SPOT

[arubenstein]

I looked at buying Iridium phone at ~$1926 + annual plan of ~$700 and couldn't justify/afford the repetitive expense, so compromised with SPOT which is economical to operate, and its better than 95 % of sledders who carry nothing, sometimes not even a tow rope. I've been fortunate, sledding over 40,000 miles without issues…..but at least I have some sense of affordable security. Globalstar was much more affordable, however not very reliable in my opinion.

I have a spot. It's a lot of fun if you have friends and family tracking you along on your trips.

I also have a real PLB, an ACR MicroFix.

And Iridium phones can be had for $500 or less, used, with very reasonable plans.

[600IQHO]

I was just looking into the SPOT and it seems that if you are only going to use it in an emergency the PLB is actually the way to go. About $100 more but no annual subscription. I may actually look at that option instead of SPOT.

[NSnowCruiser]

I was just looking into the SPOT and it seems that if you are only going to use it in an emergency the PLB is actually the way to go. About $100 more but no annual subscription. I may actually look at that option instead of SPOT.

There are advantages to SPOT over PLB’s, depending on what level of SPOT you purchase. You can have a tracking feature so your family knows where you are, and the help feature on SPOT can activate your own help team. On newer GPS/SPOT unit you can send detailed one-way messages to give help team additional information of your real needs (like sled broken down, stopping to party at camp will be late). The problem with 911 on SPOT and pushing the rescue button on a PLB is it’s intended for desperate live threatening situations, not I broken-down and don’t want to spend the night in the woods until I can walk-out in the morning. IMO to push the search & rescue button you need a serious health issue or you’re going to freeze to death situation, otherwise you’re wasting S&R people’s valuable time.

SPOT gives you a method of self rescue which a PLB does not. So for ~$100/year SPOT gives me more and my family more information. The day I would use 911 or push a button on a PLB is going to be a bad day which I hope never comes. However the probability of a mechanical issue or a minor problem where SPOT might be useful is much higher. A PLB does not have any communication flexibility.

It really depends on your travel situation, whether alone, long isolated distances or during the week days when traffic is at a minimum. I use SPOT year round, hiking, whitewater river canoe trips etc.

One last thing to consider is size, when I looked at SPOT it was considerably smaller than a PLB, but that may have changed and PLB could be much more compact today.