What happens when Spot position reports no longer get into the system

[Ron Lee]

First...at this point there is no knowledge that this incident is a fault with Spot. More info should be known next week.

This morning I was talking to a guy who was headed to the Caveman Ranch south of Moab Utah. A friend of his had not been heard from in two days since he departed another runway in the area. One position report made it into the system then no more. He was headed to Caveman Ranch and there was no contact with him via cell phone or any other method.

Another pilot was prepared to first fly over Caveman to determine if he was there and if not a search was to be initiated.

Soon the pilot I was talking to got a text message that the other pilot was at Caveman. Good news but it raises the concern about what do people do who are expecting a Spot message at the destination and don't get it. Places out here may not have cell phone coverage.

I will try to get updated info next week to see if a factual cause can be established for the lack of position reports after departing another runway.

[kevinh]

The deal I have with my wife and others who follow my spot & aprs reports is:

If the spot or APRS tracking stops don't freak out. If I don't send you a spot OK message by the agreed upon time, then you can freak out and hopefully the tracklog will give use information about where I was. Please try reaching me by cell before raising alarms.

If you look and see that the last APRS position was on the runway, I'm probably okay.

I recently turned off the spot tracking service because I'm cheap and have APRS. I still use the OK, check-in & help buttons (each coded with a different message)

[Ron Lee]

The guy who left here yesterday returned today. The story is that the guy with the Spot does not have the tracking function (purchased?). He apparently uses the OK button to generate position reports. Reportedly it did not work after some point and I have no other insight that would help Spot owners assess possible causes.