Spotty Spot

On the trips I took this year my 2nd gen SPOT performed as one would expect it to. FL to CA round trip, several FL to Appalachian Mtn trips, lots of 250 to 700 mile local rides. There were no large gaps like Tom experienced.

Perhaps it is a problem with the individual tracking devices involved.
 
My experience is the same as Dave's the only time I had an issue it was determined that their system went down if I remember right it was on theway to Moonshine.
 
Mine was so unreliable as to being useless. My wife would panic and repeatedly call my cell because she would check on me online, and it showed I hadn't moved in hours when she knew I should be rolling. It was her that said " that thing is worse than useless, it actually induces anxiety I don't need", so I cancelled mine.

If it worked properly/reliably it would be a great idea. However I, and the Spot company could just not get it to work properly/reliably.
 
I have used a SPOT extensively for the past 4 years when making intercontinental deliveries of new aircraft. There are "known gaps" in the coverage areas, but these gaps are well known and are usually in areas where motorcycles won't go, such as across the Bering Sea from Nome to Anadyr, or across the South China Sea. The gaps exist because the Globalstar satellite system (what SPOT uses) does not have universal coverage. Here is a coverage map: SPOT Coverage.

I don't think there is a direct correlation between weather and SPOT connectivity. I've flown through some pretty bad weather (typhoons) and still had the SPOT track me OK. But, it is possible that heavy rain might attenuate the signals. An aircraft is normally above most of the rainfall.

Below are a couple of screen-shots showing known gaps in the coverage. I would see these same gaps in the same places over and over again, month after month.

Michael

SPOT Gaps


 
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