Emergency GPS Messaging with the SPOT Beacon/1

Below: the SPOT emergency GPS beacon on the lighthouse bluff Gurnet Point near Duxbury, Ma., an hour south of Boston and terminus of one of many fragile barrier beaches that lie off the lower New England coastline.
I've spent the past month testing the SPOT gps- and GEOS-satellite-based emergency messaging unit shown above in the lee of the lighthouse at Gurnet Point at Duxbury, Massachusetts (US), off the coast of New England.

SPOT retails online for about $134.

With a few exceptions here and there around message delivery (more on that later) and its user interface (it took a while to get used to the unit's quirks), I found the unit to be impressive, handy, and easy-to-use. Just as important, its benefits and usefulness to like me became clearer the longer I used it.

From here I sent a small handful of test HELP and I'M OK messages to a variety of recipients in Canada, New England, and the UK. Each agreed to receive from my SPOT/GEOS satellite email and call phone text messages, embedded with Google Maps, showing my location and including pre-written messages saying that I needed help or was ok and simply checking in.

Below: a close-up version of the Google Map, embedded in both emails and cell phone text messages, that SPOT sent to about a half dozen of my friends. For emergency 911 purposes, your latitude and longitude are downloadable in a variety of database file formats including gpx. Doubleclick the image to enlarge.

Details on the month's testing to follow.
copyright 2008 Just Another Guy Named Dave
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