Motorola i290 or i335 GPS Transponder Phone

Motorola makes some no-frills but GPS-enabled phones which make ideal tracking transponders. They are cheap (<$30) and have a good battery lifetime compared to many smartphones (tested running SailTracker for over 15 hours before the battery died). If you don't have a SailTracker supported phone but want to get tracked the Motorola i290 or i335 is ideal.

Motorola i290, left, and Motorola i335

If you plan to acquire a dedicated tracking phone such as the Motorola models listed here you'll need a couple more things to get it working. First, you'll need a service plan. Boost Mobile has a unique plan which allows unlimited internet for $10/month. If the phone is not used for making calls or sending text messages it's a flat $10 fee to run the tracker for one month.

Next, you'll need to install the SailTracker software. This can be done from special installation software via a USB cable, or there is a way to deliver the app over the internet. I've found the second method works inconsistently and sometimes very slowly (the app showed up a day after it was published to the phone) so I prefer to use the USB cable method.

Contact me if you are interested in acquiring a tracking Motorola phone. The cost varies depending on the market, but usually it's not more than $45 for everything, including one month's service plan with Boost Mobile.