SPOT or PLB rental?

Hi, Jeff,

I haven’t heard of SPOT rentals.

Here are some PLB rentals. I haven’t tried any of these (I have my own PLB).
http://www.aviationsurvival.com/ACR-Aqualink-Personal-Locator-beacon-_p_368.html
http://oerentals.com/plbrental.html
http://www.plbrentals.com/

HJ
Adventures in Stoving

One thing you need to be aware of on SPOT vs. SPOT 2 is that SPOT uses AA batteries, SPOT 2 uses AAA. A lot of people did not like the change to AAA since many devices use AA but not many use AAA and it was requiring people to double up on the spare batteries they carried. That may not be an issue for you, but I thought I'd toss that out there.

I rented from plbrentals a few years back with no problems, but now I have my own – McMurdo Fastfind. I think it's the lightest, and I believe you can rent one from plbrentals now.

I doubt anybody rents the SPOT.

Jeff-
I have a Spot II you can borrow for your trip if I don't need it at the same time. Send me a PM and let me know what dates you need it.

Mike

Mike. If jeff does not rent it off you I'd be more than glad to rent it from you. I'm doing the SHR in 3 weeks. Leave Pittsburgh on the 12 of September

First, thanks for all the great info. Mike, thank you very much for the offer. Another member actually just contacted me with a similar offer via PM. I saw the PM before your post, so thank you but I think I'll be all set with the other member. Daniel, if you and Mike want to work something out feel free.

I rented a SPOT 2 last summer from Lowergear.

http://www.lowergear.com/product.php/id/261

It was great all the way around. Excellent customer service, reasonable price, and the SPOT worked really well. Family was assured and it was fun to look at all the waypoints when I got home.

Just got the go ahead to go solo from the wife so the SPOT offer did the job. I'll be going from Horseshoe Meadows (Cottonwood Lakes) to Whitney Portal. For those of you that do solo trips, do you plan any differently than when you go with a couple friends?

Daniel, I sent you a PM.

Glad you get to go. My wife couldn't care less if I go solo. Still haven't figured out what meaning to take from that.

There's probably only one thing I do differently solo and it involves the SPOT. When I'm solo (which is most of the time) I'm more likely to go "Hey, I wonder what's over there?". So I give my wife a map with my projected route. And options if I'm considering any. I normally only send a mid-day and in camp OK message if I'm sticking to the itinerary. But if I change onto another trail, I go up it a ways and send 3 OK messages a ways apart to indicate my new direction. Same with bushwhacking but I'll send additional OK messages now and then since it's not obvious where I'm headed. I've been thinking of getting a SPOT connect or a Inreach to be able to send more detail instead. Too bad the Inreach messaging plan is so expensive or I'd get that for sure.

Hey Randy,

So you haven't had any issues with the SPOT? Do you have the original or the second version?

I was going to get one for kicks for my Sierra trip, but there were so, so many negative reviews and reviewers complaining about most messages/points/whatever not getting received that I decided against it. Also saw far too many reviews saying that the customer service was horrible.

Your experience has been a good one?

Thanks.

Go take out a $10,000,000 life insurance policy.

See if she still minds.

Doug, I've read all those reports as well but it's been great for me. I have the original. (I think. Not a SPOT2.) I send the message to myself as well as my wife and I check when I get back if they came through. In three years I've only missed 2 and they were at the same location. The parking lot of the TH for segment 4 of the CT. It's not heavily treed or anything so no idea why that spot is bad. Maybe it's because the forest in Colorado isn't as dense as in other locations that it works great for me. At first I would always look for as open an area as possible to send the message. But something I've done as a test multiple times is when I camp in an area of pretty thick trees, I'll send one from right there, then go to a more open area, if available, and send another. They've all got through so I don't bother with moving to an open area any more.

peter has a spot 2 and it functions exactly as advertised. uses AAA batteries too, just like my garmin GPS.
what more could a fellow ask for ? except the 100 bucks a year service charge is kind of steep.

a spot seems one of those things you can Borrow, as opposed to Rent.

cheers,
peter v.