This past week I tested my "SPOT" in the lake. As indicated by the manufacturer, the device floats and it is indeed water resistant. The problem? I discovered that when allowed to float by itself, it floats face down. When I last I checked, there are no satellites on the bottom of the lake. :( If your "SPOT" gets separated from you and your gear on the lake, distress messages are only being received by beavers and fish. This could be a problem. A previous post contained a link to a blog. In the blog, an individual posted that his SPOT had filled up with water and failed. The manufacturer suggested that the device failed because it was in water too deep. Because SPOT floats, it would have to be tied to some sort of anchor to sink below its rated depth. The whole scenario, though possible, would be unlikely under normal boating conditions. If SPOT did sink to the bottom of the lake like this, it would probably be unretrievable. It seems to me that there are three possibilities here: Possibility #1: the screws that fasten the battery cover were loose, allowing water penetration. Possibility #2: this particular unit had a manufacturing defect. Possibility #3: the unit was tied to a boat anchor and tossed in the lake - just to see if it would survive. Unfortunately we can only speculate. It should be noted that SPOT does not have an independent waterproofness rating - like IP7 or similar. Thoughts? Derek --------------------------------------------------------------- Please limit all email attachments sent to this address to a maximum of 0.5MB. All email attachments that are larger then 0.5MB will automatically be deleted. --------------------------------------------------------------- ICQ: 262152266, AIM: GlamourpetsD, MSN: [my email address], Yahoo Messenger: glamourpets --------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Oct 08 2008 - 06:40:27 PDT
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