It has happened, a rider gets thrown and the horse takes off, gets
lost, can't be found days or even weeks later.
What tracker solutions are available that, for example, could be
carried in a saddle bag and activated on some sort of a "where are
you" signal ?
I assume some sort of "service" would be required, probably expensive,
but I would like to gather info anyway.
Free would be nice (-:

RegB wrote:
It has happened, a rider gets thrown and the horse takes off, gets
lost, can't be found days or even weeks later.
What tracker solutions are available that, for example, could be
carried in a saddle bag and activated on some sort of a "where are
you" signal ?
I assume some sort of "service" would be required, probably expensive,
but I would like to gather info anyway.
Free would be nice (-:

Leave a SPOT tracker in the saddlebag.

Any tracking system would have to use satellites or cellular telephone
service, and the latter probably wouldn't be suitable for finding a
horse. Somebody has to pay for them.

Roy Lewallen

On Sun, 14 Feb 2010 08:15:02 -0800 (PST), RegB wrote:

It has happened, a rider gets thrown and the horse takes off, gets
lost, can't be found days or even weeks later.
What tracker solutions are available that, for example, could be
carried in a saddle bag and activated on some sort of a "where are
you" signal ?
I assume some sort of "service" would be required, probably expensive,
but I would like to gather info anyway.
Free would be nice (-:

The Garmin Astro Dog Tracking System might do the trick. It has a multi
mile range, dependent on antenna config and terrain. No monthly.
--
Mike Russell - http://www.curvemeister.com

RegB wrote:
It has happened, a rider gets thrown and the horse takes off, gets
lost, can't be found days or even weeks later.

There was a saddled horse, presumed lying dead for 20 years, found near
San Francisco last month.

I assume some sort of "service" would be required, probably expensive,
but I would like to gather info anyway.

A smartphone with Google Latitude enabled will update it's location
periodically if there is a cellular signal. If the phone has GPS, the
position is very accurate.

Hmmm... leave the cellphone in a saddlebag so you can find the horse, or in
your pocket so you can call for help...

http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

wrote:
A smartphone with Google Latitude enabled will update it's location
periodically if there is a cellular signal. If the phone has GPS, the
position is very accurate.

The location provided by google Latitude is very accurate, but the
"history", which I thought might be interesting for following your lost
horse, is a different thing altogether. It seems not to use the GPS in my
Blackberry, and uses the rather poor cellular tower locations of a non-GPS
phone. The locations are off by miles from where I have been since my
earlier posting.

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

writes:
A smartphone with Google Latitude enabled will update it's location
periodically if there is a cellular signal. If the phone has GPS, the
position is very accurate.

I only see accurate locations reported on my HTC G1 "googlephone" when
the phone user looks at the map on the phone. That seems to power up
the GPS and latitude defaults to the GPS if it is powered up. At all
other times the phone seems to default to cell tower locations.

There are other programs I've seen that appear to let a remote user get
an accurate GPS position for the purpose of recovering a stolen phone.
That would probably be a better choice than Google lattitude.

An added hack might be to mount the cell phone with the camera facing
forward. Then an app could take a picture too. That might help by
showing some distinctive landmarks in the distance.

-wolfgang
--
Wolfgang S. Rupprecht
If the airwaves belong to the public why does the public only get 3
non-overlapping WIFI channels?

Wolfgang S. Rupprecht wrote:

writes:
A smartphone with Google Latitude enabled will update it's location
periodically if there is a cellular signal. If the phone has GPS, the
position is very accurate.

I only see accurate locations reported on my HTC G1 "googlephone" when
the phone user looks at the map on the phone. That seems to power up
the GPS and latitude defaults to the GPS if it is powered up. At all
other times the phone seems to default to cell tower locations.

Mine seems to be very accurate, but might also be influenced by the Bold's
WiFi connection, and not the GPS, as I thought.

And that is the case:
http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=136647
"Background updating will only use cell ID or WiFi location detection
depending on your device. GPS will not be used in the background to
preserve battery life."

In my area, that would be useless for horse locating.

http://www.blackberrysoftwarelist.net/Blackberry/Software/blackberry-GPS-software.aspx
pile of "GPS" apps.

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

Hi,
Why not use an EPIRB?

They make them small and light for hikers, bikers, etc.

Cheers
Oliver Fleming

"RegB" wrote in message
...
It has happened, a rider gets thrown and the horse takes off, gets
lost, can't be found days or even weeks later.
What tracker solutions are available that, for example, could be
carried in a saddle bag and activated on some sort of a "where are
you" signal ?
I assume some sort of "service" would be required, probably expensive,
but I would like to gather info anyway.
Free would be nice (-:

wrote:
Wolfgang S. Rupprecht wrote:

writes:
A smartphone with Google Latitude enabled will update it's location
periodically if there is a cellular signal. If the phone has GPS, the
position is very accurate.

I only see accurate locations reported on my HTC G1 "googlephone" when
the phone user looks at the map on the phone. That seems to power up
the GPS and latitude defaults to the GPS if it is powered up. At all
other times the phone seems to default to cell tower locations.

Of course, the answer is to leave Google Maps in the foreground.
I made a trip yesterday with Google Maps on the display, instead of in the
background.
I usually leave it in the background so it won't constantly be fetching
map tiles...

The resulting latitude history map looks very accurate. The spots are
obviously not cell locations. I can tell by the time stamps when I had
Google in the foreground verses background, and it exposes lack of cellular
coverage along the route.

http://www.google.com/latitude/apps/history

Foreground won't work for my idea of finding a lost family member, but it
could work for horse trails, and provide a KML to review your track in
Google Earth.

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

Oliver Fleming schrieb:
Hi,
Why not use an EPIRB?

They make them small and light for hikers, bikers, etc.

Hello,

an EPIRB should only be activated in case of emergency.

But how do you tell the horse to activate the EPIRB in the saddlebag? ;-)

Bye