DeLorme and SPOT—Handheld GPS Meets Satellite Communication
Both companies have been hearing from users looking for a GPS with great maps and the ability to share location information with others and we’re thrilled to be making this request a reality. Users will be able to create text messages and send them to e-mail or cell phone addresses. They will also be able to update social networking sites or use the SPOT Adventures page to share their messages. Along with text messaging, users will have access to standard SPOT features like Tracking and SOS Emergency Assistance. Yet, there are some problems associated with the device.
There are still a couple of problems that the SPOT Communicator will not overcome, though the SPOT 2 technology was a big improvement over the original SPOT (despite the recall of the SPOT 2s). As you mention, Chip, the manuals for Delorme’s GPSRs and the SPOT devices do talk about the canyon and canopy limitations. The canopy problem is much reduced, though it hasn’t gone completely away (when the L3 and L5 capabilities get implemented in consumer units, that should help a lot). Canyon problems are another situation – you can’t get truly clear views of the sky in a canyon, whether natural as in mountainous areas or manmade, as in cities with tall buildings (I wouldn’t be using the Communicator in a city anyway, so that’s moot).
Eventually, there may be enough ground stations to deal with this on land (though probably not on remote islands – I note that the coverage map has Hawaii in the “reduced or no coverage in a 20 minute period” area). Potentially, Globalstar could link to someone else’s satellites to cover the oceans, but this would require a significant change from their present architecture. Right now, though, there are several areas which I will be in during the next year that fall in the “reduced or no coverage” or “no coverage” areas, namely East Africa, Patagonia, and Easter Island. My PN-40e or a PN-60w will have no problems, just the SPOT of whichever model.