[pct-l] Personal Locator Beacons

[Edward Anderson]

Hello again Sheepdog,

The InReach' s ability to also receive would be great.  DeLorme also makes one with that feature. The weight and bulk of that unit is more than twice that of the SPOT CONNECT.  I would assume that SPOT will be coming up with another generation that would also do both send and receive.  Reliability is the most important consideration. Being able to receive as well as send messages would be wonderful.  Technology advances.  

MendoRider-Hiker




________________________________
 From: Cari and Pete Tucker <pct2010video at gmail.com>
To: Edward Anderson <mendoridered at yahoo.com> 
Sent: Tuesday, March 5, 2013 9:01 PM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Personal Locator Beacons
 

Hi Mendo Rider,
 
Like you, I was pretty careful to find a good location, with a wide swath of sky visible, before sending my nightly OK transmission.  I also used the recommended Lithium batteries, and changed them out once at the three month mark just to be sure transmission strength would not become an issue.
 
I agree that the Spot Connect is another unit worth considering, although it can only send outgoing messages, whereas the InReach can both send and receive short texts (assuming it works as advertised).  In an emergency situation, I imagine it would be quite useful to get an acknowledgement that help is on the way, and have an some idea of when assistance is actually likely to arrive.
 
-Sheepdog


On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 7:58 AM, Edward Anderson <mendoridered at yahoo.com> wrote:

Hi Sheepdog,
>
>
>I have read your post and the excellent attached S&R article with great interest. Your experience ( - - - transmission didn't go through only once or twice the entire 6 months we were on the trail) with the reliability of your SPOT OK messages was similar to mine. During four seasons, I rode the PCT from Mexico to Canada - I can also add up about six months during which I mostly lived on the trail. You must have also been very careful, as I was, in selecting the locations from where you sent your OK messages. All of mine got through, while you only missed one or two during six months! 
>
>
>
>My SPOT was the first generation; you must have had the newer one. Mine was given to me free in 2008 by the S. California rep.  The only condition was that I promise to send an OK message every day when I reached camp. They put me on their website, with the words "see where Ed is now". Those interested could follow my daily progress on their computers on Google maps. Those OK messages also gave my wife, loved ones, and friends a certain piece of mind.
>
>
>As for the locations from which I sent - since I was riding a horse, I naturally sought places where there was some grass for him. Usually that translated into places where there was some OPEN SKY - places where you are likely to find grass growing. And good places to send OK messages. If I couldn't find places like that I simply hiked from camp to find a good location - sometimes it was necessary to walk several hundreds of feet. The criteria that worked for me was to find a "cone" of clear sky of about 45 to 50 degrees. It didn't seem to matter if there was a few leaves encroaching the sky near the perimeter of that cone. The messages still went out. I used lithium batteries and was always very careful that the SPOT was laying in a clear horizontal position with no blades of grass or brush above it. I have read that Tim had sent his 911 emergency message from a less than an ideal location. It got through. When he had a freak and serious accident, he
 was only about seven miles from Canada - having started from the border of Mexico. 
>
>
>
>Now, I have read about the smaller and lighter new-generation SPOT - and especially about the new SPOT CONNECT, from which it is possible to send TEXT messages, by connecting it to a Smart Phone. I am aware that many hikers bring along Smart Phones.  The SPOT CONNECT only weighs 4.9 ounces. Worth considering!
>
>
>MendoRider-Hiker
>
>
>
>________________________________
> 
>From: Cari and Pete Tucker <pct2010video at gmail.com>
>To: pct-l at backcountry.net 
>Sent: Monday, March 4, 2013 8:19 PM
>
>Subject: [pct-l] Personal Locator Beacons
> 
>
>The previous respondants are correct that bona fide PLBs have more reliable
>transmitters than the SPOT, although my personal experience with SPOT on
>the PCT in 2010 was pretty good (we used the OK function every night, and
>the transmission didn't go through only once or twice the entire 6 months
>we were on trail).
>
>There is a second issue, however, that I think is worth considering when
>selecting a SPOT/PLB type device, and that is whether two way text
>messaging is possible in an emergency.   The following article
>describes the S&R effort mounted to aid four young men on a NOLS trip who
>were mauled by a bear in Alaska in 2011.  The group in need of assistance
>had, and used, a PLB that put out a simple distress signal with location
>information only.  I found the comments of the S&R personnel who handled
>this case, quite interesting, particularly their comments about how it is
>difficult to
 judge whether any particluar PLB activation is a life
>threatening situation:
>
>http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/anatomy-alaska-bear-mauling-rescue
>
>Based on that article, if I were to replace my SPOT, I would definitely
>seek out a unit that allows the user to supplement the canned distress
>signal with a short messasge describing the specific circumstances of the
>emergency at hand. The Delorme inReach in particular seems worthy of
>consideration for this reason.
>
>If anyone on the list has had experience with the inReach, I'd be
>interested in hearing your thoughts about the unit.
>
>-Sheepdog
>
>
>> Lets just be clear here, in the end, the SPOT is still a decent
>> device. It is just not a true distress radio beacon. The Spot was not
>> designed from the ground up to be a PLB/DRB, by an internal national
>> group of people assembled to design the world wide network for S&R. I
>>
 do not want to put my life into the hands of something that "might"
>> work. I do not want to put my life into the hands of something that
>> probably will not work in deep forests or deep canyons and mountains,
>> which makes up 95% of where I hike at.
>>
>
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