Satellite tracking gizmo for safety

[jrenwick]

....
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/gogl ... 447WkP2qUE
....

Right now it says "no data" because I haven't turned the unit on since setting it up (I assume). When we leave for MPJ I'll start it tracking, and we can see how this thing works. Remember it's a beta test, so please cut the SPOT people some slack. If you have any feedback about it, please post here or PM me, and I'll pass it on to them.

Weather isn't allowing me to do any flying this weekend, so I did an experiment in the car instead. The tracking data shows up nicely on the shared page, if you click on the above link. I couldn't figure out how to make it show tracking data from before I set up the page, but tracks sent after the page was set up are there. I'm happy with the feature so far.

[alaskan99669]

Here's the tracking results from the Kenai Poker Run:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/gogl ... ipR203BhYn

It had pretty reliable results up until point #13. That's where I landed at Quartz Creek which does have a 4000' mountain just south of it. Maybe that mountain blocked my signal and SPOT couldn't get it's bearing until I stopped at Nikiski??

[jrenwick]

Nice flight, Corey! Thanks for sharing. I'll be making tracks up there in July, if all goes well!

I hope soon the SPOT software will be able to show tracks from more than 24 hours ago.

John

[alaskan99669]

Spot has expanded it's satellite coverage to include all of Alaska:

Here is what my friends and family saw online from my recent moos hunt:

Spot has also changed the shared pages to show activity in the last 7 days, not just 24 hours.

[pdb]

A friend and I just bought two to use in our respective airplanes. So for they work well through out south central AK and provide protection where cell phones are useless.

The basic service provides three messages which can be sent to an email address and/or sent as a text message to your designated addressees.

1) I am here with lat/lon and link to map. Send this to let your wife or friends know where you are. If you are delayed, they know where you are, know you are OK, and wait. They can see if you are at your destination or somewhere else.

2) I need help. This is not a call to 911 (yet) but your message recipients know where you are and that you need some sort of assistance. (Send duct tape, a new prop, and gear legs.)

3) 911. This is a message sent to the authorities that you need serious help and need it now.

The interface is easy and the unit seems rugged enough.

[jrenwick]

I used my SPOT gizmo throughout my recent trip to Alaska, and posted something about ways to use it here: http://www.cessna170.org/forums/viewtop ... f=5&t=5801.

The SPOT web site lets you download your SPOT messages in a number of ways besides just displaying them on a Google map. One of them is Google Earth format. When I open that file, Google Earth displays this:

If you want to play with this yourself, the file is at http://groups.google.com/group/170s-to-alaska/files at the end of the list.

Pretty cool stuff!

John