[Foist]

Interesting, thanks. Both manufacturers say that you need to register the device, which includes providing your identity, address, contacts, etc, which is obviously something I would do. Yes, battery life is 5 years and you need to send it back to be replaced for something like $150. But the Garmin/InReach subscription is like $60/month!

[mike]

I use a ResQLink. Light and easy. no subscription and 406 MHz beacons are good all over the world. We took it to UK. Don't care about messaging but there is a rudimentary service available with ResQLink. It probably limits the battery life though. I just call when i can get a signal. I tell my wife that chances are as good that I trip the beacon for someone else I run into as for myself.

[Yana]

[Foist]

[pcg]

[mike]

[DIYSteve]

[Yana]

[Yana]

[Ringangleclaw]

[Yana]

Yes, the media always gets the terminology right.

[Yana]

I thought you were asking a question, not stating an opinion you clearly have no intent on changing. My bad, carry on.

[Ringangleclaw]

[Ringangleclaw]

[DadFly]

First, this is the perfect place and time to discuss all this. I just had a conversation with a co worker about this topic, spot vs inreach vs other. I just posted one of these conversations and it was a great consolidated reference with examples of successes and failures. Why not? Back to topic of Spot. I have used mine for about 5 years and it works as advertised in the pacific nw all four seasons. There are 5 functions. All are one way - outbound 1. SOS, Panic, HELP. No real customization except you can add any medical issues you might have. Diabetes etc. The rest of these are pre-typed and can be sent to a long list of emails that you pre-enter. 2. Check in. Pre-typed. Mine says "Love you babe!" and emails a link to the findmespot website where my exact location is pinpointed on a topo map and lat long are provided. 3. Custom. Could be anything to any email. Mine is to 6 or 7 family and friends and says "Hi from the Cascades!" and again the link to where I am. 4. Help/Spot S.O.V. Just another custom message with same link except it is labeled "Help message from SPOT MyNameSpot". Mine says "Hi babe! Running late but I am OK." (She called the sheriff twice anyway. Once the Missoula sheriff called me on my cell on Sheep Mnt in Montana. Another time the Chelan sheriff met me on the road down from Stuart lk trailhead. Nice conversations both times. They were just happy I was OK.). 5. Tracking mode. Pre-set on webpage to check in at a set interval. ten minutes, two hours, daily, whatever. It will try to transmit on the interval and failure is an option. The spot has to be positioned where it can connect with at least one satellite with a strong signal. Inside a pack or snow cave are not conducive to strong signals. Heavy timber overhead has blocked many of my tracking and even some messages. This has no message. It just shows the series of pinpointed locations on a map on my page. So if I were to head into nasty territory I could turn it on. If I was unconscious it would continue to send from my location if it could get a signal. I doubt that this would work if I were on top of it. But theoretically it would give previous locations and direction of travel. I have played with mine set at 10 minutes a few times and it worked well. I just renewed at $192 for 1 year. Steep if you ask me but I have the device and it is a comfort to my wife to get my check in messages. It started at $99 and creeps up like a nasty rash. It works great for me for what I use it for. If I were going to look at another device or plan I would look at the inreach because of the month to month rate and two way communication. Everything I know apart from my spot, I learned on this site or from links on this site. Thank you!