I was talking to my dad yesterday about my upcoming Quetico trip. He asked if I was going to have the SPOT with me. I said yes, and he said good - he can now live the trip vicariously through me. The "safety" feature didn't enter into it at all.

My dad is familiar with the limitations of the SPOT. A few years ago we were on a trip together and we capsized in the Russell-Sturgeon narrows when the water was high and moving fast. It took us an hour to get ourselves and stuff out of the water. Afterwards he asked me if I could have used the SPOT if we had needed it. I answered no - it wasn't on me and had been floating around in some pack somewhere. We never told my mom this ;)