I have solo tripped only once but plan on continuing. in fact I am looking into buying a Wen Prism this fall for a trip in. When I did my solo trip my family (mainly the wife) encouraged me to rent a sat phone. worked well but was very expensive and also was a lot of weight and gear to bring along for it. I was wondering if anyone has used a Spot Tracker? Looks like a decent piece of equip but not sure. I see there are a couple of outfitters that rent them fairly cheap. Are they reliable?

thanks,

Go to the gear forum and scroll down to BillConner's post on spot experience.

I have a Spot. I rented one on a couple solo trips, then I bought one.
Every day I push the 'I'm OK' button. My wife enjoys seeing where I am and likes to know that I am alive and well. She prints out the map every day and when I get home we look at maps and pictures I took as we discuss the trip.

Mine has always worked.

There is a lot of good info posted here and on solotripping.com. At solotripping, there is a very detailed thread on the technology versus PLBs. If all you care about is a way to be rescued, then I'd say PLBs are the way to go. If like me, it's primarily for your wife's peace of mind, then Spot is very viable. But beware, I have not heard of a true failure, but I screwed up and didn't wait long enough two days in a row and caused a lot of anxiety. And then there was the case of someone with a spot coming upon a drowning and using the SOS - which freaked his wife until the rangers showed up 4 hours later and let him use their sat phone. And look at the new DeLorme device with two-way sat texting.

Have used SPOT with our high school BWtrips for 4 years. Gives non outdoor parents peace of mind. When used properly, no problems. Have had a couple of times when one of the leaders didn't wait long enough and no message for two days (as above). I also like the cheap rescue insurance that you can get with it.

I have a SPOT. I think it works great. My wife love's the "I'm Okay" messages I can send. If it weren't for that my wife would not agree to my solo tripping.

I reserved a SPOT from Voyageur North Outfitters for my upcoming Quetico solo. I did it for my family's peace of mind. If you want to see how they work and what your family will see, go to vnorth.com and click on SPOTS in the upper right corner. You'll then see they have 12 rental units. Click on any one of them until you find one currently being used. Play with that screen a bit to get an understanding of everything there. I haven't yet used one, but I'm impressed with the info they provide to people back home.

I'm thinking about renting a spot for my upcoming solo as well. Mostly to let my husband know I'm ok. I've read up on some of the posts here and on other sites and am aware that they are not perfect. I wonder though how many reports of malfunction go back to operator errors.
I went on a guided winter wilderness trip in Alaska last year and that's what the outfitter there has been using for years. That instills some trust in my :-)
If you are not going through Ely you can rent a Spot online as well. Seems pretty straight forward.

This is the latest and quite small version of the ACR PLB which, in my very humble opinion, offers a bit higher level of reliability than the Spot. Plus, no fees involved. No email, however. You can register your wife as a recipient of notification from emergency services if they get a signal from your unit.


ACR ResQlink 406 PLB

The PLB vs Spot debate has been pretty detailed and long at Solotripping.com and if serioulsy considering one or the other, I highly recommend reading these threads:

EVAC

and

PLB v Spot

My take: worried about your own skin primarily - probably PLB. Want the folks back home (who are probably at greater risk than you) to know your OK, then Spot. For me, the Spot is reliable enough, but if you want higher, take one of each, and a sat phone too. And driving to and from canoe country, definitely the riskiest part of teh trip, my cell phone is sufficient.

Don't forget to factor in the cost of a new PLB at the end of five years.

Yours will require a new battery then whether or not you ever deploy it. And at that point a new unit may be cheaper than a new battery . I got a Fast Find for $149 on sale. A replacement battery runs $175.

Yellowcanoe is of course correct but I find that in five years, I generally want to replace electronic devices such as these because the newer ones offer so much more, so I do 5 year compariosn