I watched as the GPS light blinked red just outside of Gate 3 at Auckland International. The plane will be leaving soon, I thought to myself. I noticed a girl with a soft face and blonde hair glancing at me from her book. I realized how peculiar I must have looked. I mentally shrugged and walked up the stairway to see if i could get a better signal. Mysterious is good I thought. I held out the small orange device toward the window and pointed its face at the sky. The light continued to blink red. Defeated I put the handheld device away and walked back down the stairs returning to the mix of passengers who would board the plane. The gate official made an announcement and the boarding began and I moved to my seat at the window. How convenient I chose a window seat for this flight. I either choose window or aisle depending on the type of flight, a result of my experience with long travel. If your on a 12 hour flight you don’t want to be trapped by the window. You never know how fast those coffees or cocktails are going to pass through you, and having the luxury of standing up and stretching your legs without having to long-jump over your sleeping neighbors is nice. I adjusted my seat-belt and then took out the orange hand-held and once more held it to the window pointing it at the sky. The light blinked red again. I have time, I thought and I rested my hand against the window and turned my attention to the passengers filing into the plane. Why is watching other people board a plane so entertaining? I glanced at the light, a pause before the light blinked, then light came on and I was able to catch a soft green hue this time. The message had transmitted, my family knew that I had arrived in Auckland, New Zealand in my connecting flight that would eventually take me to Tasmania. More importantly, they knew that I was alive.
I don’t know what SPOT stands for, but it’s a handy device for someone who is ridiculous enough to put themselves alone in as many random scenarios as I tend to. Let me just give some credit to my Mother for not having a panic attack every time I told her that I had “been out on huge granite rocks that border the southern ocean by myself” or “I was out in the middle of no where and not even a mobile phone or land-locked phone was available and there wasn’t anyone around for miles”. What if I had twisted my ankle out there, where no one knew where I was, instead of twisting it in Darwin where help was readily available? It was a risk that I took, and risk is the definition of it. Of course, I never told Mom about the risks I would take until ‘after’ I took them. Tell her before? I’m not that crazy. Well, I’m happy to report that I made it out alive. Even though I kept my wits to me in those situations it never escaped me that I was completely alone. One day I made a mental note to look for a device that would allow me to reach out in case of an emergency no matter where I was. Sure I had been out on my own mountain biking or trail hiking all my life, but what I did this past year was different and I knew that I should respect the situations that I was putting myself in, and now enter “SPOT”.
SPOT is a simple little gizmo that fits in the palm of your hand. As you may have already figured out, SPOT allows you to send a signal from anywhere in the world. There are several options, but not many. It quite simply allows you to either send an S.O.S. signal to an emergency response center or send an O.K. signal to family and friends (or as I refer to it the “I’m alive” signal). By pointing the device toward the sky it connects to a satellite and sends a transmission to the emails you designate (up to 10) with your co-ordinance. The receiver of the communication then clicks on the co-ordinance and it shows them my whereabouts on Google Maps. That is for the “I’m alive”/O.K. transmission. If you send an S.O.S. signal than the local authorities and emergency response teams for your country/area are notified along with the designated contacts on your SPOT device.
