GPS Tracker Thread - Spot Content and In reach

[Alpinum]

Check Protegear for a data plan.
https://www.protegear.com/

I can't understand a word of that!

Well... perhaps try harder...?

The data plan chart is way too complex.

You may wont to try harder.

And it looks to be horribly expensive.

When I made some research and compared the different options I found it to be the cheapest since you can choose one specific to your needs.

I may be being dense here but it should really cater for all levels of intelligence!

Sorry for you.

[sean_iow]

The Ofcom availability map suggests voice calls and data aren't one and the same, but I'd be surprised if you found anywhere with good data coverage but no voice coverage.
https://checker.ofcom.org.uk/mobile-coverage

I think your right there. They have separated out 'data' as some areas will have voice and no data, but if you don't have reception good enough for a voice call you wont have any data reception. At my mum's house I can make a call but have no data reception.

Border's point stands, in Scotland there are vast areas with no reception* of any kind so only a satellite based device will work.

* One of the reasons I have my phone on airplane mode when riding in Scotland otherwise the battery usage goes up searching for a signal.

[ScotRoutes]

You may, sometimes, get a blip of a signal to let an SMS message get through, but if you've no voice signal, you've no data.

Those out-of-reach bits of Scotland are exactly why I bought a Spot. In fact, I'm sitting typing this on a WiFi connection as there is no voice or data here. I'm less than 10km from home.

[stevewaters]

Another happy InReach Mini Protegear user here
The battery capacity is 1,250 mAh and lasts over 24 hours on 10 minute logs and can be topped up quickly using a power bank and whilst in use.

[Lazarus]

When I made some research and compared the different options I found it to be the cheapest since you can choose one specific to your needs.

Garmin UK do it for a £25 annual fee and £15 per month if flexi or £30 and £15 if annual

Pretty sure that works out cheaper as no Euro conversions and iirc those prices are without VAT on protogear- they do allow more messages to be fair and more tracking but its annual fee is a lot higher [66 euros]

[Alpinum]

they do allow more messages to be fair and more tracking but its annual fee is a lot higher [66 euros]

I might not have cross checked with all possible data plan (flat rate or by byte) options
I wasn't precise enough. My bad.

Then I'm in Switzerland. My bad again.

You could also always drop Protegear an email and ask if they have something comparable, but cheaper.
May be worth asking, since they have some services Garmin doesn't have and make life much safer when out there, not exactly mitigating the risks.

[stevewaters]

For weekends/long weekends, I have recently been using the £2.95 per day (10 minute) Tracking option with Protegear.
I keep it in "Standby" for the rest of the time which costs nothing.
There is the ~£40 Annual Fee on top:

https://www.protegear.com/products-data ... ata-plans/

[Richard G]

Hijacking a thread... anyone had Spot basically fail to track properly? I've turned on tracking, and it's sent one message (showing in my feed), but that's it for the last couple of hours, even when I've moved the device. If I press the "OK" button it updates just fine, but no additional tracking comes through.

I've had it fail completely before, but never do one but not the other.

[ScotRoutes]

How far have you moved it? Metres or kilometres?

[Richard G]

How far have you moved it? Metres or kilometres?

About 100 meters. Certainly far enough that I would have wanted an update if someone was looking for me!

Edit - Seems OK after turning it off / on. Odd, not had that before.

[Martin B]

Check Protegear for a data plan.
https://www.protegear.com/

I can't understand a word of that! The data plan chart is way too complex. And it looks to be horribly expensive. I may be being dense here but it should really cater for all levels of intelligence!

I'm interested in this thread as I am thinking of getting myself a Spotgen for when I go riding solo in the future. I hear what you say about service and coverage, but I would really only want it to be able to let MR know that I was last heard of in x valley or whatever and also let anyone who wanted to know where I was and that I was ok.

I've gone for the InReach mini on the garmin safety plan. You can send unlimited preset messages to confirm your ok or at camp etc and set it up to include location. I don't need constant tracking and i'm happy to accept the small cost of a message if my emergency contact clicks on the websites location button to interrogate my InReach for it's location.

This was a good video on youtube

https://youtu.be/EyCZrQz1FjU

breaking down all the different garmin subscription options and what you would need to do to breakeven for tracking points or messaging.

[GoneCaving]

Hey all, I just bough an InReach Messenger in prep for some longer rides (and providing the missus with some peace of mind!). I'm now trying to figure out the activation steps.

Looking at the Protegear plans they seem better suited to my needs that the Garmin ones. However, I haven't figured out how that then works with the likes of explore.garmin.com? Do you buy the plan on Protegear and then it automatically activates the Garmin mapshare? Has anyone been through this process recently?

[Alpinum]

I have and it's been long enough and not eventful enough to remember how it went down.

IIRC you get an email explaining what to do. You basically handle the Garmin account (make a log in) they take care of the rest. Get intouch, it'll become clear.

I'm a bit notorious in not visiting the Garmin account, since there's no need unless I want to change preset message addresses or summat similar. If you haven't been on a Garmin account for a while, you get deactivated. Even then Protegear takes care. Superb folks.

[Lazarus]

Dlovett bought mine and used protogear so should have an answer for you

[dlovett]

Have a look at my spot v inreach post a few weeks ago it tell you how prote works. Very happy with them so far and yearly cost for me is going to be about €65 euros.

Any other questions let me know and I’ll be happy to answer them if I can.

[GoneCaving]

Have a look at my spot v inreach post a few weeks ago it tell you how prote works

Already did (and thanks for the writeup, I reckon that's going to save me some $ in the long run). Anyway, all set up, and going to play around with it this weekend to make sure I understand how everything works.

[dlovett]

Yep if you only use them occasionally like most people, it's a lot cheaper. I have another Audax this Sunday, so I'll activate it for the day, then it will be back on standby till the bb200 weekend.

[dlovett]

So another update, I don't normally look at my tracks after an event, but this time I checked to make sure the inreach was working ok. I had heard people could see where I was ok, but not my route. This seems to be a Garmin bug in that you can see the route and the current/previous locations fine when you use a desktop browser, but not a mobile device. However, the inreach seemed to upload successfully it's 10 minute tracking location perfectly and they all seem to be there from starting to finishing and turning it off. With the Spot G3, I often found it would just not upload tracking info for whatever reason and I would never know. The dot watchers would just not see movement sometimes for long period's of time, when spot could not get it's transmission through. Garmin have told me that if an inreach doesn't get a received signal confirmation within a certain, time it resends that position until it does get the reception confirmation, which could explain it seeming to be much more reliable than the spot.

I also used the web control with Protegear to turn the device on and off and that also worked perfectly. It does take a few minutes from changing from Standby to active for the device to logon, but once it's done it just works.

So now I am really happy, I have a low cost, reliable system, that actually offers position over route viewing for my dot watchers (Thanks Lazarus!). The Green line is the gpx route I was following and the grey dots are actual positions sent every 10 minutes.

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