lop said:
I thought he lost his dog. :
Ok, after the smartarse comment, I looked at your link. looks like it could make someone at home feel better 'bout you being in the woods, but I'm betting that someone with one of these new fancy phones could get an app that would do that for less than a Bennie.
If it would track you as you made your way thru the woods, and replayed it for you that could be good. It would answer the two questions "how do I get out of here?" and "how do I get back to this spot?".
This, I already have in my phone for well over 5 years now, a HTC Tilt with Garmin GPS Software. I have about 70 hunting stands of mine, The Old Man's, and his OF friends plugged in.
Getting in, getting out, or going back is not as much a problem,
But notification and location of person in duress is a problem..
About 50% of the North Cumberland WMA (150K acres, just one example) is not covered by cell phone at all, and then usually is very spotty in the rest, except along I-75 which passes through. due to the terrain, GMRS & FRS radio is useless beyond ~1/2 mile.
So..That leaves satelite coverage, which still is not 100%, more like 80% there.
To transmit duress, one has to have system access (GPS units are receive only). Satelite phone is way too costly.
So the Spot device seems to fill a niche for a remote area "help me, I've fallen down" device to attach to an 78 year old coot that will never stop roaming in the woods.