Every once in a while a product comes along that really impresses you.  This is one of those products.  For a couple of hundred dollars (the product price plus a year subscription to the service), you get a way to call for emergency help in the remotest jungle on the planet.  

The SPOT satellite messenger is a GPS enabled device which uses satellites to relay information about you, and about any emergency conditions which you may encounter.  The device is simple, it has only four buttons.  One button turns it on and off, another sends an “I’m okay.” message, one sends a non-emergency “Help” message, and the final button sends an emergency distress call.

The device uses a couple of AA lithium batteries, which last an unbelievable amount of time, over a year of use.  It appears to be waterproof, but I wouldn’t use it in any application worse than a few raindrops.  The LEDs on the front of the device are nice and bright, and easy to see in sunlight.  My only complaint?  The plastic belt clip is a little cheap.  If they strengthened this, added a loop for a lanyard, then the device would be perfect.  The device also takes a little while to obtain a GPS signal, but nothing longer than some of the commercial GPS units on the market.  After a few minutes, it has a nice lock on the satellites.

One of the reasons I purchased this device is because it offers a way for our relatives to track our progress as we visit each state highpoint and travel on each expedition.  I ran a test today, and set the device into a mode where it relays your position on this planet to a remote server every 10 minutes.  In this test, I was driving from Duluth, Minnesota to the Twin Cities at 70 mph.  It even has a nice web site which shows a map of these tracks.  My test is shown below.

Finally, if anyone wants to track our progress, you can view our real time position in the U.S. at this site.  Please note that the site will only be updated if we have our SPOT messenger turned on, and are currently on an expedition.  Otherwise you may receive an error message.