Check in regularly to the Tech Talk column featuring background info and tips about SPOT. Our contributor to the column is Bob Bennett, the developer of SPOT, who has over 40 years experience in the space and satellite communications industry. Some might call him a rocket scientist. We agree.

Anyone can sign up for an account: just head over to the site (www.spotadventures.com). Follow the sign-up procedure and link you SPOT account in just a few easy steps. Why is this a great idea you might ask? By having a SPOT Adventures profile, it allows you to easily share and present all the great adventures you are on! With SPOT Adventures you can

• Stream your Live Map on your profile home page

• Create adventures by using your message data from the past 60 days and import that data in at the click of a button to create an adventure map

You can even start to sign up for an account or create adventures right from your https://login.findmespot.com account.

Profile example with Live Map

Create adventures right from your login account

Clicking on the footprint icon in your login account brings up this screen

If you don’t create adventures from within your login account, you can head over to www.spotadventures.com > click on Create Adventures and up comes this window to start the easy adventure creation process.

The greatest thing perhaps about SPOT Adventures, is that you can upload digital photos you took while using your SPOT and “geo-tag” them to your adventure map during Step 4 of creating an adventure (see image below)!

Upload photos from your computer and import from Flickr or Picassa!

Add multiple photos at a time to your adventure when you upload from your computer!

Now, the geo-tagging process works like this: Set your camera to the same time zone as your SPOT and make sure that your camera’s time is correct. Go out, have a blast and take lots of pictures! Your camera automatically saves a “time-stamp” on every photo in the file information. Typically this contains the date and time of the photo.

Now, every time you use your SPOT to send different types of messages, it records that data with the time and date of the messages in your account. So, when you are uploading your photos to your adventure, you can choose to “Auto place all” and then based on the times and dates of the photos, SPOT Adventures will automatically place them near where your waypoints occurred that you just uploaded.

Have your time settings the same on your SPOT and your digital camera? Then choose “Auto place all” to place them near where your tracks and waypoints are from your SPOT. This makes creating an adventure a snap!

After these steps, just a couple more clicks and you are on your way to making unforgettable adventures.

Since SPOT Adventures is such a powerful web software, I’ll even mention one more great tip: Did you know that if you manage a website, you can embed the SPOT Live Map as a widget in your own site? Yes! Just click on “Share this” on your Live Map and a code will pop up that you can use to insert in your own site.

For more information on embedding the Live Map widget in your own site, see the FAQ here.

That’s all for this month folks. Enjoy your SPOT Adventures accounts!

Many of our customers from time-to-time have questions about the commercial data network that SPOT messages are sent through.

SPOT uses the Globalstar simplex data network to transmit messages. This is a proven data network that is also supporting tens of thousands of commercial and industrial data modems sending millions of messages each month for asset tracking and remote management applications. The simplex data network signal path works differently than the Globalstar satellite phone signal path, providing significantly better reliability and message completion rates. Extensive testing shows 99.6% reliability. Like mentioned, the commercial data network not only supports message transmissions from the SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger. In fact it originated to support a variety of personal messaging and tracking, aviation flight-following, and emergency asset and fleet tracking customer applications from some of the most demanding business customers all around the world. Simplex data solutions are also used for a number of remote monitoring and alarm applications, both within and beyond the reach of traditional wireless and terrestrial infrastructure. Information such as GPS co-ordinates, remote status and other sensor information can be reliably sent to customers using the Simplex network.

What does this mean to you? You can pack peace-of-mind and everyday remote communication capabilities and know that your network is the same commercial data network that some of the world’s most demanding businesses choose to track their assets and transfer data.

When we launched the new SPOT Assist Roadside Service in April, it was the first time we gave customers the option to upgrade the service on their SPOT and use the HELP button for a new purpose. With that in mind, we're sure some of you are wondering; how are all of the messages distinguished from an individual SPOT unit? Each time your SPOT sends a message, that message contains two important pieces of information. They are message type and the unit ESN. These are transmitted along with your position information when the SPOT "back office" receives the message. Our software identifies the user and the message type and based upon what you have entered in your profile, routes the message. The 911 message is automatically routed to GEOS IERCC along with the information you entered in the 911 section of your profile. If the message is an OK message it is sent to the friends’ and families’ email and cell phones that you entered. The HELP message is routed based on which service is assigned to the HELP button. Normal HELP messages go to your list of friends and family you entered in your profile. However, if you have chosen to sign up for SPOT Assist, it will be routed to our roadside assistance provider instead of to your friends and family. This is how SPOT makes sure that your messages go to the people and services you have chosen.

Here are a few tips to make sure that your SPOT Messenger will be ready to go when you need it because the last thing you want to be this summer is unprepared.

GPS Fix Tips

Spot strongly recommends that you send and verify an OK/Check message before using your SPOT each day, and at minimum anytime you have traveled more than 600 miles, have changed the batteries or have not used the unit for over two (2) weeks. List your own cell phone (if you have text capability) in your OK contacts.

To run the check:
1) Press the ON/OFF button
2) Wait 2 seconds
3) Press OK
4) Wait until the LED above the OK button goes off (can be up to 20 minutes).

You have now completed the GPS Fix / System Evaluation cycle. If after 4 minutes, the LEDs above the ON/ OFF and OK button start to blink out-of-synch instead of in unison, you still do not have a GPS fix. If you haven’t used your unit recently it may still be updating the almanac or it might not see the 3 GPS satellites required to obtain a GPS fix, so it is highly recommended that you MOVE to a different location with a clearer view of the sky in order to get a GPS fix, and repeat Steps 1) through 4). The LEDs above the ON/OFF and OK button should blink at the same time until they go out if you have successfully obtained a GPS fix. Optimally, you run the test in cell phone range and can ensure that your cell phone received the text message with your lat/long location.