I always like this topic, because it reveals a lot about the persons commenting about it.
My own story? I received a SPOT as a present, but because I usually hiked in heavily wooded areas, the thing kept giving off bad readins, thus, scaring the people who were trying to 'monitor" me. In a fit of frustration, I threw the thing across the room and it landed -- by luck -- in the garbage. I totally forgot about doing this, thus, I did not take the battery out....several months later, a bunch of distress signals were sent out to my designated 'watchers', and I got a bunch of calls from alarmed friends.
Uh, I guess that was the day the spot was being crushed at the landfill. ooops.
My own take on the issue is that I have had extensive 'survival' training thanks to military commandos in my life, so needless to say "ultralight" is a bad word in the household (always be prepared for the worst, and you will usually be pleasantly surprised, otherwise)
