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/
Firstly let me say that the results were very satisfactory. Bear in mind that our previous sat phone system had been very inconsistent, costly and unreliable, the Spot by contrast was a joy to use. Very easy and simple and the accuracy was good, with only between 5m to 15m out.
“OK” messages were relayed back to the predesignated email locations at every stop during our 7 hour walk up and around Cerro de los Machos and Veleta in the Sierra Nevada. Every message was recieved and recorded by the system.
We also tested the Spot during walking periods. We see this as necessary, as in bad weather we might well wish to keep walking rather than stop to send a message. This is more difficult for the Spot as it needs to be aligned correctly to gain a full view of the sky. We tried various attachments points on the rucksack (see photos) but found that the top strap attachment worked best, with the Spot logo pointing skywards.
Most of the “walking” OK messages were sent correctly but a few failed, due to a vertical attachment to the rucksack. We shall experiment with a top of the rucksack location in the near future as this could well be the best position for the device.
One small gripe I have however is related to the “911″ button. I was really nervous about handing the Spot as the button is open to misuse. Imagine being in blizzards, bad weather, gloved, cold hands, possibly disorientated. I can see a situation where the wrong button may be pressed. Maybe the rescue services could be falsely alerted? One solution would be to have a small cover over the emergency “911″ button so necessitating a separate act to send the distress call. Maybe I am a bit paranoid about this?
Emails were received correctly giving locations and a link to google maps.
Practical note: The “HELP” button. As working mountain guides in the Sierra Nevada, our “HELP” message will be interpreted as “CHANGE OF PLAN”. By checking the emailed location we can see if a change of plan is in progress. We can see a different extraction point being required and, not only that, we can also estimate the estimated time of arrival! How useful is that?
You can “View the days progress” plotted on this link.
CONCLUSION:
EXCELLENT PRODUCT. REASONABLY CHEAP ALTERNATIVE TO SAT PHONES. FUNCTIONS WELL.
I was the person who received the emails from the spot and watched the progress of the day. Now I’m not the best person at reading maps but through my knowledge of the area I was able to see exactly where the team was heading and when they were heading back down.
My only complaint would be that the maps could do with more mountain names as its not very easy to distinguish the landscape from the maps If you could tilt the map it would help alot.