If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#11
|
|||
|
|||
SPOT messenger
Darryl Ramm wrote:
And to Martin's earlier comment, OK etc. does not always take 20 minutes to send, it might take up to that (or may never successfully send) but you can see that messages often go out quicker than this. I'm missing the point of the argument used, I use tracking becasue it is convenient and I don't want to press buttons, not because I think a track position report is more likely to get out than an OK report. I also use tracking for these reasons. I do think an OK messages will get out more reliably a tracking message, because OK messages have a 20 minute window to get out, versus the 10 minute window of the tracking messages. All my OK messages have been sent, but an ocasional tracking message isn't, sometimes two in a row. -- Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA * Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly * Updated! "Transponders in Sailplanes" http://tinyurl.com/y739x4 * New Jan '08 - sections on Mode S, TPAS, ADS-B, Flarm, more * "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org |
#12
|
|||
|
|||
SPOT messenger
On May 15, 8:19 am, "Robert M. Gary" wrote:
On May 14, 11:34 pm, Darryl Ramm wrote: On May 14, 4:37 pm, "Matt Herron Jr." wrote: The SPOT does not "wait for an opening" to talk to Globalstar, it has no idea where the Globalstar satelites are, it just sends blind, then retransmits the same message later. It's pure simplex, there is no "carrier detect", no handshake, no ACK. Nothing. The Globalstar satellites are just dumb one-way bent pipe repeaters. Sometime being simple is a beautiful thing. I always assumed the 20 minute thing was put into the SPOT system because sat time is expensive. I've got to be believe the 20 mins is a wild design guess on their part. The practical transmit reliability with SPOT across their intended users has got to be dominated by environmental factors, device antenna direction, obstructions (trees, mountains, etc. for hikers, car roofs) and finally satellite position. Modeling the number and durations between retransmit attempts to deal with these factors would be very difficult. You'd start with a simplified model that just factored satellite coverage and message collision probabilities and guess from there. You want to cap retransmits to reduce battery consumption and just excess further collisions. For 911 it keeps retransmitting much longer AFAIK. And the only "cost" for the sat time is the risk of further message collisions. Darryl |
#13
|
|||
|
|||
SPOT messenger
On May 15, 9:05*am, Eric Greenwell wrote:
Robert M. Gary wrote: I did and I love it! I'm just waiting for them to create a public side to findmespot.com so I can share my tracks. Right now you have to give out the admin password to your account (which includes your credit card on file, etc) for people to see your tracks. They've done that already, and it works well. Take another look at the site to see how you can create public pages. Thanks to all for posting. I'm gathering responses to several posts here. First, on the sharing option, they say it's a beta and in my experience (and that of three people who tried it on various computers) it does not work. While it may work some of the time, that's not good enough for the S&R application, so I've had to share my account password with my backup people. Second on Eric's post re zipper on top vs. the bottom (#13 in this thread), I emailed Allen Silver and, not surprisingly, there is a logic to the zipper location. Here's his response: "There actually is a reason why I mounted it on the bottom. One is to protect it from getting snagged and accidentally opened and the other is about gravity. If you left the snap that secures the zipper to the pack undone and you had to bailout the zipper could unzip during the g forces of opening. Not likely to occur, but you know about Murphy's Law." Thanks for the posts on vertical vs. horizontal. I'll have to try it in the SMAK PAK and see what happens. Martin WT |
#14
|
|||
|
|||
SPOT messenger
On May 24, 8:43*am, wrote:
On May 15, 9:05*am, Eric Greenwell wrote: Robert M. Gary wrote: I did and I love it! I'm just waiting for them to create a public side to findmespot.com so I can share my tracks. Right now you have to give out the admin password to your account (which includes your credit card on file, etc) for people to see your tracks. They've done that already, and it works well. Take another look at the site to see how you can create public pages. Thanks to all for posting. I'm gathering responses to several posts here. First, on the sharing option, they say it's a beta and in my experience (and that of three people who tried it on various computers) it does not work. While it may work some of the time, that's not good enough for the S&R application, so I've had to share my account password with my backup people. Second on Eric's post re zipper on top vs. the bottom (#13 in this thread), I emailed Allen Silver and, not surprisingly, there is a logic to the zipper location. Here's his response: "There actually is a reason why I mounted it on the bottom. One is to protect it from getting snagged and accidentally opened and the other is about gravity. If you left the snap that secures the zipper to the pack undone and you had to bailout the zipper could unzip during the g forces of opening. Not likely to occur, but you know about Murphy's Law." Thanks for the posts on vertical vs. horizontal. I'll have to try it in the SMAK PAK and see what happens. Martin WT I don't have any problems with the share page, it is working the same as the account page, and much more intuitive. the only issue with it is that currently it only displays the last 24 hours, so if you need to track someone longer you need to logon to their account. Ramy |
#15
|
|||
|
|||
SPOT messenger
Hi,
I've been selling a lot of SPOT units and I'm very curious about the SMAK pak from Allen Silver. Can you please send me contact information. Does he have a web site? Thank you, Paul Remde wrote in message ... On May 15, 9:05 am, Eric Greenwell wrote: Robert M. Gary wrote: I did and I love it! I'm just waiting for them to create a public side to findmespot.com so I can share my tracks. Right now you have to give out the admin password to your account (which includes your credit card on file, etc) for people to see your tracks. They've done that already, and it works well. Take another look at the site to see how you can create public pages. Thanks to all for posting. I'm gathering responses to several posts here. First, on the sharing option, they say it's a beta and in my experience (and that of three people who tried it on various computers) it does not work. While it may work some of the time, that's not good enough for the S&R application, so I've had to share my account password with my backup people. Second on Eric's post re zipper on top vs. the bottom (#13 in this thread), I emailed Allen Silver and, not surprisingly, there is a logic to the zipper location. Here's his response: "There actually is a reason why I mounted it on the bottom. One is to protect it from getting snagged and accidentally opened and the other is about gravity. If you left the snap that secures the zipper to the pack undone and you had to bailout the zipper could unzip during the g forces of opening. Not likely to occur, but you know about Murphy's Law." Thanks for the posts on vertical vs. horizontal. I'll have to try it in the SMAK PAK and see what happens. Martin WT |
#16
|
|||
|
|||
SPOT messenger
On May 31, 9:28 pm, "Paul Remde" wrote:
Hi, I've been selling a lot of SPOT units and I'm very curious about the SMAK pak from Allen Silver. Can you please send me contact information. Does he have a web site? Thank you, Paul Remde http://www.silverparachutes.com/ |
#17
|
|||
|
|||
SPOT messenger
Hi,
Thanks for the link to the SMAK Pak. It looks very nice. If pilots want a simpler option for holding the SPOT only. I just placed an order to Para-Phernalia (makers of Softie parachutes) for a batch of their "Pocket for PLB" (personal locator beacon) pouches - made to match the dimensions of the spot. I will stock them in the orange color (to match the SPOT) but I can also get them in colors to match your parachute. They sell for $50. Good Soaring, Paul Remde Cumulus Soaring, Inc. http://www.cumulus-soaring.com "sisu1a" wrote in message ... On May 31, 9:28 pm, "Paul Remde" wrote: Hi, I've been selling a lot of SPOT units and I'm very curious about the SMAK pak from Allen Silver. Can you please send me contact information. Does he have a web site? Thank you, Paul Remde http://www.silverparachutes.com/ |
#18
|
|||
|
|||
SPOT messenger
I had a 7 hours flight last Saturday in Nevada, during which my spot
was tracking normally, with the occasional missing transmissions here and there. However there was a period of one hour with no track reports. The only thing I can tell which was different from tthe rest of the flight is that I was flying under solid overcast and OD during this period, once I got back to the sun the tracking resumed. Any thoughts if this was just coincidence or the clouds blocked the transmissions? In any case, I'f affraid that currently it is not safe to assume that a glider will be within 10 minutes distance of the last track, can be much longer. Ramy On Jun 1, 5:55*am, "Paul Remde" wrote: Hi, Thanks for the link to the SMAK Pak. *It looks very nice. If pilots want a simpler option for holding theSPOTonly. *I just placed an order to Para-Phernalia (makers of Softie parachutes) for a batch of their "Pocket for PLB" (personal locator beacon) pouches - made to match the dimensions of thespot. *I will stock them in the orange color (to match theSPOT) but I can also get them in colors to match your parachute. *They sell for $50. Good Soaring, Paul Remde Cumulus Soaring, Inc.http://www.cumulus-soaring.com "sisu1a" wrote in message ... On May 31, 9:28 pm, "Paul Remde" wrote: Hi, I've been selling a lot ofSPOTunits and I'm very curious about the SMAK pak from Allen Silver. Can you please send me contact information. *Does he have a web site? Thank you, Paul Remde http://www.silverparachutes.com/- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - |
#19
|
|||
|
|||
SPOT messenger
Hi Paul
Spot does not attach to glider straps because the Spot clip is too small and I thank you Paul for making available the pouch. I have had a Spot for about a month now and have used it on most flights. It mostly works well but as with most items not designed for aviation it is not perfect for that application. Soaring from Parowan to Minden today the girls were monitoring my flight using the tracking mode and well into the flight the received tracks, instead of being close to real time, stopped coming for an hour and the girls started to worry. About 1 hour later the system caught up and the missing tracks appeared. Regardless the Spot is a very useful device and I will not fly without it. I am sure the bugs will be worked out. Dave |
#20
|
|||
|
|||
SPOT messenger
On Jun 16, 3:36*pm, Ramy wrote:
I had a 7 hours flight last Saturday in Nevada, during which my spot was tracking normally, with the occasional missing transmissions here and there. However there was a period of one hour with no track reports. The only thing I can tell which was different from tthe rest of the flight is that I was flying under solid overcast and OD during this period, once I got back to the sun the tracking resumed. Any thoughts if this was just coincidence or the clouds blocked the transmissions? In any case, I'f affraid that currently it is not safe to assume that a glider will be within 10 minutes distance of the last track, can be much longer. Ramy On Jun 1, 5:55*am, "Paul Remde" wrote: Hi, Thanks for the link to the SMAK Pak. *It looks very nice. If pilots want a simpler option for holding theSPOTonly. *I just placed an order to Para-Phernalia (makers of Softie parachutes) for a batch of their "Pocket for PLB" (personal locator beacon) pouches - made to match the dimensions of thespot. *I will stock them in the orange color (to match theSPOT) but I can also get them in colors to match your parachute. *They sell for $50. Good Soaring, Paul Remde Cumulus Soaring, Inc.http://www.cumulus-soaring.com "sisu1a" wrote in message ... On May 31, 9:28 pm, "Paul Remde" wrote: Hi, I've been selling a lot ofSPOTunits and I'm very curious about the SMAK pak from Allen Silver. Can you please send me contact information. *Does he have a web site? Thank you, Paul Remde http://www.silverparachutes.com/-Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Ramy Spot uses the Globalstar L-Band simplex links. L-band is relatively immune to rain attenuation, rain/water droplets suspended in storm clouds are likely the worse case scenario. A guess for bad rain attenuation might be something like only a dB or so at L-band. The GPS signals are in the same frequency bands and will have similar attenuation. So my first guess is clouds, even storm clouds are not likely to be the issue. So the next question is did anybody else flying in the genral area have the same problem? I was flying in the Mendocinos at the same time and had no SPOT problems but that is probably far enough away to not count, except to exclude more systemic problems. The next question is did the unit have a full view of the sky or are you still mounting it on your parachute harness? I'm not sure if this is on your shoulder - in which case your head (hopefully opaque at L-band :-) ), RF opaque parts of the fuselage/canopy frame area, etc. will be obscuring lots of the sky, or vertical on your harness in which case far more of the sky will likely be obscured. Both of these will affect coverage as Global star satellites fly into and out of the now fairly restricted sky view or as you turn the direction of the obscured antenna to bring Globalstar or GPS satellites into view. I think SPOT is fantastic, fly with one all the time in SPOTcast mode, but I'm not giving up on my 406MHz PLB on my parachute harness. Darryl |
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
See SPOT run... | [email protected] | Soaring | 11 | April 30th 08 08:57 PM |
SPOT Satellite Messenger | [email protected] | Soaring | 9 | January 3rd 08 06:30 PM |
SPOT Satellite Messenger | Marc Ramsey[_2_] | Soaring | 7 | October 3rd 07 10:30 PM |
Lawrence Sperry's Messenger biplane landing in front of the US Capitol Building, Washington DC | Dave Kearton | Aviation Photos | 1 | May 10th 07 07:48 AM |
Dont shoot the messenger | Jeff | Piloting | 5 | February 11th 04 09:12 AM |