Feedback on my SPOT!!!!

[Hoytster]

So the other day...I packed and went out of town to escape the PG snow.....my wife did her thing and ended up going to visit my parents at Cluskus Lake with the 5 little hunters.....at 9pm, I get this call from my wife saying that she had recieved a message on her cell from my SPOT satellite....I knew something was not right cause I hadn't used it since last fall and I didnt take it with me.....$&%!...I thought someone has it and the only way that could happen was to break into my house!...BAD NEWS... no one was home and all my 30 some rifles and various outdoor gear was in there...without me!...I checked with my other contacts and they also received my SPOT message....I figured someone had taken it and was pressing the buttons.....all hell was breaking loose in my head....my stomach was turning all over....I was in a bad panic......my mausers!...my marlins!...my tikkas!....my hoyts and PSE's!! I called Telus to recheck my messages to my wifes phone and they also confirmed....Now I was crappin my pants bad!...I managed to get a hold of a neighbour and told her to grab a sharp axe and head over to my place to have a look...she came back and said it checked out fine!....I called the SPOT rep and the young guy said that nothing registered on his computer panel.....I managed to get to a laptop to check my SPOT profile and see what the deal was.....

Get this......I had JUST received a track from Nov 2nd/08, when I was in the mountains way up by Fort Ware on my hunting trip:shock::shock::shock:!!!!!...it registered on the map and had sent the message to all my contacts Feb 7th, 2009!!!....ALL THIS PANIC FOR NOTHIN!!....then after I tried to bring my heart beat down to normal..it hits me....what if that were a distress signal I had sent out for real on that day?:shock:.....then what?....I guess they would of found my carcass 4 months later.....UN-FLIPPIN-REAL!!!....Anyone else have issues with their SPOT Locators???:mad:

[BlacktailStalker]

Hmm good to know, thanks. Was considering buying one..
I always like to wait a year or two before buying something new for these reasons.

[Ambush]

Did not work from Kitwanga to Dease lake this past fall. No messages recieved even though they registered as sent. Didn't find out untill the Spot owner got home.

[elkdom]

Yeh! it sounds as if you "bought" yourself some "peace of mind" :roll:

[Hoytster]

You know..this gadgit was good for most of the time I used it....had my wife sleep better at night and it was nice to track my progress for the 6 days I was up there.....still....this one little blip cause a hell of a lot of grief!!!!......To think that all your gear and gun collections was walking out your door when you're not home.....man....that is something I dont want to feel again...

[BigBanger]

This is the shits man , sounds like a shitty day . I'm still thinking I might buy one for the other times it does work .

[The Hermit]

You know..this gadgit was good for most of the time I used it....had my wife sleep better at night and it was nice to track my progress for the 6 days I was up there.....still....this one little blip cause a hell of a lot of grief!!!!......To think that all your gear and gun collections was walking out your door when you're not home.....man....that is something I dont want to feel again...

Bummer. Would a big heavy vault bolted to the walls and floor, and a monitored alarm system make you feel more comfortable? In addition to the above I am thinking about adding a fog system in my gun room, apparently when connected with high intensity strobes intruders will be instantly disorientated and stopped in their tracks! Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q1hBbOBoGU

I HATE thieves!!!

[Hoytster]

This is the shits man , sounds like a shitty day . I'm still thinking I might buy one for the other times it does work .
Yeah you said it homie....I will still use it but I havent been able to shake the dreadful day.....you just dont realize how much all the gear means to you until you think its gone.....sniff....really though, it could of been much worse and in the end its not like a family member was lost but man......I think I need counseling....lol...

[Hoytster]

Bummer. Would a big heavy vault bolted to the walls and floor, and a monitored alarm system make you feel more comfortable? In addition to the above I am thinking about adding a fog system in my gun room, apparently when connected with high intensity strobes intruders will be instantly disorientated and stopped in their tracks! Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q1hBbOBoGU

I HATE thieves!!!
LOL...Holy C$%#!!!.....I might just get another Rottweiler......lol..

[srupp]

Hoyster...hmmmm have you checked with SPOT and asked these questions???

From over 300 individuals who have sent e-mails or phone calls this is the only one of less than 3 times I have heard of any issues..and I never have heard of this one..

As a SPOT rep..I did tell them that IF the unit worked great I would tell the truth and report it...and if it DID NOT WORK I would do the same....

without fear or favor...

Before we get all excited let me talk with the head office in the early AM

I will talk with THE boss..and get some idea of what their feelings on this is and I WILL report back tommorrow evening once home from work..

interesting occurrence ..lets see..

Steven Rupp

Pro staff SPOT

[BEARSLAYER]

This is the reason I now have an alarm system and 800lb safe, it does make for a little more piece of mind!

[TIKA 300]

Bummer. Would a big heavy vault bolted to the walls and floor, and a monitored alarm system make you feel more comfortable? In addition to the above I am thinking about adding a fog system in my gun room, apparently when connected with high intensity strobes intruders will be instantly disorientated and stopped in their tracks! Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q1hBbOBoGU

I HATE thieves!!!

Knowing me,i would set it off myself while getting ready for work.:oops: :shock:

[Hoytster]

Hoyster...hmmmm have you checked with SPOT and asked these questions???

From over 300 individuals who have sent e-mails or phone calls this is the only one of less than 3 times I have heard of any issues..and I never have heard of this one..

As a SPOT rep..I did tell them that IF the unit worked great I would tell the truth and report it...and if it DID NOT WORK I would do the same....

without fear or favor...

Before we get all excited let me talk with the head office in the early AM

I will talk with THE boss..and get some idea of what their feelings on this is and I WILL report back tommorrow evening once home from work..

interesting occurrence ..lets see..

Steven Rupp

Pro staff SPOT
Rupper....I did do some serious followup with spot for the obvious reason.....they tried to blame telus BUT...the signal did go through and it did register on my spot profile with the gps co-ordinates and track...no way could this of been from Telus....it originated with Spot somewhere...other than this incident....it is a great tool to have but I tell ya....that one little blip sent my BP too the roof!...please let me know what the deal is....

[Lone Ranger]

I went through the whole theft thing, it sucks. Period. All the safes are now glued and bolted into painfully small closets that would make it nearly impossible to get into with sizable tools (would take too long to make the work worthwhile.. hopefully). We also have an alarm system. I still don't feel 100% about leaving for long periods though.

I've had a SPOT unit for about a year now and its never acted up on me. It has missed a couple of sent messages but that was last spring and nothing ever showed up later. I've been hearing that digital PLBs are getting cheaper and I'm thinking of going this route instead. $150/yr for full coverage is a lot for what they're offering. LR

[Mr. Dean]

..... I've had telus 'F' up on similar stuff with cell transfers. I've even had telus deny over-charging me on cell bills. :rolleyes:

IIRC, an emergency message gets broadcast several times until one is received... Too ensure that one DOES get received. I haven't tried the tracking feature as I do that with my personal GPS and see it as an unneeded redundancy.

I look forward to Stevens feedback.

[bigwhiteys]

I did do some serious followup with spot for the obvious reason.....they tried to blame telus BUT...the signal did go through and it did register on my spot profile with the gps co-ordinates and track...no way could this of been from Telus....it originated with Spot somewhere...other than this incident....it is a great tool to have but I tell ya....that one little blip sent my BP too the roof!...please let me know what the deal is....

It could actually very likely be the telus mail server. Blips like this occur with Telus. It's already happened to me with business email I wasn't receiving... Mail can get held up in various quos and server processes.

I highly doubt it was the SPOT technology itself... Email however is FAAAR from perfect.

I've had my spot from Vancouver Island up to the Liard and it hasn't missed a beat, works awesome.

Carl

[kastles]

Yeah you said it homie....I will still use it but I havent been able to shake the dreadful day.....you just dont realize how much all the gear means to you until you think its gone.....sniff....really though, it could of been much worse and in the end its not like a family member was lost but man......I think I need counseling....lol...


Buy another gun to comfort yourself:-P

kastles

[hunter1947]

Its nice that everything worked out at the end ,after this scare maybe you might think on getting something that will protect your guns etc better if you don't have already ???.

[Ciskman]

A thing to keep in mind is that SPOT will never be as good as a PLB(personal locator beacon) Out of the 2 times Ive have heard about it being used both have sent signals to the monitering station in the United States. They then look for what they deem the best contact is in Canada. By the time JRCC(Joint Rescue Co-ordination Center) is contacted several minutes have passed(30 in one case) One other thing is that SPOT can not be homed by Military SAR Aircraft. PLBs can. So you can be waiting a very long time depending on where you are, how camo'd you are and how far away Ground SAR is.

[srupp]

Ciskman unfortunatly that is NOT how SPOT system works not at all..it sends the location WITH the message...they ALERADY know with in 1 meter where the person is..:smile:...

cheers

Steven

I Have seen print outs of time response logs they are vgery very fast indeed..and so far highly reliable..

I will hear from Tim later this AM.

I will reply tonite..

steven

[Slee]

Well it seemed to work pretty good for the guys in Frenie/Sparwood??????

RIP

[srupp]

Dont know about the Kootenays incident however as agravating as this is one must look at the point that we dont know why this happened and who or what is the cause..BUT it did NOT fail sending out an emergency message when needed..

waiting on Tims response to this one incident..

cheers
Steven

[Ron.C]

Mine has worked here on Vancouver Island and while hunting 4-25 last fall 100% of the time, never a problem. I'm not saying that they won't or don't malfunction, so I'm very interested to see where thie problem lies here.

[Elkhound]

Got one for christmas.....have not used it yet. But look forward to it. Does not matter what you buy there can be hiccups or something not working right.

Hell, we spend a whole lot more on trucks to get us in the mountains and we all have them break down time to time. Crap happens. The good out weighs the bad in my opinion

[Clint_S]

Also got one for Christmas.
First time I sent an OK message as a check it took over three hours to come through so I decide at 8:00pm to stay out and send an I'm ok the wife has to stay up till 11:00pm or later checking emails until one comes across.

The second time I sent an I'm OK as a check nothing came through at all??
Haven't tried it since but I'm thinking it's pretty much useless for what I wanted it for and just have to hope it works in the event of a 911.

[bigwhiteys]

I can almost guarantee you that any issues with the receipt of the emails is likely due to your ISP or Email Account, a filter or mail quo along the way. Not the spot system itself.

Some recommendations

#1. Don't send it to a hotmail, aol, msn or yahoo address. These are FREE email accounts that have heavy spam filter settings. SPOT messages contain a subject line with numbers and letters not words. These DO get trapped in spam filters.

#2. DO Send it to your ISP (Internet Service Provider) account. Shaw, telus, rogers, bell, etc... SPOT has their mail system whitelisted with most major ISP's that I know of. This means their mail will not be blocked, this does not guarantee however that some messages may NOT be held in quo or locked up in some server process.

There is much more to email then meets the eye.

Carl

[Slee]

I also got one for x-mas. I havnt used it hunting yet but have used it 40 or 50 times around town ect. and after a few failed tries (all my fault, not waiting long enough, in heavy cover) it works great I even sent an ok message moved the unit 10' over sent anouther ok message and 5 mins later you could see the two different spots on google map.

[mikek blacktail]

hope mine works better when i hook it up

[srupp]

hmmm I MUST THANK BIG WHITEYS..as I am pretty compooter illiterate..

I have no reason not to believe BW..
From MY OWN personal experience in 1 year of using the devise..I have not had any failures..just my experience and the few blips are from user wrongdoing..

but we will get some response from SPOT

steven

[orion]

I used mine several times since acquiring it in the late spring and it has worked flawlessly. I started by sending my wife practice messages to build confidence in it on some week long fishing trips to the Kamloops/Merrit area where my wife knew I was with other people and unlikely to need assistance so if she didn't get any messages it was no big deal.

I then used it on at least 5 solo hunting trips of 3 days to 7 days duration (N Vancouver Is., Bridge Lake, Chetwyn, etc.). The arrangement I made with my wife was that each time I left the truck or returned I would send a check/OK message. It worked flawlessly for literally dozens of messages and gave us both a lot of peace of mind.

Hoytster, if you find some glitch or loophole in the SPOT system, would you please post because right now I have a lot of confidence in the system and don't want it to be false confidence. Thanks.

[kennyj]

I also had flawless performance in the far NW corner of BC.
kenny

[Hoytster]

Its nice that everything worked out at the end ,after this scare maybe you might think on getting something that will protect your guns etc better if you don't have already ???.yeah you bet...all my babies are tucked in safely....still...when they want to get em they really try hard...it was just the fact that we were both out of town is all.....as far as Spot goes,,,I will still use it cause it is a good little device.....

[redthorn]

As far as firearms safety... my safe is bolted down and wired from beneath with a live wire from my electrical system.(yes, I do have a switch to shut it off, but not anywhere they'd look for it.) go ahead... touch the lock while leaning on the metal closet door frame. Few things scare like electricity and dogs.

[Ron.C]

As far as firearms safety... my safe is bolted down and wired from beneath with a live wire from my electrical system.(yes, I do have a switch to shut it off, but not anywhere they'd look for it.) go ahead... touch the lock while leaning on the metal closet door frame. Few things scare like electricity and dogs.


Not too paranoid are we :shock:

[Lone Ranger]

Got my gears turning thinking of a way to do the same thing :D Too bad there's kids and other innocent folks around here who might get mixed up with it or else I'd do the same thing! LR

[srupp]

Ok I talked with "IT " DEPT @ spot..and for the 2 individuals with concerns

HOYSTER AND SACHA please send me a PM and I will give you a name and # to call..

Sachas is easy non technical "update"

Hoyster they are going to request some info and they have the ability to TIME when the original message went out / was recieved and regestered..ALL messages are registered.

There is a way to track any problem issues.. also when and where and WHY this message showed up months later..lol all will be revealed..

So Sacha and Hoyster send me a new PM and I will give you the name and # of someone waiting to deal with Your secific issues..

I will report the results here publically once the facts are known..


cheers

Steven Rupp
Pro Staff
SPOT CANADA

[Ciskman]

I am not claiming to know the ins and outs of the SPOT system(because I certainly don't) however the times we have been launched(I am with 442 Squadron SAR in Comox) on a SPOT hit the call has come from the US SPOT call center(I cant remeber exactly where at the moment) Dont get me wrong, I like the SPOT. I think its a great unit and know it saves lives but personaly, from my experience I would lean towards a PLB.


Ciskman unfortunatly that is NOT how SPOT system works not at all..it sends the location WITH the message...they ALERADY know with in 1 meter where the person is..:smile:...

cheers

Steven

I Have seen print outs of time response logs they are vgery very fast indeed..and so far highly reliable..

I will hear from Tim later this AM.

I will reply tonite..

steven

[srupp]

so far there have been over 100 "saves' from the 911 system on SPOT..hmmm in one year..not too bad....and with the reasonable $$$$$ a lot of these units will be out there and they also are check in a ne HELP units very versatile...

steven