This GPS Personal Tracker Might Just Save Your Life

Getting out there on your own can be absolute bliss, the freedom, the fresh air, the independence and best of all the fact there is no-one to nag you!

But as much as you would like to get away from it all, there’s always the chance that as you are alone, you could get lost or stranded. I know, I know I'm throwing the worst case scenario straight out there and putting a negative spin on getting away from it all, but getting lost or stranded is never going to be an exciting prospect now is it? And it is definitely something that needs to be prepared for.

So take a phone, take some kind of mapping device, take a first aid kit and take every kind of energy food and drink you can find. But what if you find yourself in trouble? What if the phone goes out of range or worse runs out of battery? What if you exhaust all your supplies? What if the mapping device is no match for the situation you are in? Well the answer is, you are stranded and there is not much you can do about it. Bet you would kill to have your wife nag you now, wouldn't you?

So what can you do to stop yourself getting stranded I hear you say. What you can do is take a look at the SPOT. SPOT is a chunky orange GPS tracker device; it looks suspiciously like a PDA on steroids that has been slapping on fake-bake by the bucket load. But of course appearance isn't everything. Especially when it comes to survival. SPOT is here to bail you of trouble, SPOT works where no mobile phone will work; SPOT will work in the most extreme conditions - at heights of up to 21,000 feet and at temperatures as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit. SPOT works around the world, including virtually all of the continental United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Australia, portions of South America, Northern Africa and North-eastern Asia, and hundreds or thousands of miles off-shore of these areas. To put it simply SPOT is a lifesaver and has saved lives.

When 72 year old Mike Brady rose from the fog of unconsciousness on Jan. 4 2008, he was alone on the ground outside a sauna in one of the most remote sections of Alaska with the thermometer
hovering dangerously near 30 degrees below zero. He couldn't move and the nearest help was about 50 miles to the north in the isolated community of McCarthy, Brady was stranded having fallen down the steps near the cabin where he was staying alone.

In the first few moments on the ground near Ultima Thule lodge in the heart of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Mike Brady wondered if he would live. Having lived in Alaska for the past 50 years he was fully aware of the deadly nature of subzero cold, even as he struggled to gather his senses, he realised that if he stayed on the ground the cold would start to pull the life out of his body. In tens of minutes, he would be weakened by hypothermia, in hours; it would kill him and all because of a stupid slip.

He knew he had to move, he knew he had to get up, eventually getting up and stumbling inside, he made his way into his cabin and lit his stove. After a while he realised he needed help, he realised he needed to use that muscular tangoed device we now know as SPOT. Pointing the SPOT at the South horizon he pushed the button marked 911, Brady's position was relayed to the GEOS International Emergency Call Centre in Houston, Texas, dispatchers there notified the Alaska National Guard in Anchorage and within tens of minutes, a rescue helicopter was airborne and on its way to him. Brady was no longer stranded, no longer in danger of losing his life and had been saved by a device that had only been released 2 months previously.

SPOT is a simple device with only four buttons - Help, On/Off, OK and 911, though it is a device that saves lives. SPOT can let people know where you are, it can let them know you are ok or in the case of Mike Brady it will let the emergency services know you are in danger. Of course being in danger doesn't necessarily mean you need a full-blown helicopter rescue mission, but because it works using GPS, SPOT alerts people to your exact global position, in Mike Brady's case they knew he would perish outside and alone in the bitter Alaskan temperatures so a helicopter was the only option.

SPOT isn't just a device for those working and living in the extremities of the earth, it is also ideal for anybody regularly going anywhere alone where mobile phone coverage is poor and just remember appearances can be deceptive.