[Steve Roberts added a comment on my recent press release posting about the Nav-Tracker service from Paradox and EMS Satamatics. With Steve's permission, Navagear will publish his comments in full here, as a stand-alone blog post.
See, if anybody is qualified to argue for a "home-brewed" alternative to commercial vehicle security, tracking, and monitoring services, it would be Steve Roberts. He was doing this with his bicycle back when LoJack was a pretty neat idea that might or might not catch on. Read on to see what he had to say about Nav-Tracker. —Tim]
Cool tracker tech there, though it is worth appending the fact that there is a free amateur-radio alternative that works well when cruising within range of shore stations (it is not satellite-based, although there is some HF capability that is fiddly but useful in a pinch).
It is called APRS, and is a flavor of packet radio that transmits position reports at any specified interval (with minimal provision for added telemetry). Three or four sites now exist to display the resulting track in real-time on Google maps… here is a piece of the track from my cruise last fall, with the red dots indicating actual reports that made it and were forwarded on to a server in Finland:
[Click to see full size.]
And this image shows the paths of reports that were heard during one afternoon in the San Juans:
For local cruising on a budget, a little $250 tracker (or cheaper homebrew alternative) just works with no subscription fees. One must be a licensed amateur radio operator, however (tech class is sufficient). There is no added monitoring comparable to the geo-fence or Nav-Tracker alarm features, of course… this is completely open-loop from a security perspective. Still useful, though.
Cheers,
Steve (N4RVE)
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
On my next yacht I plan to build my own system. I don’t want to have to deal with some bill when I’m cruising up and down the coast. I’m tired of companies nickel and diming me for monthly fees. I would just like to pay for a product and be done with it. Also I don’t want have to deal with tech support when I’m off shore. I never want to hear “oh just bring it in and will fix it right away.” when your thousands miles away.
{ 1 trackback }