Soaring with SPOT

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, 4:13 am, "
wrote:
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.

What's more interesting is that I've been playing with mine sitting on
the dash of the car. Last night, I forgot to bring it inside after
parking in the garage. This morning, I noticed the LEDs were still
blinking in unison (this means it's still got a good GPS / Globalstar
fix). And sure enough, after getting in to work, I logged in and
found it had been making the track fix uploads.

I'm leaving the SPOT on in track mode 24/7 to see how long the
batteries last. Normally, I bring it inside at night and place it
next to a window.

-Tom

Update:
I have performed a test using Tom's filter, by forwarding my first
test's e-mail. EXCELLENT!
He will be adding the custom message stuff shortly. Thanks, 5Z.
Next tests will be from 7000 miles closer to the database navpoints.
So far I have not subscribed to spotcasting, their every-10-minute
track log. Sending OK messages from the cockpit is easier without
having to restart the device.
Jim

Subject: SPOT OK: JS
Date: Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:23:45 -0600
At 12/28/2007 18:56:07 UTC
35:9.090N 118:30.642W
7356 sm @ 059 From Lake Keepit
7135 sm @ 057 From Kingaroy

5Z wrote:
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