Just saw this on CNN...any thoughts?
( retail $170)

Yep, there are lots of thoughts about them.

The main source of Doug’s thoughts can be found here. (Make sure to read the updated articles as well; links are on the page.) For other people’s thoughts, there are several threads on the board already about the SPOT Messenger.

Oh, and no, it is not a PLB.

Though I already have a PLB, I can honestly see buying one of these if I were headed off to a remote area OR even more so if one of my kids was heading off to a remote area.

My son could easily let me know that things were OK on a daily basis.

On the other hand, unless someone was in real trouble, it would probably be better for my kids (and their trip crew) to cut the ties with home. So, maybe they'd actually be better off just making sure that their crew is carrying a PLB.

Ken K.

What are the numbers on the fatalities currently? Much less out in the backcountry than driving the highways and byways.

Analog cell signals are going to be gone in the next month or so,

including any of the Globalstar type emergency systems that run analog.

I do not think that the current state or use of the PLB as the activation tool for SAR missions is really appropriate for wide scale use, such as in motor vehicle accidents (MVAs). MVAs occur approximately every 60 seconds in the US (say 10% result in air bag deployment), activation of a PLB for each of these MVAs and the subsequent activation of SAR resources is not an intelligent use of these resources.

Commercial ventures such as OnStar, perhaps enhanced through the use of satellite technology is a better alternative to wide spread use of PLBs.

Pete

I’m sorry… I don’t understand. What Globalstar-type analog services are you talking about?

As far as I know, Globalstar (and Iridium, I believe) satellite voice and data communications use CDMA, a digital spread spectrum protocol, to communicate with the satellites. The SPOT Satellite Messenger also uses digital communications to communicate with the satellites. The only thing being phased out in February 2008 are the FCC regulations on the analog AMPS protocol for cellular phones (which will affect services such as OnStar, but not Globalstar or the SPOT Satellite Messenger).