Overall, I have been generally pleased with the device WHEN IT WORKS! Meaning messages are not always received by the recipient, once sent by the user. This was a common complaint with the 1st Generation devices, coupled with the fact there was no way of even knowing if a message was sent once the user activated the various notification buttons. The latter problem was one of the major improvements of the Generation 3 device. There is a green “message sent” light which illuminates once the last message has been transmitted. Unfortunately, there still seems to be issues with messages actually being received by the satellites and ultimately forwarded along.

As an example, I conducted a five day solo trip into the Ansel Adams Wilderness this last week. My wife, also an experienced backpacker, was not keen on this solo adventure. She was my primary emergency contact and was relying on my once daily check-ins to keep track of my routing, which included potential cross-country travel. Despite the “message sent” indication being illuminated, my device failed to actually send the notifications on two consecutive days. Which coincidentally were the days in which the cross country travel was anticipated. This equated to a failure rate of 40% and a very concerned and upset wife upon my exit from the back-country.