Visit with Les Stroud on location

“I'd like to win one of the spot's.”

“Thanks. I'm entered. Now.”

“i like my spot messenger. my bet is, however, that they are going to grow too fast, add too many customers, and not be charging enough to cover their expenses. there will be service problems (serious issues) and the prices will go UP to cover the improvements needed for growth. this is a GREAT service but it's a new company and this is a common blunder.”

“Good Point Yogisan. I still want one.”

“So, you're saying get one now while you can and expect the service cost to go up
last edited: 5/14/08 11:36:24 AM”

“something like that. i am betting they will put out a 2.0 piece of hardware that will be 1/2 the size and weight... :)

like i said, i am happy with mine. i use it more to track my route and mark waypoints. my friends get a kick out of getting SPOT messages from peaks and places. it's fun and adds a good margin of safety.

...still, in the grand canyon this march blisster sent a bunch of messages and they were not received for several DAYS. in my mind this is not a big deal because we had a sat phone -but- when he emailed customer support they said they had been doing upgrades and during the time frame in question there were many messages that were delayed like his...

lesson: a very, very handy device however no substitute for good planning, being prepared, and using your brain.

i do constantly worry about mine getting lost or stolen and some punk pressing the 911 button...”

“yogi, whta type of sat phone did you guys use? was it a rental or buy. I know some guys looking into buying one and it'd be good to offer some input.

Do you pay for service or is it just the phone cost/rental fee?”

“rental... iridium. globalstar has had problems and as of this last march they did not recommend people using their phones where you really, really needed to use it.

overall it was affordable but they hit your credit card up for a large deposit on the hardware and calls. prosecutor can speak more to this as he took charge of the phone for our trip (i split the cost with him). i gave him a company to order from that i thought was a good deal and i still think it might have been a good deal... but i would leave it to him to recommend or not this vendor.

oh, you rent the hardware + pay for the calls. you can pre-pay airtime or pay as you go.
last edited: 5/14/08 7:07:29 PM”

“I have a PLB, so people are happier when they don't hear from me. Dough!”

“thanks yogi.”

“spot not only gives location but have 3 degrees of severity (ok, send help - not life threatening, 911). true this doesn't stop someone from pressing 911 for non life-threatening situations (individual judgement being what it is) but i think the SPOT people have this square in their sights. still, for people that have to do sar knowing the location -and- the severity of the emergency is a big deal.

when i went to the grand canyon last march i made sure my emergency contacts knew the difference between the "911" button being pressed and the "Send Help" button being pressed. i also made sure they knew that just because they got one of these signals did not mean that i personally was hurt but that someone in the party was in trouble. finally, i made sure they understood that just because they did not get an "OK" message for long periods of time did NOT constitute an emergency.

it's still important to leave your trip plan and contact info for the group with someone you can trust and, in the case of the GC in march, multiple people you can trust.”