On Tue, 4 Nov 2008 15:44:30 -0500, "Roger Long"
wrote:

I'm pretty impressed with the SPOT beacon battery life. It's still running
on the first set of two AA Lithium's I put in when I bought it back in May.
This includes:

All the testing and playing after purchase.
Running it for nearly every daysail, 4 - 6 a week. This was great because I
was often alone and people didn't have to bug me on the cell phone to find
out if I was headed in for dinner.
8 - 12 hours a day on our 9 day cruise downeast.
10 - 14 hours a day on the recent 8 day Rachel Carson delivery.

I'm wondering just how much life is left after a summer of fairly heavy use
so I've set up a new page and started it running on the window sill. You
can watch it die he

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/g...eYWUa0SLl40PnT

This is starting at 3:30 on election day. It may be a little while before
fixes show up.

That sounds like pretty good battery life, especially considering that
it is transmitting as well as receiving.

Does the SPOT device also double as a useful GPS, and is it waterproof
enough to take on a dinghy, leave on the flybridge, etc. ?

In article , Wayne.B wrote:
On Tue, 4 Nov 2008 15:44:30 -0500, "Roger Long"
wrote:

I'm pretty impressed with the SPOT beacon battery life. It's still running
on the first set of two AA Lithium's I put in when I bought it back in May.
This includes:

All the testing and playing after purchase.
Running it for nearly every daysail, 4 - 6 a week. This was great because I
was often alone and people didn't have to bug me on the cell phone to find
out if I was headed in for dinner.
8 - 12 hours a day on our 9 day cruise downeast.
10 - 14 hours a day on the recent 8 day Rachel Carson delivery.

I'm wondering just how much life is left after a summer of fairly heavy use
so I've set up a new page and started it running on the window sill. You
can watch it die he

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/g...eYWUa0SLl40PnT

This is starting at 3:30 on election day. It may be a little while before
fixes show up.

That sounds like pretty good battery life, especially considering that
it is transmitting as well as receiving.

Does the SPOT device also double as a useful GPS, and is it waterproof
enough to take on a dinghy, leave on the flybridge, etc. ?

Hey, anyone want one of those 'Spot' devices? I know where there's one
just sat on a guy's window ledge...

Justin.

--
Justin C, by the sea.

Wayne.B wrote:

Does the SPOT device also double as a useful GPS, and is it waterproof
enough to take on a dinghy, leave on the flybridge, etc. ?

All it does is blink at you so it can't double as a GPS. If you have an
Internet connection, you could use the tracking to find out where your were
within the last half hour which might bail you out if your primary GPS(s)
failed.

It's made for backpackers and looks as though it's pretty waterproof. It
was originally supposed to function floating with the antenna up but they
forgot to have a naval architect check the stability and it floats on its
side If you are in the water with it, you will have to hold it out of
the water which would be a serious energy drain.

--
Roger Long