SPOT Personal Tracker

The SPOT Personal Tracker is a GPS and satellite communication enabled safety and rescue device. The rugged, handheld unit can notify friends, family or an international rescue coordination center with your precise GPS location and situation at the push of a button. The SPOT Personal Tracker works around the world.

If you need help while on your adventure you have the option of using the Help button to notify either family/friends or the SPOT Assist services. When the Help button is activated with SPOT Assist, professional services either on the land or water will be notified. SPOT has partnered with national service providers to offer non-life threatening assistance.

If a life threatening situation arises you can hit the 911 button and have a GEOS International Emergency Response Center notified of your GPS location. The message repeats every five minutes until canceled. The Emergency Response Center contacts the appropriate emergency response organization based on your location and personal information.

The OK/Check-in button which lets nominated contacts you are safe and well and what your location is. The message is sent via email or SMS to up to 10 nominate contacts and your locations (waypoints) can be integrated into a SPOT Shared Page or SPOT Adventure account.

The SPOT unit acquires your location using GPS satellites and routes all information/signals through the SPOT satellite network. So, it does not depend on cell phone signal availability Messages can be delivered either as SMS text message or as an email which includes a convenient Google Maps link to identify your position on a map.

The Track Progress function sends and saves your location so others can follow your progress when convenient. The SPOT unit sends one message every 10 minutes for 24 hours or until switched off.

The SPOT Personal Tracker is identical to the SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger which has an additional Custom Message button which will send a pre-programmed message to nominated personal contacts. A possible use is to a message about a target being reached and all being well.

Coverage for the SPOT Personal Tracker works spans the world including almost the entire area of North America, South America, Europe and Australia, Northern Africa and Northeastern Asia, and also extends hundreds or thousands of miles offshore of these areas. Current coverage can be checked on findmespot.com.

So that you can be confident the SPOT Personal Tracker is functioning the SPOT performs a self-diagnostic test each time it is turned on and thereafter blinks an indicator light every 3 seconds until turned off.

The data below outlines the SPOT Personal Trackers ruggedness and capability to withstand extreme environmental conditions.

Operating Altitude: -300ft to +21,000ft
Floats: in water
Waterproof: to 1 meter for up to 30 minutes
Humidity Rating: MIL-STD-810E Method 507.3, 95% to 100% condensing
Salt Fog Rating: per MIL_STD 810E Method 509.3, 5% NaCl, 95% distilled water
Vibration resistance: per SAE J1455 random, 20 Hz to 2000 Hz, 0.04g2/Hz, one hour per axis
Drop endurance: dropped twice on all six sides from one meter onto a hard surface
Battery Life Full battery charge should meet or exceed the following:

Power on, unused: Approx. 1 year
SPOTcasting tracking mode: Approx. 14 days
911 mode: Up to 7 consecutive days
SPOTcheck OK: 1900 messages

It is all too easy to think of news articles where people in remote areas have perished when help would have saved their lives. The technology to relegate this sort of sad story to history is now at hand in the form of the SPOT Personal Tracker. For adventurers who commonly travel beyond normal lines of communication, a lifesaving device like the SPOT GPS Satellite Messenger is essential.

Specification for SPOT Personal Tracker (pdf)