the phone alive, and then about $0.90 for every minute used. Uuugh!
So what does it do? Well, like a PLB, it has a 'bring the cavalry' button. Press and hold the "911" key and it'll update emergency services as to your location. Coupled with pre-filled-out information on your account (done before every major trip), it's just as useful as the first PLB notifications. They'll contact your emergency contact list and make sure it's not a false alarm, then send the appropriate emergency services. The downside, though, is that it has no fixed transmitter becaon for ground crews with search-and-rescue directional radios to follow. It only uplinks your GPS data, no more. And if you're under heavy cover or otherwise can't get GPS signals, it'll still send out the shout for help but won't be able to tell rescuers where you are. It's because of this that the PLB survival-die-hards hate this device. More on that later.
More importantly to the casual user like myself, it has two other keys: Help and OK. The OK button is just that. It sends a "It's all cool, dudes" check-in message to your pre-specified contact list (email, SMS or both). If you have friends or family watching you during your travels, this lets them know when you arrive safely at certain times or places, as you choose. The "Help" button is exactly the same thing, but instead it sends a "Please send help" message instead of an "OK". This only goes to your specified contact list, though, and no official agency... so it's safe to use for mild or annoyance-level problems where you just need your contact list to know, but you're out of cel range. This is a big advantage over a PLB-like device. You can use a SPOT for things like vehicle problems or other attention-needed events without it having to be life threatening.
In the slightly more fun category, it has the ability to do real time tracking. When put in tracking mode it'll send its position once every ten minutes as best it can.
The cool part? They've done a good job with how you can use that tracking data.
The company keeps 30 days of history on their servers which you can download at any time in .CSV, .GPX or Google Earth formats. Additionally they have a wonderful "shared tracking page" system that's integrated with Google Maps. If you've paid for the full version of their service ($149) you can use the tracking and the share system as much as you want. It lets you create public and private pages (with or without password) that you can turn on and off as you wish. I have one private page that my family can use at any time with the password I gave them. I have one public page that anybody can view, but it only works when I turn it on. Most of the time you'll find it blank as I value my location privacy, but during Grand Excursions or motorcycle rides I'll post that I've turned it on. Since you can create and destroy these pages at will it's easy to control access. Too many people have the password or the URL to your private location page? Nuke it and create a new one, no problemo. I can even do that from the iPhone while out in the field as long as I'm near a cel tower.
The system also has a useful 'message profile' feature. You can create specific batch lists of folks to notify for OK and "help" messages and turn them on or off as you wish. It's trivial to turn them on or off with the web interface. For instance, when my roomie
revar went up to visit his relatives for the holidays I set up a custom list that included his brother-in-law and mom. They got updates as he drove and could check his find-me page to see how he was doing. As his trip went right through some incredibly bad Oregonian weather, it took him three solid days to get there and some scary times through chain-controlled passes. Being able to watch his progress really lowered his family's stress level, so I consider the tracker's use a success.All gadgets have their pros and cons. On the upside, the SPOT is physically made well. It's plastic but very impact-tough. It's vibration-proof, waterproof and it floats, so you can just toss it in a backpack or a kayak as you wish. The buttons are easy to use and hard to accidentally trigger. There are no jacks or antennas to break or get clogged. When used with the recommended Lithium AA batteries (about $5 for a two-pack at any drugstore) it will work from -40F to 185F. (yes, you can use it with normal AA batteries in a pinch, but then it has temperature and lifespan limitations.) It's a battery miser, too. The batteries will hold a charge for a decade if left unused, so it can safely just live in a glove compartment or a backpack in your garage until you need it, without having to worry if the batteries have gone dead. If you accidentally leave it on it'll run for about a year (!!). When you actually do something with it, it's still pretty good: about 1900 "I'm OK messages", 14 solid days of live tracking or 7 days of constantly-relayed 911/Help messages. If you forget and leave tracking on it'll automatically go back to standby mode in 24 hours to keep it from simply running the batteries dry. While it's always wise to put fresh batteries in before any big trip, if you forget you're probably still just fine.
On the downside, it really does need to have good open-sky conditions to work. If you're hiking you'd want it on your backpacking shoulder-strap. If you're bicycling or motorcycling you'd want it on a mount where it could face upwards and not be under any covers. If you're driving, leave it on the dash or under a sunroof so it can see sky -- just be careful about leaving it there when stopped in summer (exceeding 185F is easier than you think). Sure, it's robust, and will keep retrying for 20 minutes on an OK (and indefinitely on a help/911), but the way track-logs gap show just how much it really does want a good sky-view to be reliable. The unit is also somewhat bulky if you're used to the modern, palm-sized GPS units of today. It's not exactly something you'd keep in your pocket.
As I mentioned before, the SPOT system has gotten a bit of the ol' Internet Hatred. Most of this comes from the "survival" communities and their various forums. They have some good points, but I think they're also being a little myopic. There are two major arguments: half-assedness is never to be tolerated, and Joe Public has no respect for Search and Rescue.
The latter argument isn't just against the SPOT; it's against most forms of locator beacons in general. The idea is that adventuresome people need to be well thought out and self reliant. A beacon should never be seen as a last-ditch survival tool, not a 'safety net'. The moment you start counting on a search-and-rescue infrastructure as part of your plans, You're Doing It Wrong&trade . The die-hards behind this argument think that if Joe Public gets their hands on a safety beacon they'll use it as a license to go do stupid things, expecting someone to save their butt if anything goes wrong. Less charitably, some believe that we'll have a rash of "Oh, Martha... we forgot the sandwiches! Press the beacon and see if the nice park ranger can bring us some nibbles for our elevenses!" incidents. Other quotes I've seen are things such as "we'll be getting satellite help calls when Granny wants us to change a tire for her in the suburbs". While they do have a point, it's a little over-reactionary. Proper fines have been set up for mis-using an emergency beacon in a non-life-threatening situation and that should be enough of a deterrent. While I agree we do need these devils-advocates to remind us that we should never use a beacon in place of common sense, I worry they go overboard a bit.
The "half-assed" argument is a little more realistic, though. The folks behind this one are mostly angry that the SPOT messenger puts itself squarely in the "PLB" bracket without ever calling itself one. They are indeed trying to capture the 'arrive alive, survive with our product' market but without going through the stringent rules and approvals required of official rescue beacons like PLBs and EPIRBs. The fact that they have non-emergency uses such as tracking and "I'm OK!" checkins disqualifies them from those certifications in the first place. The "no half-assing it" arguers say that the SPOT device should only market itself amongst the other GPS tracking products and stay clear of any kind of association with emergency services and safety since their device clearly isn't an official beacon that meets specs. Of all their worries the most predominant one is that a consumer will buy their product specifically to help in a life-saving situation and the product will fail, resulting in the user's death.
I agree in that they may be stepping over a "marketing vs. safety" boundary line here. While their product is really dang good and can/will indeed save lives, it is not as reliable as a pure rescue beacon would be. It will not auto-deploy or float with the antenna in a guaranteed-skyward position like an EPIRB. It does not have a ground-based transmitter for SAR to follow in rough terrain once they arrive in the right area. It does not have standard self-test modes that are accepted by safety officials. And, due to the "convenience over function" design of the small, internal-only patch antenna, it is not nearly as sensitive. If you're under heavy tree cover or other obstructions and cannot move, a SPOT may be useless where a PLB might get the signal through.
On the flipside... as a consumer convenience device this thing rules. You can 'check in' and say "I'm OK!" anywhere. You can ask for help from buddies and family without it being a real emergency that gets 911 or SAR involved. Or you can simply make google-map-tracks of your long rides, just for fun. Hell, you can location-blog with it. They just won't market it purely as that or it'll get lost among all the other cheapie cel-based trackers out there.
This little review has gone on long enough; thanks for reading along if you've gotten this far. :) I'll close up by saying that my only real disappointment with the unit is that its messaging capabilities are under-used. Since it's not a full PLB-level device anyways, I say consumerize it just a little more. Why limit it to only one "I'm OK" button? It'd be great to have a batch of, say, 10 customizable messages like the 2-way-pagers of yore. "Stopping for the night". "Getting gas." "Aborting trip, returning home." Etc.
I know they can't just put a keypad and LCD on it because that'd break their revenue model. If you could use it as a general text messenger, via satellite, for a flat $149 a year it'd be so easy to abuse. Goodness knows I would. Heck, I'd hook the thing up to a weather system or other remote-sensing device and a million other projects. Keeping the message types limited to its targeted use keeps the traffic down, and thus keeps them within the affordable yearly plans that will still make them a profit. I recognize that. But for just a few extra messages... there's still a better balance to be had.
Mostly this review goes as a shout-out to my "let's go do fun and crazy travel things" LJ-friends, like
ionotter and skorzy. This gadget is an affordable way to add a little extra safety and some tracking fun to your already interesting travels. It'd also be useful for trip-blogging wanderers like chipotle, as it makes pretty Googlemaps of where you've been touring around. As I'll only be using it on motorcycle rides, Burning Man trips and the occasional photo-trek, there'll be many days it sits unloved/unused in my glove compartment. If any local friends want to borrow it (either for fun or for a little added safety) for a temporary road-trip, just holler. I'll gladly lend it.
