Spot Satellite Messenger goes on trial in the Sierra Nevada
Spanish Highs Mountain Guides are trialing a Spot Satellite Messenger in the Sierra Nevada next week.
It should be useful and hopefully more reliable than the previous Sat Phones that have been used which have their limitations. They are also much cheaper to buy and use than the traditional sat phone.
Evidently it sends an email and/or text message when asked giving grid location and link to the location on Google maps.
Website:
Adventure Trading Post
It is a unique device with a unique global service from Google, Globalstar and GEOS. Main features:
HELP - Requests help from friends and family at your exact location
OK - Lets contact know where you are and that youre OK
TRACK - Send and save your location and allow contacts to track your progress using Google maps
999 - Despatch emergency responders to your exact location.
The results of the tests will be made available here next week.
Hi SPOT Marketing here.
Hope you love your SPOT. For best performance, make sure to keep the logo pointed up toward the sky. The best place while hiking is to have the SPOT mounted on your shoulder strap, with the logo pointing straight up. If it’s in tracking and on a belt or forward facing, you’ll cut out half the sky and dramatically reduce the number of messages sent.
SPOT is completely unaffected by cloud cover, and while tree canopy can cause individual messages to be missed like any GPS product, if the unit is positioned right, I think you’ll be very happy with the performance. For example, 60 teams at the adventure race Primal Quest wore SPOTs in a 500 mile race and successfully transmitted tens of thousands of messages in all kinds of terrain in the mountainous and heavily treed areas of Montana.
Also, make sure to start a shared page so that folks back at home can see you over the web.
Best,
SPOT Marketing
So far so good! The unit was activated at a location just outside Lanjaron and within 5 minutes I received an email with the coordinates and a link to Google maps (see below).
I or interested parties can also view the details at http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0iQBebZaCjvlIAMoU3TCdC7CbbjGyuxaz to view the details. Next test is in the high mountain in a few days time.
Accuracy. Based on the Google map location it was about 12m out from the actual spot where the SPOT was located. Not bad.
This is the information supplied by email:
Just to let you know all OK!
ESN:0-7370625
Latitude:36.9182
Longitude:-3.4688
Nearest Location: Lanjar*n, Spain
Distance: 1 km(s)
Time:08/04/2008 11:26:25 (Europe/Madrid)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=36.9182,-3.4688&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
[...] The Spot Messenger was tested this week in Spain’s Sierra Nevada mountains. A full description of the devices functions can be found at http://international.findmespot.com/ or on our related page http://www.sierra-nevada-news.com/2008/07/spot-satellite-messenger-trial-sierra-nevada/ [...]