Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

What can I say - my life was saved by my Explorer. I was paragliding in one of the most remote areas of Idaho, the Lost River Range (location of Idaho's tallest mountain, Mt. Borah) when I ascended to an altitude of 11,000ft with winds exceeding 35 mph, and despite my best efforts - including max speedbar, I had gotten blown over the top of King Mountain - worst paragliding fear now realized. Once on the leeward side, I experienced several rotor induced (full) collapses of my wing but somehow recovered from each and eventually landed out far, FAR away from the landing zone due to the strength of the prevailing wind - no one knew where I ended up. The sun was setting when I finally touched down in no-mans land and NO one knew where I had ended up as I was on the wrong side of a very tall mountain range. After an hour and a half of battling the conditions, I finally was on landing approach - flying backwards at this point due to the wind velocity but in spite of this I was not hurt on my landing. I ended up in the middle of a secluded tall sagebrush forest- unhurt and therefore did not want to send a generic evac SOS for obvious reasons (to include a $10k expense for search and rescue helicopter) so I was glad I had a device that could communicate with the outside world in real time - my ability to do a two-way chat with my contacts not only automatically gave them specifics as to my exact location via a Delorme map hyper link, but provided me GREAT peace of mind as I didn't ever feel completely alone or hopeless as I was able to converse, albeit texting. Unlike Spot, with my Delorme Explorer, I was able to contact several people in my contact list and explain my situation and they were able to reply back accordingly and with updates as to my 'rescue' all via satellite as cell phone contact was non-existent. Having said that, my iphone was invaluable due to the Delorme Earthmate app I downloaded - no cell reception required, as the Explorer and smart phone communicate via bluetooth. The smartphone Earthmate app gets all it's pertinent info via the Explorer bluetooth connection such as detailed maps and longitude/latitude and much more. This enabled me to see a map of exactly where I was at looking at my smart phone's bigger and color screen. Just as important, the Earthmate app (free download with Delorme subscription, btw) enabled me to easily and quickly send lengthy text messages through the linked app which cannot be overstated. Though the Explorer has the ability to create texts stand-alone, it takes quite a while if sending lengthy messages (scroll over - click, scroll down - click, scroll up - click, etc.etc), so the messages are created on the smart phone, like a normal text, then sent to the Explorer via bluetooth and then up to the satellites, pretty slick and VERY quick!! My contacts got my messages within 20 seconds on average - about the same on the return message from them. Along with each text message, my contacts received a map link so they knew exactly where to find me. I was so lost that I had to build a fire knowing it would take someone a few hours or even all night to find me, but they finally did thanks to my Explorer sending them real time map info - took a few hours they drove straight to my coordinates. Bottom line, if I hadn't had my Explorer with me (nearly left it in my truck), I can just about guarantee I may not have ever been found - at least not until it was too late as I had no water, unforgiving rocky terrain, no direct roads out and a healthy population of wolves and mountain lions in the area. Thanks Delorme - I will always include you in my adventures from this point forward - cause you just never know when might be painted into an unforgiving corner.