UKC

Anyone seen/used one of these? Mentioned in latest "Trail". Could be useful

http://www.adventuretradingpost.co.uk/

In reply to nonymouse: ha ha ha ha ha . . .

In reply to nonymouse:

Trail approved it? Well that settles it for me then...

In reply to KeithW: For locating all the people who tried to follow their directions off the Ben, presumably . . .

In reply to nonymouse:

I think you've mis-spelled that magazine's name. It should be spelled T-R-O-L-L.

T.

In reply to nonymouse: Even got a 9-11 button so I can keep up on the latest truth!

In reply to woolsack:

You don't need one; they always know where you are.

In reply to nonymouse:

I remember when one of the ABerdeen University folk took a minibus downtown, only the minibus happened to have a transponder for the diving clubs RIB in it. I was bar hopping on union street and remember looking up at the night sky and seeing this fecking great yellow coastguard helichopper making grids around the harbour area until the hunreds of polis on the ground were directed to the transponder in the back of the minibus.

Can just see this peice of kit making you lots of friends in a similar sort of way.

In reply to nonymouse: Hark!, I hear an echo of hooves.....

In reply to nonymouse:

Is this licensed for UK land use?

Don't assume.

In reply to nonymouse: 0/10 try harder

In reply to Jim Fraser:

as I said on another thread, there is a discussion somewhere where someone made the assertion "It doesn't use public airwaves so it doesn't need a licence" !!!!

maybe it is the first device to use subspace radio?

In reply to Jim Fraser:

just emailed the shop to inquire about licencing legislation re this device

In reply to Jim Fraser:

Looks like a GPS+satphone type device, so not the fabled locator beacon of threads gone by?

Not sure that the service is sufficiently comprehensive to tempt me - I was hoping that it would include someone to do the walk/climb for me to ensure my complete safety, perhaps sending back some images to my pc so I can follow my progress through the hills.

I really only posted this because I thought it could be useful for solo walkers especially in areas where there is no mobile 'phone coverage.

In reply to hutchm:

I had this idea a few yers back. I envisaged providing tactile feedback to the feet and hands via gloves and socks which would connect to tattooed interfaces so you could really feel you were with Julia Bradbury

In reply to nonymouse: They might also be really useful to other outdoor users who venture out on there own, perhaps horse riders?

In reply to Jim Fraser:

>

The web page linked by the OP does state that the device is: "Approved by Ofcom for use in British hills." There's a bit more information about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalstar#SPOT_Inc.

It uses a GPS receiver together with a Globalstar satellite telephone-based simplex data transmission device. You have to sign up to a sat phone airtime contract for the data messages it sends (as mentioned in smallish print on the web page, bottom right). So it'll be legal wherever sat phones are legal.

So it's not an EPIRB, but it does seem to have most of the same drawbacks of an EPIRB, as discussed at length in this thread: http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=272218 In particular, if you press the "999" or "Help" button, the message it sends is simply "Help!", with a location. Nothing to indicate the nature of the emergency, which could be anything from someone being lost to multiple seriously injured casualities. How do the emergency services know what to send?

It also seems a bit daft to have a GPS receiver which can't tell you where you are. Although I suppose you could get it to send "OK" or tracking e-mails to your own e-mail address, which you could then pick up on your laptop via a separate sat phone and use to locate yourself using Google Maps. Of course, Google Maps is well-known for its detailed mapping of the sort of remote areas where you can't get mobile coverage. And everyone takes their laptop with them out on the hills these days, don't they? Hang on, though: if you have a separate sat phone you could buy a GPS receiver (for less than £150 and with no airtime contract) so that when you telephone the appropriate emergency service you can tell them where you are as well as what's actually amiss.

In my opinion it's crock. The fact that Trail magazine have allegedly endorsed it enthusiastically merely reinfiorces this view.

(And did you spot the bit on the Wikipedia page I linked about the possibility of the Globalstar system failing completely this year?)