"Larry" <noone@home.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9C357E5DA90D9noonehomecom@74.209.131.13...
> "Bob La Londe" <nospam@nospam.no> wrote in
> news:h20701$jjk$1@news.eternal-september.org:
>
>> I was told that Chaperone tracking uses a tower triangulation method
>> that is more accurate than GPS if multiple towers are in range, and
>> will wprl even inside a building unlike GPS. True? Don't know.
>>
>>
>
> No, any cheap GPS is a thousand times more accurate than stupid
> triangulation from sellphone towers, a patchwork system because GPS
> doesn't work inside buildings where it can't see the satellites 16,800
> miles away.

Verizon's location feature uses a combination of "real" GPS and cell tower
location. It's really a "best of both worlds" thing- GPS accuracy outdoors,
and lesser, but better than nothing, accuracy indoors.

>
> If you REALLY care for your son's safety, Spot will give you a spot
> device free just for subscribing to their service. It makes accurate
> fixes to the spot web server you can keep running, if you like, within
> about 3', every 30 minutes, 24/7. No access to spotty-in-the-woods and
> no-service-in-the-backcountry-mountains sellphone service is necessary.
> Spot transmits to INMARSAT low earth orbit satellites passing over its
> position. If you son's group gets into trouble, he simply presses a
> button on the little Spot box to call for help, directly through the
> satellites to Spot, from anywhere on the planet.
>
> http://www.findmespot.com/en/
> I THINK Spot still will give you a Spot device for free. They do
> specials every once in a while, but that's not an issue for you now at
> this late date. Call them and ask them if the free Spot device special
> is still going on. They'll deal in this depression.
>
> Is your son worth $50/year for unlimited service? $7.95/yr is the
> Search and Rescue addon and well worth it, if he is...(c;]
>
> I have friends who own a nice pleasure trawler. We track them on Spot
> whenever they are at sea by simply logging on to their Spot webpage:
>
> http://share.findmespot.com/shared/f...pots.jsp?glId=
> 0utTAiadygIUkT4LIXeoYfKADAn2Dkzos
>
> Poor babies are stuck in Marsh Harbor, a Bahamian resort, on their nice
> trawler yacht. Don't you feel sorry for them?...hee hee. He's
> converting rum into urine by this time a day....a chemical engineer.
>
> AH, HERE IT IS:
> http://www.findmespot.com/freespot/
> Sign up for two years of unlimited Spot service for $99 and the whole
> cost of the Spot satellite system for your pocket is REBATED, making it
> free. $99 is a bargain for the safety of your son and his party.....
>
> Please don't depend on intermittent sellphone service in some big forest
> for your son's ability to call for help. Get Spot free and buy the
> Search and Rescue service for a pittance. You'll know EXACTLY, within
> about 3 ft, of where he is, every time Spot position reports, 24 hours a
> day, 7 days a week. Just tell him to turn it on while they're on the
> move. Go see all the neat stuff it does. It really works
> fantastic...anywhere on the planet!

Seems like a cool service, but it's a backpacking trip- they're not visiting
Indiana Jones' Temple of Doom! Whatever happened to the days when an
"emergency camping kit" was a bottle of water purification tablets, a box of
waterproof matches, and a good old-fashioned flare gun ?

Today, it seems amazing that as a race our ancestors managed to crawl out of
the oceans onto the shore without a GPS in one flipper and a cellphone in
the other!