SPOT tracking for 2009 contests?

On Feb 13, 10:30*am, flying_monkey wrote:
On Feb 13, 1:04*pm, Tuno wrote:

I'll be doing an experiment early next week with a cross-country
drive, with the SPOT positioned to have a good view of the sky, and
see what kind of tracking success rate is achieved.

I drove from Philly to Memphis over 2 days with the spot laying on the
dash, and I don't think it missed more than a half dozen reports. *I
also carried it while towing in a Pawnee and got no reports. *??

Ed

Ed

I suspect a common cause of “no reports” is people accidentally having
the SPOT messenger send a single “OK” message instead of putting the
unit in SPOTcast/tracking mode. Done it myself when in a hurry. That
one OK message may or may not get through (even with it's automatic
retransmission). The SPOT Messenger’s user interface with overloading
of button functions is very poorly designed. Hey it's not like
anybody's life might depend on the thing being easy to use...

Another problem may be the SPOT Messenger was in the correct mode but
never received a GPS fix. Check those LEDs are blinking in unison, not
alternately. Was the SPOT messenger close to another GPS receiver/
antenna? Although it is unlikely the local oscillators may interfere.
Without a GPS fix no SPOTcast/tracking reports will be sent, same as
for "OK" messages. BTW "Help" and "911" messages will be sent without
the GPS position if the SPOT messenger could not get one.


Darryl