"What do you do if you’re hiking in the back country, and someone needs to be taken to a hospital due to an injury? Use your mobile phone? That’s fine, if you’ve got coverage, and if your battery is charged. What if you’re kayaking in a remote area, and you’d like to let your family know you’re OK? The answer, I’d like to suggest, is the SPOT Personal Messenger. Using an array of low-earth orbiting satellites, the SPOT can transmit messages with three levels of urgency to your choice of up to ten email addresses and/or mobile phones. And, since the SPOT has a built-in GPS, your messages are tagged with your precise position, allowing the recipients to quickly identify your position on Google Earth. The three levels of urgency (OK, HELP, and 911) allow you to choose whether to tell everyone you’re OK, or to request help from friends, or in more serious conditions, from your local 911 resources like the Highway Patrol and Coast Guard. My initial impression of the SPOT is very positive. The hardware cost is very reasonable ($150), and the annual fee for normal service is under $100 for unlimited use. For my money, the SPOT is about the cheapest insurance you can buy."