About a year ago I bought a used Spot gen 3 from a person in this sight. Good price but naturally a week or two later I found one in pawn shop for 25 bucks. Oh well thus is aviation. Then I changed from a bread crumb every 10 minutes to every 5 minutes. No extra charge. After that the link that my wife and kids had and the one under my avatar on this sight quit working.

So a quick talk to customer support. They had to make a change for me and helped me find the new link. So this sight is upgraded and my wife and kids now where to find me. Customer support was very helpful. Am very satisfied with SPOT

I always thought they were worthless used. I was given one once and went to set it up and it was already registered to an unknown party.

I think they can be easily registered to a new account. Not sure what happens if the previous user is still subscribed. I bought both of mine used.

I have a first generation one free to anyone who wants to pay the postage. PM me. I upgraded to gen 3 to get the more frequent breadcrumb option.

Inreach is so much better

SPOT website currently has all devices 50% off as well as their unlimited tracking subscription. Hard to beat $75 + $8.50/month.

asa wrote:SPOT website currently has all devices 50% off as well as their unlimited tracking subscription. Hard to beat $75 + $8.50/month.

Given the more robust satellite network and feature set, I find the added value of InReach to be completely worth it. However the price for SPOT is definitely attractive!

colopilot wrote:

asa wrote:SPOT website currently has all devices 50% off as well as their unlimited tracking subscription. Hard to beat $75 + $8.50/month.

Given the more robust satellite network and feature set, I find the added value of InReach to be completely worth it. However the price for SPOT is definitely attractive!

My post wasn't a reply to the the one about inreach being better, just adding some info for people on a smoking deal. The two brands serve different purposes in different price ranges. Depending on what features you care about, the choice is typically obvious which one will be better for you.

I have the 2.5min tracking which I really like on both the InReach and the SPOT. Consider this - in a GA plane at 130knots, that's a radius of about 5.5nm or search area of 95 sq miles. If you were using 10 minute tracking, the search radius would be 21.7nm, or a search area of 1480 sq miles. That reduction in ping spacing reduces search area by 94%. This of course assumes the device doesn't survive the crash, and in the heat of battle you forget to hit the SOS button on the way down to ground town.

This feature is $99/year more for SPOT users and worth it in my opinion. I use my SPOT every single day and honestly feel unsafe flying out here without it anymore. I switched all my devices to rechargable batteries (Amazon brand) and have a second charged set in my flight bag for SPOT, headlamp, and headset.

Another cool thing is to set up a SpotWalla account (for any type of device, doesn't need to be a SPOT), which is much better than viewing on the SPOT website for friends/family. I wish they would let you omit all the tracking points and only show the lines, but whatever. Still cool to look at. This summer: http://www.asa-edited------

asa wrote:SPOT website currently has all devices 50% off as well as their unlimited tracking subscription. Hard to beat $75 + $8.50/month.

Until you are in a tough situation and your life depends on getting the signal out on a sub-par sat system, then the extra cost of the Inreach/Irdium system is suddenly worth it. My experience with Spot is not good in this part of the world.

Steve

steve wrote:Until you are in a tough situation and your life depends on getting the signal out on a sub-par sat system, then the extra cost of the Inreach/Irdium system is suddenly worth it. My experience with Spot is not good in this part of the world.

Steve

Sounds like a good story, you should start a thread if it's something we can learn from or at least be entertained by.

Have a Gen3, 2 min tracking, fly 120 hrs/year. Really want an inReach but just can’t swallow the price difference to get the same tracking on the inReach. And the SPOT works good in my area and plane, subpar is your own experience.

Have a Gen3, 2 min tracking, fly 120 hrs/year. Really want an inReach but just can’t swallow the price difference to get the same tracking on the inReach. And the SPOT works good in my area and plane, subpar is your own experience.

asa wrote:

steve wrote:Until you are in a tough situation and your life depends on getting the signal out on a sub-par sat system, then the extra cost of the Inreach/Irdium system is suddenly worth it. My experience with Spot is not good in this part of the world.

Steve

Sounds like a good story, you should start a thread if it's something we can learn from or at least be entertained by.

The Spot/InReach debate has been hashed and re-hashed, your geographic location of use makes a lot of difference on how effective the Globalstar sat system is. Globalstar/Spot just does not have as good of sat coverage that Iridium/InReach has, here in my part of Canada Globalstar it's not great, most are using Irdium phones for that reason.

Several years ago I was asked to take a young writer from the Netherlands to a remote lake, it was mid-October, he was going to spend time there living off the land and write about his experiences. This fellow had a Spot device, he was to send me an OK message twice a day, once in the morning, once in the evening so I would know he was alright, if he missed 2 messages in a row, I was to go looking for him. He missed an occasional message, but one day I did not receive a message in the morning, or evening, so I called a couple of people to fly up with me the next morning to look for him, by then I had missed 3 messages in a row. Before I landed we could see smoke from a camp fire, we pulled up to shore and there he was. He had been sending the OK messages from the same open camp area during the whole duration of his stay, but part of the time the messages were not getting out. If he had been in distress and sent out an emergency signal it would not have been seen.

I have a friend that stays at an outpost cabin 4 months in the summer, he has an InReach with him at all times, it works well, we communicate daily to make sure he is alright and it always gets out. I carry an Iridium sat phone when in the bush in case I need to call out, finally broke down last year and bought an additional InReach for others to leave a message for me, as it is easy to carry. Both of these Iridium units always work, I can't say the same for a Spot, would hate to depend on one of those if I was in a tough situation.

https://nypost.com/2019/07/06/busted-phone-leaves-man-in-alaskan-nightmare-fending-for-life-in-last-frontier/

While I've never had many problems with my SPOT (it's missed a ping here and there but nothing serious)... this is a recent story about a guy depending on the Globalstar network. Of course, he was just another unprepared cheechako who thought he could live off the land but that's another story.

I've had my SPOT gen 1 for almost 10 years. I keep saying when it dies I'll replace it with something more modern and capable. But it just won't quit. I've flown from the SE US to Alaska and back several times and the biggest problem I've had is that it lags behind as I approach Whitehorse. About the time I crawl up on the ladder to fuel in Whitehorse, I get calls from friends who are watching my track and think I fell in a lake. A few minutes later it catches up and shows the last few pings. Happens every trip.

One of the biggest disadvantages I see with the SPOT is that you have to pay for a yearly subscription without being able to pause/cancel like you can with Garmin. That seems to be the biggest complaint people in the reviews have.

Toss up for me, I haven't decided what I'm going with yet. When I did my Idaho backcountry course my instructor had a SPOT and it worked great, the only issue was he had to mount it behind the seats near a window so it wouldn't interfere with the ships main GPS.

My SPOT is mounted with velcro on my glare shield. No interference with Garmin 430W or tablet. Just finished a trip to Johnson Creek then to Concrete WA. No issues. The Gen 3 is worth the upgrade. Of course there will always be something that is better come out for more money. I am happy with what I have.

But the down side is that if you follow my trail you can see where I park the plane and that is supposed to be Top Secret. I would not want to be discovered by governments watching Eye.. I also would like to be able to save my tracks for a longer period. I just have to learn how.