The Spot Beacon is a personal satellite phone / emergency beacon that uses a private network instead of bothering the feds when you’re in trouble — and it’s also more affordable. At $150 (with a $100 / year subscription), it’s definitely less of a hit to the wallet than the 5 to 6 hundred the government-network beacons will run you.
Despite the lower price, these are a bit fancier — it also tracks your progress in real-time on Google Maps (!!!), and can contact your friends and relatives via phone, email, or text message if you’ve got a non-emergency situation or just want to let them know you’re ok.
Moms everywhere will approve, once the product launches on November 1st.
Via The Goat.
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Hi Modernhiker,
I recently received a demo SPOT unit from Globalstar and am writing a four-part series about the unit on my blog.
I’ll be testing the unit live from a barrier beach here in Massachusetts, using both the email and sms Ok and HELP notifications.
If you want to swing by to see the test results as they come in during February, 2008, the posts are at my blog paddlingtravelers.blogspot.com