My husband and I decided to invest in a SPOT tracker to comfort our parents while we're out and I have mixed feelings about its ability.

We were able to send several "OK" messages as long as we were standing in one place and there was a VERY thin canopy above us. The tracking function is very disappointing, we hiked three miles along a large stream and wasn't able to get one track marked. And being near a stream I would have thought that the canopy would have been open enough to get some signal out but nothing.

Because we were able to get the "OK" messages out we'll probably continue to use it to keep family feeling more at ease otherwise I'm really not sure that I would recommend it to anyone.

One thing that really annoys me about it is that there is no way to know if you actually got a message out unless you watch the dang thing without blinking for the 30 minutes it tries to send a message. It would be nice if the light changed color or something when a message is sent rather than just staying solid for a few seconds. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />