hi - this is Mike Gomley - ref your Spot link. Could you please identify your coments - last Para as TL and not mine ?? it seems like the somewhat negative comments eminate from my review which is not the case. Spot has been near fauiltless - if you check the Spot Web Site and check out China - this is my son's trip. He is to take it back to China in a week or so and we will do the same again to follow his mountain bike exped. And then on to Cuba. We may have another going up to Norway with my other son. watch this space ! Cheers. Mike.
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 Glad the rescue went well anyway, Mike, though I'm a bit disappointed. From the title I was expecting a feelgood news story about a little dog rescuing people on Dartmoor!!! 
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There was a dog present - not involved and called Bailey. Who got close to a ride in the Helo ! Apart fro that he seemed to find the proocedeings a bit boring and it prevented him completing the walk ! Yes - Dartmoor Rescue and SAR were brilliant. Check the Spot WWW for full report...
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Link to Mike's report. Well worth reading. I tried the Abbot's Way Walk way back in the early 80s with a group from Dorset Youth Association, I must have been about 16 at the time. A couple of us copped out at Nun's Cross in rather nasty conditions, but nothing like what you describe! I really should come back and do the whole thing one year!!
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 Hi Mike, apologies for any confusion, I've edited the article so, I think, it's clear. Just shout if you don't think that's the case.
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 Mike, Jon's aware of your request and will no doubt be looking at it shortly 
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Hi Jon / Dave. Just had a look and that is better. Thanks for rapid response. Dave - can you give Donald at Spot a call - he would like to hear how you are getting on with yours. He said he had not heard for you for a while and did I know you - funny you should pop up here !! Cheers for now.
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 'Out damned SPOT!' I just felt like putting a bit of the old bard himself in here!
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| Edited: 07/10/08 17:11 |
 "He was also carrying a Satmap GPS and used this to check the exact GR giving the location details to other people with instructions to contact the emergency services by phone once reception was available" Yes; that brings me back to my continuing bafflement with a GPS receiver that provides no position display. It just seems wrong... My mates' GPS failed to give a fix on Dartmoor on Saturday, but we suspect finger trouble; he didn't know which was the 'on' button, for a start...
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> They do - and it did Do and did what? I can see no mention of a display in the SPOT unit's user guide or specification documents. I may have missed something obvious, though... However, since all the user operations use feedback via a set of blinks and flashes of LEDs, I'm pretty sure it doesn't have an alphanumeric display lurking anywhere that I've missed.
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| Edited: 08/10/08 19:02 |
Yuo were talking about GPS I thought. The Spot is purely a means to send a signal - and it worked very well.
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No, I was talking about SPOT. SPOT contains a GPS receiver. That's how it knows where you are when you send a message; alarm or otherwise. That's why it seems daft not to have even the most rudimentary position display, and you have to carry both a SPOT and a conventional GPS receiver. Sorry if I didn't make myself clear. That's one problem of working in the satellite navigation field; assuming people have the same understanding of 'GPS receiver'.
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Sorry if I didn't make myself clear. That's one problem of working in the satellite navigation field; assuming people have the same understanding of 'GPS receiver'.
Lol, it's amazing how many people think the whole device is the GPS receiver........I tend to refer to it as a "chip" "chipset" or "GPS receiver chipset" to differentiate. I'm presently waiting on delivery of another dual GPS chipset/sim device just a little bigger than a 2p piece that allows live tracking. They're getting small enough now to embed in clothing
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Amazing! Just looks like a bit of a naff keyring to me though! 
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At the moment it's the smallest device in the world. The device uses GPS, GSM and RF technology and has various safety features such as a Panic button or dead-mans handle emergency alarm and movement alerts. and can easily be incorporated into clothing and other apparel.
It's expected to retail at £199.00 (contract free) including the first years mapping licence. - sorry no info yet on exactly what "mapping licence" refers to but I'll be doing a review soon, along with a keyring size GPS datalogger that works with Google Earth.
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I know of the RFID tags revolution, now more and more coming over here, but very much bigger in the States and Canada, where such items are now commonplace in everyday items. They even are placing radio frequency identification tags into packaging on goods and clothing items in stores there. These things just go on and on broadcasting a radio id tag signal for years! There is a big cry out there that this might in some ways constitute a threat to personal liberty and freedom in some cases though of course; which is why the conspiracy theorists of the ultra conservative right do not like the idea at all, and in fact are vehmently opposed to any kind of tracking device. Including those now being built into production line cars and other vehicles as standard in the US, in an attempt to defeat organised car theft rings activities.
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| Edited: 08/10/08 20:58 |
There is a big cry out there that this might in some ways constitute a threat to personal liberty and freedom in some cases though of course; which is why the conspiracy theorists of the ultra conservative right do not like the idea at all, and in fact are vehmently opposed to any kind of tracking device. Including those now being built into production line cars and other vehicles as standard in the US, in an attempt to defeat organised car theft rings activities. Yet only in America do they make women's knickers with embedded GPS tranceivers for husbands to keep track of their spouses!
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No Dave! That's not what they were meaning when you read that they had RFID tags tracking 'Beaver' over there now mate.
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| Edited: 08/10/08 21:02 |
 oooh! a key shaped battery with antenna.
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| Edited: 08/10/08 21:41 |
