Basejumper.com - archive

Hi All,

Last year I was thinking that it was time for me to get myself a SPOT 2, for obvious reasons... what we do is dangerous and it often happens in remote locations. I almost ordered a SPOT 2 but I decided to do a little research first, and that sort of snowballed into a major project that I hope will be of use to our community.

In short, I decided to not buy a SPOT 2, and I recommend to all of my friends and the people I care about to not rely on this device. Compared to the other options out there, it is an inferior piece of equipment and you can get much better devices. The rate of failure is far too high for it to be considered a real piece of safety equipment, and in my opinion it's more of a messaging toy.

The shortest possible version is: the SPOT sucks compared to a real PLB liek the ACR ResQLink, and if you must have messaging then the DeLorme InReach crushes on the SPOT. If you want the full story, then please read this review which explains as much as possible about how the devices work and which ones are best:

http://www.outdoorgearlab.com/...-Electronics-Reviews

Have fun and be safe-ish.

-Matt

Btw, all of the links are in the article, but here is a link to the page which explains how they work and which device might be best for you:

http://www.outdoorgearlab.com/...eviews/Buying-Advice

thanks

I see with 406link you can use the self test feature on the ACR PLBs to trigger and email or sms notification to a contact list.

coverage is very limited to the Amereicas and cell providers

http://www.406link.com/

The company I work for -- and by proxy, me -- sells all of these devices. I am pretty well versed in the ins and outs; I have received a good fair bit of vendor training. I agree fully with Mattt.

EDIT: got it, thanks for the heads up!

He's a guy.

http://www.matttg.com/