what do you think of Spot?

The ATT intl. idea sounds good. How long are you signed up for it? And how much does/did it run you? It would work great on those runs to the far side of the Olympics. I'm sure the boss is going to worry a lot more once the little ones are here.

Since when is the Olympic peninsula a foreign country?  I believe the ATT International plan is simply to extend your cell phone coverage onto foreign cell systems like in Mexico.

Brian

The ATT intl. idea sounds good. How long are you signed up for it? And how much does/did it run you? It would work great on those runs to the far side of the Olympics. I'm sure the boss is going to worry a lot more once the little ones are here.

Since when is the Olympic peninsula a foreign country?  I believe the ATT International plan is simply to extend your cell phone coverage onto foreign cell systems like in Mexico.

Brian

Oh, I thought it'd go satellite or something like that. I figured there'd be no cell coverage of any kind out there in Mex where SBD went..

Z

The ATT intl. idea sounds good. How long are you signed up for it? And how much does/did it run you? It would work great on those runs to the far side of the Olympics. I'm sure the boss is going to worry a lot more once the little ones are here.

Since when is the Olympic peninsula a foreign country? 

Brian

You ever been to the Olympics Brian?  It may as well be on the moon.   

There are satellite phone systems that you can buy or rent.  However they are fairly expensive so I guess it depends on the value of your current WAF exchange rate.

Brian

Most Sat Phones are prohibitively expensive to use for unoffical/informal conversations.  I would expect any WAF earned would be quickly negated as soon as the bill arrived.  Another benefit of the SPOT is the one sided conversation- you can show where you are, call for help, and not be told to come home sooner.

Looks like the unit itself retails for $170. Although BPS has it for $150 and a $50 rebate so $100. Then add their basic service, tracking, and insurance for $158 a year or $14 a month. Not too bad IMO. If you fish a lot and your wife/gf etc. is worried a lot it could do a lot of good to keep that WAF account from scraping the bottom too much. Plus, if you do go to a rugged and out there place to fish it could be really valuable if something goes wrong.

One thing that does bite is it isn't waterproof. "Water resistant to 1 meter for 30 minutes"... 

Z

The ATT intl. idea sounds good. How long are you signed up for it? And how much does/did it run you? It would work great on those runs to the far side of the Olympics. I'm sure the boss is going to worry a lot more once the little ones are here.

Since when is the Olympic peninsula a foreign country? 

Brian

You ever been to the Olympics Brian?  It may as well be on the moon.  

When you hit the ICE/Border Patrol checkpoints, you'll definitely get the impression that you're in a foreign country, or have just returned.

Ok guys just letting you know standard horizon just came out with a handheld vhf radio that floats and is waterproof with a built in gps reciever and a distress call button that transmits satelite position.

Ok guys just letting you know standard horizon just came out with a handheld vhf radio that floats and is waterproof with a built in gps reciever and a distress call button that transmits satelite position.

interesting.... got a link to that?

http://www.standardhorizon.com

be patient, it loads slow

WR, that looks great but it's still limited by the VHF transmit range.  Actually, the only thing that radio does is removes the extra step of reading out your location from your GPS over the VHF. The GPS feature gives you location but you can't really do much else with it (plots, tracking, waypoints, etc).

The nice thing about Spot is that your signal is transmitted via satellite, you can be no where and your location can be known.

Yo!! hold up brian. all i did was supply the link PNW was looking for. YN is the guy pointing the way out on the radidio..

personally, SPOT is on my short "must have" list.

Sorry, WR. I guess my response should have gone towards yessnoo instead, or maybe not specifically towards anyone would have been best.

probly the 2nd. i do the same thing sometimes too brian. slow down a bit, you'll be fine.

look at the bright side, it's close to , or is, quitting time at your cubicle farm. time to go home, kiss the wife and son, grab a beer, relax a bit, feed the chickens... gosh sometimes i envy you domesticated urban farmers. 

i agree...and i suppose it depends on what you use it for...there are also other disadvantages to the radio...for instance battery life...you are gonna get (don't quote me on these numbers i am just ballparking it for reference) 9-10 hours out of a the battery on a radio...so even if you started transmitting position with full battery life it is unlikely to last longer than that...now i don't know about spot and personally i wouldn't buy spot just because it requires a hundred dollar a year supscription....id rather have a 500 dollar machine with a 5 year battery that transmits position via satellite for 48 hours or more....but on the other hand if i can get a vhf radio with a gps receiver built in....for my purposes around the sound they are probably gonna get the transmission....but like  you say its not 100% even in the sound....the way i look at spot...unless ur gonna use the little features on it that i personally never would then you are gonna be cheaper in the long run with a plb

they all have there advantages and disadvantages as anything does....i think the biggest problem with any of them is there is no way to set up and automatic distress signal like in an airplane or a boat....so you have to physically set it off...hopefully you are conscious to do that