I felt bad telling everyone that SpotX pricing is a wishy-washy mishmash of options (which is true if not a satisfying answer). I clicked to their pricing site and investigated. Here’s a summary:
Your basic, activated all year plan is $20 to activate and $12 a month. That includes 20 texts a month plus unlimited “check ins”. (I just discovered the pre-defined messages are free in addition to “check ins” which I already knew to be free. I should read fine print more.) It’ll cost you $12/month and add up to $164 a year. I think that’s pretty good for what you’re getting.
A basic, only activate in months you want plan is $25 to activate and $15 a month. During the active months it’s the same # of texts; 20. This plan allows you to shut down service and then restart it without fees. (I haven’t tested this.) This means if you only want to use a SpotX for one month of elk hunting it’ll cost you $40 a year total. That ‘aint bad either.
I’ve already experimented enough to decided that 100 texts a month (which is what I got) is too much. 20 is probably fine given that pre-defined and “check in” are “free”.
There are more options. But that’s the gist of it.
There are few sexy options… totally not required but for my experimental first year I went nuts:
Remember how this all started with John Wick? He had pre-planned ass covering for situations where his ass needed covering. I wanted something like that for me! Well, for an extra $25 a year you can buy coverage for “up to $100K in Search and Rescue (SAR) expenses – even coordinating a private SAR contractor if needed to get you to safety”. Fine print tells me that’s $50k per event and 2 possible “events” which is plenty. (Fer crissakes if you need more than 2 extractions in one year they should put you on a leash.) I don’t plan on ever needing SAR but helicopters are expensive. You can’t even look at a helicopter without losing a mortgage payment and it goes up from there. I bought the $25 coverage. Hopefully I’ll never be able to tell you how well it works.
There’s also an AAA towing like service. $30 a year for “towing and roadside assistance, offering service on even the most obscure and hard to travel roads imaginable. It doesn’t matter if the roads are paved , dirt or gravel”. (Their words, not mine. I can imagine shit that’ll scare a billy goat so YMMV.) It implies they’ll retrieve things like ATV’s and snowmobiles. That said, I’m suspicious. I suspect they created loopholes for themselves and will say something like “we only cover ATVs on leap years” if you call them. Nonetheless I’ve been having carburetor issues with my Curmudgeonly Bug Out Vehicle (not the Dodge) and so I decided to get this service until I’m sure I’ve got the kinks worked out in the old beast. (More on the BOV when/if I get it ready for primetime.)
Thanks for the pricing details.
” AAA towing like service”
AAA operator was unable to grasp the concept of “Lady, there ain’t no nearest intersection. We’re on a deep-sand fire road in a forest”. I walked out and flagged down a passing bear hunter who had a tow strap and a good heart. Fun times.
HAM aside: AC, have you checked out CommRadio’s CTX-10 HF rig? Looks to be suitable for stuffing into a backpack. Reviewed at https://brushbeater.wordpress.com/2019/05/09/ctx-10-updates/
AAA is hopeless!
I’ve had mixed results with HAM. It’s cool but I’m not sure I could get a signal out on short notice when and where it matters. Maybe I’m not a great HAM but it seems like I never know the local repeaters, local HAM clubs, best places to contact etc… Seems like HAM would be awesome if I was smart enough to stick to the same place over and over again so my HAM memory pre-sets are perfect for the local repeaters. Half the time I’m going somewhere I’ve never seen and I’ve no idea of the local radio spectrum situation.
Yah, a new place presents a challenge. I used to drive 50,000 miles per year and VHF/UHF was disappointingly vacant.
I was picturing you letting tech intrude on your wilderness solitude in the form of an HF rig so as to be prepped for the zombies. Or something.
The only use I’ve gotten out of a HF rig in the wilderness is that I sometimes like to listen to shortwave at night and also it’s easy to program the NOAA frequencies. Not worth the hassle. Man to man coms is better with cheap FRS. SpotX is specifically to tell Mrs. Curmudgeon I’m alive and/or change plans “I won’t be home Tuesday as planned, but it’s no cause for alarm”. Possibly to make plans with other folks “fishing on lake xyz rocks! Meet me at the south turnout. Bring more bait, I’m low.” (Though so far I haven’t used it for that purpose.) And of course to save my ass; which may never happen.
If the zombies attack they’ll be busy eating he cities. Fishing off a generic forest service road is probably the safest place to be. Half the cities in the nation could go into spasms and I wouldn’t know until I left the woods. (Judging from the “news” that squawks from my AM/Fm radio every time I’m driving back into “civilization” the world is on fire 24/7 and everyone has died a dozen times anyway.) 🙂
+1
If you want to use HAM in the wilderness, VHF/UHF isn’t where you want to be. 20, 40, and 80 meter HF is a better bet. Though the new stuff will help you program repeaters based on your location. (There’s an app for that.)
Winlink will let you sent text-centric email via HF. Though the set up is more for boats/RVs. The electronics are expensive even after you have a Ham radio. Supposed to be more “open-source” alternatives, but I haven’t looked into that ARES/RACES still use Winlink. (Modems are 1000 bucks or more. Proprietary.)
I first ran across Spot when I was considering the Florida Everglades Challenge. They’re required if you are going to compete. You have to set up the thing where it reports your position every 15 or 30 minutes or whatever, and use it in case of a “HELP” situation. (I haven’t looked at their site in a long time, but they had a decent intro to Spot when it was new.) You could probably compete in the Florida Everglades Challenge with your boat. If you wanted to. http://www.watertribe.com/events/evergladeschallenge/
The only texts I would send would be “I’m OK,” “I’m not quite OK” and “Send help.”
The boat I made has been used in things like the Everglades Challenge and the Texas 200 (both of which clearly push the PDR design to the limits). I’m way too inept a sailor for that kind of thing… for now.
20, 40, or 80 meter HAM is a lot of fiddling to get a message out. Definitely do-able but more of a PITA than I was willing to deal with in my relatively tame wanderings around North America (if I was traversing the Amazon I might get more serious about HAM). It seemed more geared to relaxing fun than “save my butt”. I can’t imagine myself intelligently running 40 meter coms in a canyon after I just got a rattlesnake bite (to pick a random example); especially if it was CW! I just did my thing without a safety net until the SpotX met my threshold of “get the message out without spending an hour messing with settings”. BTW: I first heard about SPOT lurking around watertribe posts but SPOT just didn’t seem right for me. I’m big into context for non-emergency issues and SPOT is basically all or nothing. SpotX is a bit more spendy but I like that 2 way text.