5Z wrote:
But there's always hope that a more pilot friendly device can be built
on top of this one by adding a few more buttons or at least changing
the firmware. They will likely charge a bit more for the service as
we'd like to have a better chance of our live track getting received,
so it will need to send more position reports, thus cluttering the
bandwidth, etc...

I looked at implementing a SPOT-like device using this technology years
before SPOT was announced, the main problem (aside from being transmit
only) is that data messages to the Globalstar network contain only a
small number of bits (56?). After one encodes latitude and longitude at
a useful resolution, about all that is left is a few bits to encode
"OK", "HELP", etc. I suspect an upgrade would require more satellites,
something which Globalstar may not be able to afford...

Marc