SpotX Messenger: Robust, Sized Right

SpotX is assigned a telephone number for your appropriate country during activation. This allows contacts in the same country to send SMS messages to your SpotX without incurring any additional fees. There are four key components to the SpotX product: the SpotX hardware, its activation and service plan, its configuration through the website and the SpotX Device Updater application used to synchronize account information and update firmware. As weve learned from other satcomms, setup and activation can be a chore. For the SpotX, it begins with setting up an account on the FindMeSpot website from a Mac or PC, requiring a credit card for payment and information about your hardware.

Thanks to the internet and cellular telephone networks, ground communication services have become an expected component of preflight briefings, the filing of flight plans and for staying connected in the cabin. Within urban areas, telecommunications networks are as ubiquitous as water, although we accept that performance is limited by altitude.

But the reality is entirely different when flying in remote regions of North America, where coverage is patchy and broadband networks are akin to drinking through a straw.

Phil Lightstone

Contributor Phil Lightstone is a Canadian-based writer and podcaster, and flies a Rockwell 114 Commander.