[pct-l] See Spot not run....

[stewjohns at comcast.net]

Mags writes:
The SPOT has been getting awful reviews and is failing miserably in the field...
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I bought one of these a few months back, and have been testing it under different
conditions, and I can verify that it is spotty at best.  You absolutely have to have a
clear view of the sky (No trees in the way) in order to get the signal to process.  I
did not purchase the tracking feature, because frankly no one cares where I go.  I
mainly bought it for the emergency 911 feature because  a PLB is too expensive, and
I kept having this thought of the guy who got his hand stuck in a boulder in Utah and
had to cut his hand off to survive.  I don't want to have to go through any thing like that.

If you follow the advise of the company, it does perform as they say, but frankly I think
people are looking for something a bit more reliable in different conditions other than ideal.

The thing is, I have a GPS that gets a satellite lock in any conditions.  Heavy tree cover, canyons,
even inside my house.  So I don't see why the Spot device can't do that also with a little tweaking
from the company.  

Also, the device does have a bit of a feedback to let you know if your device did not get a gps lock.
The lights flash in sync if you got a lock and out of sync if not.  Not a big help, but at least you will know if your message got sent or not.

Doc Holiday