We need 8 SPOT messangers for work. Massive range of prices – £100 in UK £50 from US,but would get hit for VAT & import duty. Anyone know where I can get them from in Europe for a good price?

Cheers

Does the price include the subscription – thought that was over $100/year?

No it doesn’t. The subsciption is abt 100euros a year

I did look into these for work (in Africa), but the coverage was too poor down there, so never got any.

Sadly, £100 in the UK isn’t a bad price.
if you find one below £100, it’s only by a couple of pounds or so.
I have a Spot 1 for sale if your interested. £40 + postage.

8 x Ebay ‘gifts’ from Singapore…? Anyway if it’s business related, just buy the bloomin things. At least you’ll get the VAT back.

whats a SPOT messanger?

That’s cheap really for what the product is but personally I wouldn’t entrust my life to one. If the firm is paying and they value your life I’d look for a more reliable solution.

If the firm is paying and they value your life I’d look for a more reliable solution.

they just want to know where their vans are 😉

I’d look for a more reliable solution.

Such as?

Epirb

I’d look for a more reliable solution.

We are looking at them as a more reliable solution than mobile phones, for folk in remote but not particularly dangerous locations. An advantage over epirb would seem to be that they can be used to check in – that they are OK, give a heads up that they have a problem – but not life threatening, or HELP.
Where are they unreliable?

Maybe we need to get one to trial it first.

Point taken – £100 is not a bad deal!

The problems with the globalstar constellation are well documented if you look around.

Personally I would go either for an epirb with a 406link.com subscription where the self test function allows you send a position report

Or: just buy an Inmarsat iSat phone pro sat phone. They are bloody good sat phones and not expensive to buy. Plus you can text or email a position report and the phone calls are pretty cheap on them these days.

IMHO if I was in the shit in the middle of nowhere I’d like to be able to speak to someone as well as just sending a message. I do have to hold my hands up though in that I do work in sat comms but I have had a few clients that have given me their feedback on the spot system. At the end of the day, you get what you pay for and for £100 the spot is a good peace of mind solution for slightly remote locations however if you are working in a hazardous remote location then I would expect my employers to supply more than just that.

Cheers for that – we will check out all those options.
We are doing forest management work in rural locations so the risk of injury is pretty low.