If you have loved ones, get SPOT! keeps whe wives happy!

[Weekday Warrior]

it works!

I went sledding last weekend with 2 other dudes, we were gone way past the time we were supposta be gone.

My wife seems to enjoy worrying (she seen all the AVY threads over my shoulder)

anyways we ended up going across this windblown trail with an icy side hill, in my gayness I made it across easy with my lefty just easing across slowly ...the other 2 ended up shoveling a trench to keep their skis from sliding down hill.

by the time they got across that hillside it was dark, we decided to take a 'shortcut' down to another trail...I was going over in my mind what kinda fire/emergency stuffs I had (enough for all three lol)

well I sent periodic messages from SPOT "We are all OK, havin fun will call later when in cell range"

The girls at home waiting for us LOVED IT
they would have been worried SICK

we made it down, and the wives wern't angry

It is easier for me to go sledding!

the yellow pins are my SPOT waypoints in google earth

The map on the SPOT website shows more roads

a SAT phone obviously would be better, but with the track feature on SPOT they can pinpoint my location within the last 10 mins if I were unable to call out

 

[Spaarky]

Can you explain more? I have done some research, and didnt know you could use it that way. I thought they only had emergency functions on them...

 

[Bagger]

Lucky Man

Guess I'm lucky. When my Wife wan'ts to know where I'm riding and if I'm ok, she just has to slow down and let me catch up!

I do think the spot is darn cool though. B

 

[Weekday Warrior]

I cut/pasted the waypoints to google earth from my SPOT account and named them so I could post and Email the others I was with.

on the SPOT account it has google maps built in, but I didn't see how to save it as a screenshot

It also sends the waypoints to whatever Email you plug in, on google maps.



since I was with a group I had the OK button send out text messages to 4 cell phones: "We are all OK, checking in..will call once in cell range"

the help button read in the text message: "Someone got hurt but not too bad, please have ambulance meet us at trailhead"

since the hospital was a long ways off I had the message there to speed things up if needed

the 911 button you can't change and I have some Q's about how they respond on that one myself.

 

[Weekday Warrior]

Can you explain more? I have done some research, and didnt know you could use it that way. I thought they only had emergency functions on them...

I also bought the tracking feature, shows you a waypoint every ten minutes on your account...so your wife would need to be able to access it to see you in real time (or elapsed no more than ten minutes)

 

[RMK7SledHead]

anybody know of anyone with a multi-unit discount on spots? i need one, Dad needs one, Grandpa needs one, Uncle needs one, cousin needs one...$150/unit adds up quick.

 

[Yamadoo04]

interesting. I'm going to have to look into that.

 

[sledskiing]

interesting please post where i can find info.

 

[Stryc9]

Where can i find this spot thingy? Want to read up on it to see if i can use it in sweden.

 

[Wade]

You don't have to copy the way points off the map anymore. There is a script for your
browser called GMapToGpx that will strip the waypoints out of the spot google map.
Then you just copy the text and put it in a file with the *.gpx extension and load it into
google earth, or whatever gpx mapping program you want. Another handy tool is GpsBabel
for converting gps data file formats to any other format you want, such as national
geographics map program.

GMapToGpx

Spot Homepage

Check out this forum about spot.

 

[2fun4u]

Guess I'm lucky. When my Wife wan'ts to know where I'm riding and if I'm ok, she just has to slow down and let me catch up!

I do think the spot is darn cool though. B

ROFLMAO!!!! Now that's funny!!!! My hubby laughed cuz that's how it is in our house too!

We are having a local company come in and do a demonstration next week on these at work. Will be very interesting!

 

[AaronBND]

Here's a great thread on them to read.

http://www.snowest.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39322

Aaron

 

[drmiller100]

i played with one quite extensively in the past month.

for the use originally posted, they are WAAAAAAAAY cool. send repeated messages, "I'm ok! Don't worry"
Way neat.

Next message : "I'm stuck/broke down at the following gps coords. Please send my buddies to help dig me out!!!"

Final message: "911. Send search and rescue, someone is hurt!!!!"

all three of the above are GREAT!!!!

The tracking feature pretty much sucks. To use it, someone has to be on the internet, have your userid nad password, and has to navigate the lame user interfadce on the Spot web page.

All in all, for certain uses, it is REALLY cool.

 

[deadcat]

Very Cool

This is the e-mail from 2 weeks ago. Friend has one and I will get one.

"SPOT Check OK. C-hair is great!
Unit Number: 0-7
Latitude: 38.8904
Longitude: -107.1133
Nearest Town from unit Location: Irwin, United States Distance to the nearest town: 2 km(s) Time in GMT the message was sent: 01/05/2008 22:42:33
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=38.8904,-107.1133&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1 "

My wife loves the idea of getting messages so that she can relax when I am gone.

 

[Gold5th]

I better not let my wife see this thread.... she has no prob with me going sledding, I say fairly close to home... other than hitting something, or something hitting me, fairly low risk compared to mountains, getting lost, avys, etc. But she'd want one for my car.... I tend to hit a time warp... I leave for the city, 90min one way... have 1 or 2 spots.. say an hour.. then 90 back.. so you'd figure I'd be home in 4 hours... yeah.. no... 6, 8, sometimes even 12 hours later I roll in the drive way... dunno why

 

[Ride907]

looking at the coverage map on their website makes me wonder what sat system they are using. Coverage of Alaska looks iffy. Anyone in AK have experience with this equipment? Is it reliable up here?

 

[2000TCMC]

Most of these types of satellite based products have hit and miss coverage in Alaska even in South Central, I'm not sure I would trust it for rescue, but for the keeping the wife up to date it may be useful. Although we all know when we go in the back country it you, and your buddies who are the rescue team anyway.

 

[J-Roc]

Got mine yesterday! Haven't activated it yet, but it sounds like the best mod yet for my sled!

 

[Tuesday]

coverage in Canada?

 

[milehighassassin]

My fun tickets are used up this year, I might look into this next year.