Evan, thanks for posting your thoughts. I joined you and Herb in buying an inReach Explorer from Cabellas. The inReach plan and usage approach you outlined sounds good, as well.

I, too, was disappointed with the performance of Spot. Not only was it flaky in posting my position, their "automatic renewal" was outrageous. My Spot went free to another home. Too bad, Spot was a great idea, but was very poorly implemented.

-John, Q3

On Tuesday, May 8, 2018 at 11:32:52 AM UTC-4, Tango Eight wrote:
It's hard to make an argument in favor of Spot. I cancelled my subscription moments ago (15 minutes elapsed time, one threat to call my credit card company, full refund issued for an automatic renewal (I never authorized automatic renewal)).

With inReach, if you fly 100 hours during 6 months a year, you can do this: Freedom / Safety plan @ $15 a mo + $25 a year + $0.10 per point, ten minute tracking, $60 for 100 hours of flying, total $175 (plus some miscellaneous fees) per year. You get unlimited use of preset messages (similar to old style Spot except you get confirmation that the message was sent) plus you have two way txt capability, 10 a month, $0.50 per msg beyond that. I'll use Inreach tracking if I am doing something, er, ambitious. Else I'll use cell tracking in areas with known good service and use inReach to send the landed safely, landed out / bring trailer & beer msgs.

I bought the old style Delorme Explorer because it's available at Cabela's for $200. It works fine, it should work fine on my parachute. The mini, announced literal hours after I ordered the DeLorme, *is* really cool, small is beautiful. The upside of the older/larger unit is more battery, maps (maybe handy if I end up in some really remote area), compass and a screen just big enough I can use without glasses (bail out scenario).

I'm not going to miss Spot.

Side note, if you are inclined to stick with Spot, Spot 2 service plan is still about $165 a year. You can have my Spot 2 for beer money (email me if anyone actually wants it).

best,
Evan Ludeman / T8