Soaring with SPOT

I haven't bought one yet but probably will before spring.

My thought has been that it would be highly desireable if we were to
adopt a common meaning to the 3 buttons. I think that the gymnastics
to send an OK in flight is not acceptable and so I would rule that
out. Here would be my proposal:

OK = My cell phone does'nt work here. I have landed out. Please
come get me.

HELP = My cell phone does'nt work here. I have landed out. Please
bring help for difficult retrieve.

911 = My cell phone doesn't work here. Injury or urgency. Send
Helicopter.


- Steve Koerner

On Jan 3, 9:10 am, Steve Koerner wrote:
I haven't bought one yet but probably will before spring.

My thought has been that it would be highly desireable if we were to
adopt a common meaning to the 3 buttons. I think that the gymnastics
to send an OK in flight is not acceptable and so I would rule that
out. Here would be my proposal:

Pressing the 911 button is equivalent to activating a PLB/ELT so the
call center will activate the local emergency services to help you.
So you're left with the OK / HELP buttons for summoning help. The
suggestion by JS above looks like a reasonable compromise.

You do plan to enable live tracking while in flight? I think this is
*THE* reason to own one of these for soaring.

Once you have a unit in hand, you will likely find the 'gymnastics'
for sending a position report are not a very big deal. As long as you
are in some type of radio contact with the crew, it's also not
necessary. But when making long flights, it's a nice tool to have.

I'll be at the SSA convention in ABQ and will be showing off the unit
to anyone interested.

-Tom

I wonder how hard it would be to do a DIY SPOT tracker.
Use a cell phone/Blackberry with built in GPS or one with a blue tooth
GPS connection.

Is there anyway to get it to automatically SMS text message the LAT/
LON [and altitude] every 1 to 10 minutes?

Chris

On Jan 3, 1:23 pm, chris wrote:
I wonder how hard it would be to do a DIY SPOT tracker.
Use a cell phone/Blackberry with built in GPS or one with a blue tooth
GPS connection.

As long as you're soaring in metro areas or along busy roads, that
would work just fine. Check out the thread about analog mobile
service going away in a month (in the USA).

There's also some good Ham radio solutions out there.

The beauty of SPOT is that it's using satellites for both positioning
and uplinking the information, so no need for an ground based
infrastructure. And it's relatively inexpensive.

-Tom

On Jan 3, 4:34 pm, 5Z wrote:
On Jan 3, 1:23 pm, chris wrote:

I wonder how hard it would be to do a DIY SPOT tracker.
Use a cell phone/Blackberry with built in GPS or one with a blue tooth
GPS connection.

As long as you're soaring in metro areas or along busy roads, that
would work just fine. Check out the thread about analog mobile
service going away in a month (in the USA).

There's also some good Ham radio solutions out there.

The beauty of SPOT is that it's using satellites for both positioning
and uplinking the information, so no need for an ground based
infrastructure. And it's relatively inexpensive.

-Tom

I know about the weak cell coverage in many areas. Getting a phone
call through is tough in many places. Getting a rather low bandwidth
SMS text message through is easier in Many places. [how much better I
don't know] I don't know if altitude would help reach more antennas
but it may also help.
Just thinking it might be good enough in some places, though certainly
not as good as satellite coverage.

Chris

Steve Koerner wrote:


911 = My cell phone doesn't work here. Injury or urgency. Send
Helicopter.


Groundwork required: make sure the missus would rather have you than
your 401k.

Helicopters ain't cheap.

Then again, that bit of groundwork is good, anyhow.



Jack