I'm guessing there's an app that lets someone track me (probably put over Google Earth) if I give them permission but I can't find it anywhere. Anyone have an app like this?
Yes a quick way to shut it off would be nice when one decides to go fishing and not tell her LOL!
As an aside I personally would never turn this on:)
Remember the song "I got this feeling somebody's watching me"??
I know there are several tracking apps available. I have friends with teenaged kids that use them.
But the other 5 days, I used the SPOT, via satellite. and then an email, to let my wife know ( primary message is, I am OK.)
The other message was, Animal Down, I will be home soon.. I would send the OK message every evening when I returned to camp. ONe can send as many OKs as needed.
The other message, is the SOS, if you get injured and really need help. This message, along with your exact location and a Google Picture of your location is broadcasted to the local authorities.
The SPOT does have a "tracking" foot print on a Google Earth map, capability but I did not use it.
I purchased the unit , on sale, for 75$. The cost per year is 149$ to use the system
Hope this helps. Paul
No thank you.
What Paul said, the Spot is about the most economical and literally can be used anywhere on the planet, not just where you have cell coverage. I'm looking at a couple other systems with more capabilities, but my understanding, cost effective and filling the need.... Spot is hard to beat.
It is probably a good idea that you not install one of these tracking apps on your phone....
The old "I am just going out to shoot Lava Leopards" excuse may not cut it any longer. :)
It also has a "SOS" button that would instantly locate you and dispatch rescue if needed.
The places I go, phones are useless.
Best of Luck, Jeff
Well worth the $9 a month..
Woods Walker, You may not care about your safety but I bet your wife and kids do. If you fall out of a tree or somehow get hurt tell me you wouldn't want a phone to call for help? No one is saying that you need to be surfing the net on it while you're hunting, i don't, I just want it for safety reasons.
Still, I'd rather die in a jam than be tracked while I'm fine. There's something about being trackable that kills the satisfaction I get from wanderlust.
Is it a risk? Sure. But when my time comes I'd FAR rather it be in the woods doing something I love than rotting away in a nursing home or dying from cancer like I watched my parents do.
I understand that these are tools and that's fine. But one of the reasons why I go into the woods in the first place is to get away from the tools that dominate my daily life.
Please understand that for me, the use and presence of tech gadgets like this TAKE AWAY from my enjoyment of the hunt and NOT enhance it. If I have to carry and use all that stuff I'd rather stay home.
After loosing a good friend to Cancer and seeing what his family is going through it puts me in a different perspective from their shoes. They have anger which is normal, can you imagine how much anger they would have if it could have been prevented and he choose not to do anything about it?
With the ability (in pocket) to gain assistance if injured, it seems pretty logical to have it and use it if needed. I tend to look at it from the perspective of my wife and family...pretty selfish of me to insist on no forms of electronic communication (again, in pocket) if it means I die where I might otherwise live. Maybe I'm okay with the chances...maybe they are not and they are the ones who pay the price if I am unlucky that day.
I'm not interested in being tracked constantly while hunting. No way. I do believe in having some way of alerting people if I get hurt. My phone will suffice around here. A PLB or satellite phone is my choice in the backcountry.
My cousin drowned in a duck hunting accident 3 years ago. We searched through the night, based on his truck location, suspected hunt location, and his last cell phone "ping".
After a full night of searching (several boats and a plane with some sort of heat imaging equipment), his layout boat was found partially submerged 1 mile from the cell phone "ping", and dragging began.
He and his hunting partner were then found tangled in the decoys, submerged, about a quarter mile below the boat
I don't believe a SPOT would have saved them, by any means. But we might have had a quicker resolution with more exact location. And from being there, the long afternoon and night of searching, morning after of dragging, etc, put the family through even more hell
Bake
Got an InReach this last season. Wonderful tool and I can get an updated weather report from my gf when I request it.
That being said, I use the SPOT to send a "here I am" message once a day to relatives who (say they) care about me.
A little off-topic, but I like the following line by a stand-up comic: "I carry a combination GPS locator/lie detector. It's called a wedding ring!"
I know that I hunt alone a lot and am really thinking about trying this.
Does anyone have any experience with the Rhino gps units?
I take it you have not been married for very long?
Bad ass mountian men.
Back in the day o Jim Bridger would return from one of his month to year long forays only to discover he is a papa again and sometimes find out he wasn't married, she passed in child birth. He quickly found anther to manage the fort and off he go again keeping track of himself all the while. Hoping for the best when he returned. He went thru 4 or 5 "full time women" some say more. One of his daughters ended up keeping track of him in his latter years. So somebody is keeping track of you! Or wants to keep track of you!
Then a hunter I was guiding had a heart attack and died on the mountain despite my best efforts to save him. Would an SOS with coordinates to nearby EMTs have saved him? I don't know. But I wish I'd had that option.
Then I tore my leg apart when a big sharp spruce staub rammed through my calf and broke off inside when scouting. I managed to make it out and drive myself 60 miles to an ER, but the trauma surgeon told me I was REALLY lucky.
Then a moose tried to kill me and I had a showdown with an angry cougar at 10 feet. No one knew where I was when these events happened. When I tell my wife I'm going on "Black Mountain", I could be anywhere within 6 square miles. My elk hunting area comprises about 500 square miles and no one knows where I am on any given day.
I consider a SPOT as a critical life-saving component of my everyday survival kit, along with a space blanket and quick-clot. Like anything else, it can be overused, ie. . posting your continuous track to Spacebook or texting with the wife about the dog barfing on the carpet. I don't consider a night time "I'm ok" check in with my wife to be over use, especially when I'm out alone for weeks at a time sometimes.
Like any other tool, its all in how you use it.
