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GPS Trackers

K

Ken Jones

Senior Member
I often fish in the middle of nowhere and find I have no mobile phone signal.
I have been pointed in the direction of a SPOT 3 gen tracker by a mate who goes wild camping in the hills but I would like to here from anyone who has used them on the river bank in poor reception areas.
They use a satellite system not GSMR/phone sat so do you actually have 100% coverage.
Any one any comments?
At just over £100 quid it could be real good value if the worst happens especially if alone on a river far from a car.
Cheers
Ken
 
I had a quick google and it looks pretty impressive. It does however require a monthly service fee of about £8 to enable you to be tracked/send messages.

I suppose the only alternative is to try different mobile phones/networks on the stretches you fish, as some are better than others. But you're right Ken, sooner or later someone is going to come a cropper on the banks of the Yorkshire spate rivers and have to endure a long painful crawl to safety. Have you read 'Touching the Void'?
 
Not the perfect answer and I've never tried it but I believe that when you call an emergency number then your phone will use any available network, 112 or 999 and can be triangulated to give a location.

Anthony, given your track record I don't think I'd leave the house!
 
Cheeky b***er! And yes you're right about the emergency calls. It's just when you've 'gone dark' on those faraway stretches where there's no signal at all from any provider that the problem becomes a real problem. Remember that 99% coverage of the population is not 99% coverage of the land area.
 
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