Soaring with SPOT

Messenger, that is...

OK, so I've just been driving with it recently. But I have kinda
figured it out, and have also set up an email filter to generate a
much more useful email or text message position report. What follows
will be most useful for someone who already has one of these, but it
may also give you a good reason to buy one.

If you have a SPOT, send me an email with the ESN number of your SPOT
and the configuration information I describe below, and I'll add it to
my email filter to process your position reports. I'll reply with the
email address to add to your profile.

I bought the full support package at $150/yr on top of the initial
purchase price of $150. This gives me the live tracking or
SPOTcasting option. I will be using this on every flight I make, as
it will provide my wife and friends with a position report every 10
minutes of my flight. If, for some reason, I fail to return home,
this track will provide a good starting point for a search if my ELT
fails to trigger.

I also want to use it to send back an occassional position report
(SPOTcheck) using the 'OK' button. This sends an email or TXT message
to a list of email addresses and mobile phone addresses.
Unfortunately, the unit must be turned off and on again to switch from
SPOTcasting to sending a SPOTcheck. Here's the process I've worked
out over the last few days of driving to and from work:

At the start of the trip, turn on the unit, then press and hold OK
until it's LED goes out after about 5 seconds. Now, a position report
will be transmitted every 10 minutes and available on the website. To
send a SPOTcheck position report:

Press and hold ON/OFF button for 5 seconds to turn off power.

Wait 5 seconds, then press ON/OFF for a second and verify power LED
flashes every 3 seconds.

Tap OK button, then verify it begins to flash in unison with the power
LED. I have observed that typically within less than a minute, the OK
LED will illuminate solid for about 5 seconds to indicate the position
report is being transmitted to the satellite. Within seconds, my
mobile phone will beep to indicate a new TXT message.

Wait 5-10 seconds after the above 'solid green' event, or if too busy
to watch the LEDs, wait 5 minutes after tapping OK - perhaps setting a
countdown timer. Then press and hold ON/OFF for 5 seconds to turn off
power again.

Wait 5 seconds, then power on by pressing ON/OFF for a second or two.

Wait 5 seconds, then press and hold OK until LED goes out after 5
seconds or so. The unit is now back in SPOTcasting mode.

A bit of a pain, but overall a fairly simple process that one would do
every hour or two during a flight. The crew is now free of the radio
and only needs to have a mobile phone handy to receive position
reports. If the crew has internet access, then the SPOTcheck is
unnecessary, as the SPOTcast provides all that's needed.

The next 'problem' is that the TXT message sent to the mobile phone is
not very useful for a crew without a map handy. It looks like this on
my mobile phone screen:

Fr:noreply@findme
spot.com
((1/1)) Tom's
doing OK.
Latitude: 39.0721
Longitude: -
104.7616
Dec 30,8:32pm

The email message is a bit more user friendly, but still a bit
cryptic. At least it includes a hyperlink to a google map. This is
one from a drive I took today:

from
to
date Dec 30, 2007 1:31 PM
subject OK Unit Number: 0-9999999


Tom's doing OK.
Unit Number: 0-7349736
Latitude: 39.0721
Longitude: -104.7616
Nearest Town from unit Location: Unknown
Distance to the nearest town: Unknown
Time in GMT the message was sent: 12/30/2007 20:32:40
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...UTF8&z=12&om=1


To improve on this, I created an email filter to process the above
message so it now looks like this as an email or TXT message:

from SPOT Check
to ,
,
date Dec 30, 2007 1:32 PM
subject SPOT OK: 5Z

At 12/30/2007 20:32:40 UTC
39:4.326N 104:45.696W
12 sm @ 211 From Kelly
4 sm @ 172 From Green Roof Strip


The email filter processes a configuration file that looks like this
one I set up for my daily commute to work.
ID=5Z
TZ=MDT


HPT=39:13.358N,104:38.510W,Kelly
WPT=39:02.138N,104:50.629W,Aardvark
WPT=39:14.999N,104:53.449W,Perry Park
WPT=38:56.982N,104:34.365W,Meadow Lake
WPT=39:07.884N,104:46.285W,Green Roof Strip
WPT=38:58.183N,104:49.322W,USAF Academy

The script will accept any number of email addresses and waypoints.
The difference between WPT (WayPoinT) and HPT (HomePoinT) is that I
display distance and bearing from all HPTs, but on WPTs, it only
displays the nearest. So when I do actually go fly, I'll set up a
dozen or so WPTs about 50-100 miles apart, which will provide a decent
position grid for my wife to use. I haven't yet implemented the time
zone, so all times are UTC or ZULU. If it was just for me, I'd hard
code US/Mountain time, but if there's more than just a few subscribers
to my translation service, I'll have to come up with a set of rules.

If the US contest committee allows this, I would likely configure all
the turnpoints so the crew could get a TXT message with a very easy to
interpret position report while I'm flying at a contest.

I will continue to also provide feedback to the folks at SPOT so they
can improve and enhance their website and customer services. But in
the meantime, I think this is a really good start.

If I get more than a handful of responses for the translation service,
I'll also add a way to automate the configurations, so you will be
able to make changes with immediate response instead of waiting for me
to do it.

-Tom

If you didn't know before, you now know that Tom works with computers.

I have not (yet?) subscribed to "spotcasting" for the reason Tom is
powering off and on. Didn't find the text sent to the phone to be as
unusable as an intermittent cell phone conversation, but in my test
neither the text nor the e-mail had the name of the nearest place.
In my messages I've tried to improve on what's sent, for example an OK
from the front yard:

JS SPOT checking in OK. If you receive this multiple times from the
same location, I've landed.
Unit Number: 0-7356844
Latitude: 35.1515
Longitude: -118.5107
Nearest Town from unit Location: Unknown
Distance to the nearest town: Unknown
Time in GMT the message was sent: 12/28/2007 18:56:07
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...UTF8&z=12&om=1

Since there's no altitude info, I added the multiple message bit.
The HELP message is similar:

JS SPOT HELP message. Will try to contact by phone. If followed by an
OK then another HELP, please send help ASAP.

Did the HELP/OK/HELP for emergency (not worthy of Search and Rescue)
use, as we don't yet know if multiple outgoing messages are possible
from one press of a message button or if a button will stick.

Taking the device to Australia for some flying in a few days.
Also trying a mount to the parachute shoulder strap to see if it's
useful. My near-obsolete P-ELT's battery is more than 2 years overdue
anyway, so the location is available.
Jim

Neat email hack Tom. My personal interest is really about the tracking
feature and I'm unlikely to want to also send messages, except for a
911 message, but I'll see as I play more.

If people are interested I posted some stuff on SPOT on my blog at
http://www.darrylramm.com/2008/01/03...lite-messenger. Nothing
any deeper than already talked about on r.a.s., except you can see
life size screen shots of the web UI that SPOT provides for showing
tracked points on maps.

One thing that amused me from a few days ago and is shown on the maps
on my blog, is after a very short flight when I'd turned the SPOT
messenger on just to see if it worked but forgot to turn it off again
and drove home with it on the passenger seat of my SUV. It seemed to
work fairly well just sitting on the seat receiving GPS signals and
transmitting back via the Globalstar satellites, presumably through
the closed sunroof. No deep meaning there, just a throw away
observation that I would not have expected it to do as well as it did.

Jim, enjoy Australia and playing in the Nimbus.

Darryl


On Dec 30 2007, 11:54 pm, JS wrote:
If you didn't know before, you now know that Tom works with computers.

I have not (yet?) subscribed to "spotcasting" for the reason Tom is
powering off and on. Didn't find the text sent to the phone to be as
unusable as an intermittent cell phone conversation, but in my test
neither the text nor the e-mail had the name of the nearest place.
In my messages I've tried to improve on what's sent, for example an OK
from the front yard:

JS SPOT checking in OK. If you receive this multiple times from the
same location, I've landed.
Unit Number: 0-7356844
Latitude: 35.1515
Longitude: -118.5107
Nearest Town from unit Location: Unknown
Distance to the nearest town: Unknown
Time in GMT the message was sent: 12/28/2007 18:56:07http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=35.1515,-118.5107&ie...

Since there's no altitude info, I added the multiple message bit.
The HELP message is similar:

JS SPOT HELP message. Will try to contact by phone. If followed by an
OK then another HELP, please send help ASAP.

Did the HELP/OK/HELP for emergency (not worthy of Search and Rescue)
use, as we don't yet know if multiple outgoing messages are possible
from one press of a message button or if a button will stick.

Taking the device to Australia for some flying in a few days.
Also trying a mount to the parachute shoulder strap to see if it's
useful. My near-obsolete P-ELT's battery is more than 2 years overdue
anyway, so the location is available.
Jim

On Jan 3, 4:13 am, "
wrote:
Neat email hack Tom. My personal interest is really about the tracking
feature and I'm unlikely to want to also send messages, except for a
911 message, but I'll see as I play more.

Have you talked to them about being able to get to tracking data in
some automated way?

I could see modifying my email hack to fetch the live track data and
then forward a summary or hourly report to a list of phone numbers.
That would eliminate the need to go through the gymnastics of
switching out of live tracking to send the SPOTcheck and then back to
live mode.

Perhaps we as a community, and maybe power pilots as well should ask
for either a way to get at the data, or have them enhance the web
service to provide these features.

I think there are a lot of people who would like to have live tracking
and a periodic TXT message sent to friends and loved ones.

-Tom

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

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

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