I saw the basic unit on sale in a West Marine Catalog for $150. It gets your cooridinates from GPS.
Some quotes from the web site
Once activated, SPOT will acquire its exact coordinates from the GPS network, and send that location along with a distress message to a GEOS International Emergency Response Center every five minutes until cancelled. The Emergency Response Center notifies the appropriate emergency responders based on your location and personal information – which may include local police, highway patrol, the Coast Guard, our country’s embassy or consulate, or other emergency response or search and rescue teams – as well as notifying your emergency contact person(s) about the receipt of a distress signal.
HOW that message gets to a GEOS center....the same system that handles 406 EPIRBS, it doesn't quite say.
About the tracking option...
TRACK PROGRESS: Also known as SPOTcastingSM, this feature allows friends and family to follow your progress in real time using your password, or to save waypoints so you can review your entire route at a later date.
How It Works:Once activated, SPOT acquires and sends your GPS coordinates to your SPOT account every 10 minutes. Anyone with access to your account information can log on and view your route, complete with virtual views provided by Google Maps™. To continue tracking on longer journeys, the SPOTcastingSM function must be re-activated every 24 hours.
Does anybody know more about this product?
Some quotes from the web site
Once activated, SPOT will acquire its exact coordinates from the GPS network, and send that location along with a distress message to a GEOS International Emergency Response Center every five minutes until cancelled. The Emergency Response Center notifies the appropriate emergency responders based on your location and personal information – which may include local police, highway patrol, the Coast Guard, our country’s embassy or consulate, or other emergency response or search and rescue teams – as well as notifying your emergency contact person(s) about the receipt of a distress signal.
HOW that message gets to a GEOS center....the same system that handles 406 EPIRBS, it doesn't quite say.
About the tracking option...
TRACK PROGRESS: Also known as SPOTcastingSM, this feature allows friends and family to follow your progress in real time using your password, or to save waypoints so you can review your entire route at a later date.
How It Works:Once activated, SPOT acquires and sends your GPS coordinates to your SPOT account every 10 minutes. Anyone with access to your account information can log on and view your route, complete with virtual views provided by Google Maps™. To continue tracking on longer journeys, the SPOTcastingSM function must be re-activated every 24 hours.
Does anybody know more about this product?