Spot X

[Kullaberg63]

I use the plan of telling the wife my route and times. And have a backup. Never had a need for anything else

Luddite!

 

[Yvonne]

Hi, Yvonne.

We have the Safety Plan for $11.95/month.

Safety Plan Details

• Unlimited SOS (hope never to use it!!!)
• 10 text messages/month
• Unlimited Preset messages (predefined messages set up on the website)
• Tracking points: $0.10 USD for each point
• Overages are $0.50 USD for each text message over the 10 messages allowed in the monthly plan period.
• Text messages include free-form sent messages and received messages.
• Tracking points refer to the individual "breadcrumbs" sent by the inReach at user-selected intervals ranging from 10 minutes to 4 hours.

thanks Stephanie, it's the plan I think will work the best.
It's just to have some peace of mind when I venture out on my off trail day hikes.

I use the plan of telling the wife my route and times. And have a backup. Never had a need for anything else

since I never tell anyone when and how long I go, no one would miss me if I would get into trouble.
Some of my close friends and my Hawaiian ohana didn't like it, so I decided it might be a good idea to get some sort of peace of mind in case I run into trouble.

 

[Bob]

Luddite!

LOL....... Guess maybe. I still use paper and a compass......I have a GPSr I carry for tracking. I dont rely on electronic gadgets...they have a tendency to not work when needed.

 

[wsp_scott]

I used my dividends and bought the In Reach Mini. Even though I barely backpack, I do get out in the backcountry on long extended day hikes. You never know, even on day hikes, you can get in trouble.
So what plans do you guys use?

I use the most basic plan, I just leave the inreach in my daypack and then spur of the moment trips are easy.

 

[DrNed]

I’ve been using an Inreach SE since it came out and plan on getting a mini sometime soon. The Spot just looks enormous. Other than price I feel like it’d be pretty hard to justify over the inreach and for that type of item I don’t think the price difference is that significant. View attachment 74160From Skurka’s review:

I'm about to pull the trigger on the InReach SE but then I was reading on amazon about inconsistency with messaging.
What's your experience been?

 

[Perry]

I have the Explorer+ which has maps but otherwise the same as the SE. Generally I've had a good experience with messages. Sometimes they will come out of order if you are in an active two-way chat with some one. It only checks for messages so often to keep battery life reasonable (but that is configurable).
I've had a few times when I have been deep in a canyon where there was not a clear view with the satellite that I had to wait until I was in a better location.

From time to time they will have issues with particular mobile carriers that are generally resolved fairly quickly. Garmin is pretty good about keeping you in the loop about service issues and maintenance activities. I have both my and my wife's email on the account and we get frequent communications. This way at least if there is an outage that could impact me in the field my wife would get notified and not be overly worried if I have been silent.

One other thing is you can send test messages to Garmin to verify its working. Their system will reply if everything is on the up and up. I actually was the worried one one time when I had asked my wife a question and I hadn't heard from her for several hours. I ended up sending a message to my grandson asking him to go over to the house to make sure everything was okay. It was, she just hadn't checked her phone in a while.

 

[wsp_scott]

I have an Inreach from when it was Delorme (so old model), I have never had a message not go through. Sometimes I have had to tell it to keep sending because I'm deep in the trees in a valley, but that is pretty rare. I don't send a lot of messages, but no problems so far.

 

[IntrepidXJ]

Just an update on this since I just upgraded to the new Bluetooth model that just came out. Since the new model includes Bluetooth it resolves my biggest issue with the original SPOT X, which is typing on that small keyboard. It was a pain! It seems to work well with the app on my iPhone and is much easier to type out a message. Also, the directional buttons have been redesigned and work better than they did for me on the old model. The device seems to work much faster than my old one, too. Still need to see if the battery life has been improved any.

Yes, I've been using one since they came out. The first one I got had some battery issues, but they eventually replaced my device and I haven't had a problem since. Aside from the early battery issues I've never had a problem with messages and tracking not going through and it seems just as reliable as my Gen3 was.

My biggest complaint is the keyboard is a little tough to type on, especially with big fingers, but it's usable....just slow.