svizzerams wrote:Anyone else have or try one?
http://www.findmespot.com/en/I purchased a Spot Messenger Device just before going on a 4 day snowshoe trip into the North Cascades National Park. It has a "check OK" feature that allows you to send a signal back to the GPS satellites that will transmit either as an email or text message to whoever you designate. I used it primarily to send an "OK" message to my daughter and a couple of friends each morning before we set out to another location or stopped for the day at our designation. Here's the link to the route we took from Chelan on the ferry "up lake" to the final destination,
Those thinking of buying the thing... keep this in mind: It does not transmit to GPS satellites. GPS satellites do not receive data from you, or anyone else. GPS satellites are orbiting atomic clocks that transmit a timing code which is interpreted by the onboard computer in a GPS receiver, which then calculates your X, Y or X,Y,Z coordinates. The only entity which transmits -to- GPS satellites is the US Air Force, from a high security base surrounded by razorwire in the high Colorado desert. GPS is a one-way technology, if your handheld "GPS" device is transmitting something it's doing it by a completely different method.
It uses the Globalstar network which is slowly failing and falling out of the sky.
http://www.globalstar.com/en/news/press ... ressId=468http://www.sat-nd.com/failures/index.ht ... lstar.htmlUnlike Iridium there are no new satellites going up, and it looks unlikely in the current economy that they will find enough capital to launch the necessary replacements before the current set completely fail. Already voice availability is down to patchy 45 second gaps with occasional 5+ minute availability. One way message ability hasn't been affected as much yet. But my point is that you should NOT rely on this as an emergency position locating device, get a real EPIRB or an Iridium phone if you want to go off the map and let people know your location.
I'll quote below from Globalstar's most recently filed SEC 10Q form:
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� Constellation life and health. Our current satellite constellation is aging. We successfully launched our eight spare satellites in 2007. All of our satellites launched prior to 2007 have experienced various anomalies over time, one of which is a degradation in the performance of the solid-state power amplifiers of the S-band communications antenna subsystem (our "two-way communication issues"). The S-band antenna provides the downlink from the satellite to a subscriber's phone or data terminal. Degraded performance of the S-band antenna amplifiers reduces the availability of two-way voice and data communication between the affected satellites and the subscriber and may reduce the duration of a call. When the S-band antenna on a satellite ceases to be functional, two-way communication is impossible over that satellite, but not necessarily over the constellation as a whole. We continue to provide two-way subscriber service because some of our satellites are fully functional but at certain times in any given location it may take longer to establish calls and the average duration of calls may be reduced. There are periods of time each day during which no two-way voice and data service is available at any particular location. The root cause of our two-way communication issues is unknown, although we believe it may result from irradiation of the satellites in orbit caused by the space environment at the altitude that our satellites operate.
The decline in the quality of two-way communication does not affect adversely our one-way Simplex data transmission services, including our SPOT satellite GPS messenger products and services, which utilize only the L-band uplink from a subscriber's Simplex terminal to the satellites. The signal is transmitted back down from the satellites on our C-band feeder links, which are functioning normally, not on our S-band service downlinks.
We continue to work on plans, including new products and services and pricing programs to mitigate the effects of reduced service availability upon our customers and operations. Among other things, we requested Thales Alenia Space to present a four-part sequential plan for accelerating delivery of the initial 24 satellites of our second-generation constellation by up to four months. To date, we have accepted the first two portions of this plan. However due to revisions in the construction schedule in 2009 requested by us at an initial cost of $2.0 million, the potential gains from this acceleration may not be fully achieved. Accordingly, we cannot provide assurance that any acceleration will occur, and we now believe that we will not commence deploying our second-generation satellites prior to 2010. See "Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors-Our satellites have a limited life and some have failed, which causes our network to be compromised and which materially and adversely affects our business, prospects and profitability" of our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on March 31, 2009.
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� We estimate that procuring and deploying our second-generation satellite constellation and upgrading our gateways and other ground facilities will cost approximately $1.26 billion (at a weighted average conversion rate of �1.00=$1.3168 and excluding launch costs for the second 24 satellites, internal costs and capitalized interest), which we expect will be reflected in capital expenditures through 2013. The following obligations are included in this amount:
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from the 10K:
Going Concern. We currently lack sufficient resources to fund the procurement and deployment of our second-generation constellation and other related construction costs and our on-going operations, which are currently generating negative cash flows. Due to the worldwide economic crisis and the tight credit market, obtaining suitable additional financing remains challenging. Our registered public accounting firm's audit report on our consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2008, and for the year then ended includes a "going concern" explanatory paragraph that expresses substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. The "going concern" explanatory paragraph reflects substantial doubt about our ability to obtain this financing in a timely manner.
