The new SPOT tracker arrived today and I will be testing it over the next few weeks, as there were issues with the old one... On the first launch, the rubber membrane used under the plastic casing, shrink wrapped around the buttons, switching itself off.
This was due to rapid descent after balloon burst... basically the air could not get back in to the unit fast enough.
For subsequent launches I drilled a hole in the casing to let the air in and out.
But on later launches, it transmitted fine at the start of the flight, but on return there would be a delay of several hours before it started transmitting co ordinates again.
I'm not sure of the reason for this, and the tech support at SPOT were not very helpful!!
However i'm willing to give it another chance!
Maybe the new SPOT2 model will perform better !!
Or maybe hanging around at 120,000 feet at -60C kind of freaks it out !