With news coverage like this, a GPS could get you killed
A dangerous and misleading story on ABC News is being Dugg today. "GPS: How to Stay Alive in the Wild" has this tagline — Rescuers, Eager to Avoid Long Searches, Urge Wilderness Fans to Pack a GPS With Their Gear.
Reporter Michael Wargo talks to Lt. Jeff Shoup of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Search and Rescue Satellite-aided Tracking operations. Lt. Shoup does a great job of pitching personal locator beacons, but the reporter seems to think he is talking about GPS.
So let me make this clear. A GPS is not a personal locator beacon. A GPS receiver, by itself, will not tell anyone (other than you) where you are. It is a receiver, not a transmitter.
I would hope that, in the next year, GPS manufacturers will be adding personal locator beacons to high-end handheld GPS devices. I expect that these would be a big hit.
We will provide a mobile phone and GPS based personal locator beacon solution later this year. Actually it does much more than that, but that function is part of the solution. We are running a pilot in two weeks in a small area in a small country some place in Europe. It can use Bluetooth GPS modules or integrated GPS. Stay tuned.
We are still in stealh mode, so name etc are “slightly” faked.
That’s great Owen. Please keep me posted.
Mr. Wargo apparently threw that article together at the last minute — deadline journalism I suspect. His article is littered with false facts. First, he claims that two of the three Hood climbers survived last December. In fact, all three died. Second, he indicated none carried “any sort of tracking system.” In fact, they had at least one cell phone, which was used to make an emergency call and locate the position of at elast one climber. Third, he suggests that their decision not to carry a tracking system caused the search to go on for days. Mr. Wargo apparently was unaware that there was a winter storm going on, and dozens of rescuers tried in vain to get to where they KNEW one climber was. Once the weather cleared they walked almost directly to his body.
The problem with that search had little to do with location — it was the weather and how it prevented searchers from getting to these climbers. Mr. Wargo’s article is dangerous and misleading in multiple respects.
Barry,
Thanks for taking the time to add that. There’s a lot of misinformation out there about GPS, partially due to this type of reporting.
Hi all!
I can’t be bothered with anything these days, but shrug. I just don’t have anything to say recently.
Bye
Since this report was discussed in 2007 there has been a product called SPOT Satellite Messenger that has launched on the market is does use satellite and GPS technology to track and can advise rescuers to your location. Yet it was not out during the time this report was made. I think the amount of mis-information that was portrayed by this reporter is very dangerous. I have had large amount of people over the last year asking me for the GPS that sends a distress beacon. Amongst other things even with the SPOT Satellite Messenger or really any GPS Receiver people need to realize harsh weather conditions and your surroundings (high cliffs ,mountain range,etc) or anything that could obstruct a good signal need to be taken into consideration as well.
Interesting to know.