Staying Connected with SPOT on the Camino

[John Hussey]

SPOT Satellite Messenger:
On my upcoming Camino I am leaving my phone at home and will stay vaguely "connected" using just the occasional internet cafe for emails and, for the first time on a Camino, a SPOT Messenger which I use for kayak expeditions. The SPOT I purchased for it's SOS feature while paddling the kayak so that I could immediately summon assistance almost anyplace in the world were I ever to need it, whether cell phone coverage was available where I was (most likely no) or not. It's first use is to summon help to save your life. But it does have many other uses as well.

For instance, it can track one's movements on a trip and show the "trail" in the form of a series of GPS map coordinates placed on Google earth, wherever your "trail" leads you. These points can then be uploaded onto an "Adventure" page so as to keep the trip data for as long as one wished, along with any verbiage one wished to add, one's photos, links, etc.. It is a heck of a tool-for what it was designed for. I do not blog but I'd suppose it would be most appropriate for those who did.

I use it while kayaking, not just for the SOS feature, but as an easy and effective method for my friends and family to keep exact track of where I was daily. So, each evening wherever I stopped to camp on the trip, usually on a beach or small island somewhere, I'd press the tracking button and it would send out an email to everyone I'd included on a list, the GPS map coordinates on a pin affixed to a Google earth map, showing precisely where I was at that time.. I had a number of fixed options for messages that I could send, too. There is even a model that can be linked to a cell phone to use wherever there was a lack of cell phone coverage, but i went the cheaper, waterproof Messenger route instead. In my boat I kept the SPOT affixed to my PFD (personal flotation device) and rode in the kayak just a couple of inches above the sea. Being waterproof was immensely important for me!

So, while I can't imagine requiring the SOS feature of the unit on the Camino, I just decided I'd take it anyway so as to keep track of my trip for myself-and for family. I have already paid for the unit, as well as the yearly service, so why not use it?

SPOT Adventures, where I just now set my trip under "Camino 2011":

Spot Adventures | SpotAdventures

Practicing, I uploaded onto the page one GPS point and some photos from an earlier Camino-all to be removed later.

The various SPOT options: SPOT SATELLITE MESSENGER :: HOME PAGE

I am in no way associated with this company. I do wish I had thought of the idea before they did, though. Nearly 36,000 "Adventures" are set up presently.

[zzotte]

I think it's really cool I love gadgets anyway, in mid Oct DeLorme is coming out with one called InReach (but not for the iPhone yet) I'm sure eventually it will be I think, it's great it will transform your smartphone into a satellite communicator. Yours it's really handy one less pc of tech to carry.

Zo