SPOT should be ashamed

On Apr 30, 6:30*pm, Marc Ramsey wrote:
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

dont you just need 1 bit to encode "okay" vs "/okay"
alright, 2 bits if you want "okay", "/okay", "fallen can't get up"