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#98220 - 06/23/07 03:04 AM Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks to...
hercdoc Offline
Journeyman

Registered: 07/19/05
Posts: 75
Loc: L.A. (Lower Alabama)
Everybody run out and buy a new cell phone with GPS capabilities!Lost woman found


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#98221 - 06/23/07 03:25 AM Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks to... [Re: hercdoc]
Paul810 Offline
Veteran

Registered: 03/02/03
Posts: 1428
Loc: NJ, USA
As of last year I don't think you can buy a cell phone without GPS anymore in the USA. I know when I tried to get one of my old Star Tacs connected to replace one I lost, verizon told me they weren't allowed to turn on a phone that didn't have GPS.

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#98230 - 06/23/07 06:39 AM Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t [Re: Paul810]
Alex Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 03/01/07
Posts: 1034
Loc: -
That's Scary...
Are they watching us?


Edited by Alex (06/23/07 06:42 AM)

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#98237 - 06/23/07 01:55 PM Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t [Re: Alex]
Russ Offline
Geezer

Registered: 06/02/06
Posts: 5357
Loc: SOCAL
Actually, no they are not. I called the 9-1-1 dispatch center and Verizon here in SOCAL last year when the James Kim family was lost in Oregon. Neither are set up to process the GPS info from the cellphone. Verizon has no plans to do so, not their job; the GPS was put in the phones, that was Verizon and the other cell phone companies' job. The equipment to access the GPS data is supposed to be a government thing, but unless your local LE has funded the dispatch centers to buy the equipment, the GPS info goes nowhere.

Note that in the cases up in OR last year, the cell phone company engineers did a tedious triangulation of cell towers in an attempt to localize the pings. My cell phone has aGPS and should be able to provide a Lat-Long, but nobody is listening. Maybe CTU on "24" can do it, but they keep it to themselves unless your a terrorist wink It sounds like the dispatch center this lady dialed into was funded and has the equipment on line. The guy I spoke to out here never heard of it.

"If a tree falls in the forest and there's nobody there, does it make any noise?"
_________________________
Better is the Enemy of Good Enough.
Okay, what’s your point??

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#98285 - 06/24/07 02:20 AM Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t [Re: Russ]
DeathtoToasters Offline
Member

Registered: 06/18/07
Posts: 147
Loc: Southern California
Verizon is useless when it comes to helping with any type of rescue using the GPS locater in the phone.

My family and I were stuck in the mountains with our Yukon Denali at 8pm at night. No cell service, Onstar was broken at the time, when I finally got the onstar working, they had us at a location in arizona, but we were actually in utah.

Well the cell phones showed roaming service, but would not hold a call. So they patched us through to verizon to see if they could get a gps lock on us.
They flat out refused. They just said no, we don't do that sort of thing.

It was me, my wife and our 3 kids all under 7 years old. Plus my Sister in law with her 2 kids, 2 year old and an infant.

The operators would not even connect us to a supervisor.

It was a that moment that I realized that nobody gives a crap. Simple as that. Nobody but me.

This all happened at 8 pm and search and rescue didn't get to use for 6 1/2 hours.

It was that night that my whole life changed in the way I think of things.


Edited by DeathtoToasters (06/24/07 02:21 AM)
_________________________
"Death to Toasters"-John Connor

"All Hail the Power of Bauer"

"Only the Paranoid Survive" - Andy Grove

"Why is it called the American Dream? Because you have to be ASLEEP to believe it!" - George Carlin

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#98286 - 06/24/07 02:39 AM Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found [Re: DeathtoToasters]
Russ Offline
Geezer

Registered: 06/02/06
Posts: 5357
Loc: SOCAL
After speaking with Verizon I realized the aGPS function of my phone was worthless. In an emergency I'll take a Lat-Long from my real GPS and call 9-1-1 with my position. If cell coverage isn't good enough for a voice conversation, I'll text my niece and send her my Lat-Long (text messages can go out with a signal strength lower than that required for a voice conversation). She'll call 9-1-1 and relay the message. Haven't tested it yet.

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#98287 - 06/24/07 02:52 AM Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found [Re: Russ]
DeathtoToasters Offline
Member

Registered: 06/18/07
Posts: 147
Loc: Southern California
Originally Posted By: RAS
After speaking with Verizon I realized the aGPS function of my phone was worthless. In an emergency I'll take a Lat-Long from my real GPS and call 9-1-1 with my position. If cell coverage isn't good enough for a voice conversation, I'll text my niece and send her my Lat-Long (text messages can go out with a signal strength lower than that required for a voice conversation). She'll call 9-1-1 and relay the message. Haven't tested it yet.


I tried that also, always said message failed. I believe the reason is that it used the data side of the network. If it is roaming, the data side most likely won't work well if at all.

_________________________
"Death to Toasters"-John Connor

"All Hail the Power of Bauer"

"Only the Paranoid Survive" - Andy Grove

"Why is it called the American Dream? Because you have to be ASLEEP to believe it!" - George Carlin

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#98322 - 06/25/07 01:25 AM Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found [Re: DeathtoToasters]
ki7he Offline
Newbie

Registered: 12/27/06
Posts: 44
Loc: SW Idaho
Originally Posted By: DeathtoToasters
I tried that also, always said message failed. I believe the reason is that it used the data side of the network. If it is roaming, the data side most likely won't work well if at all.


Text messaging (SMS) is sent on the control channel on the voice side of things. SMS does not rely on a data connection. After all, SMS texting was around long before data was. SMS in much more reliable than data is.

As RAS indicated an SMS text message can still be sent even when a voice connection can't be maintained since it just needs a brief connection on the control channel. That still doesn't mean that just because you get a signal it'll be enough to send the message. Every phone I've seen will try to send it only once and will simply tell you it failed. I'd like to see an option to keep retrying in case I go into enough coverage to send it so I don't have to manually keep retrying. Maybe there's a phone that will do this?

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#98323 - 06/25/07 01:30 AM Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found [Re: ki7he]
DeathtoToasters Offline
Member

Registered: 06/18/07
Posts: 147
Loc: Southern California
I didn't know the exact protocol. I just assume.
Thanks for clearing that up.

_________________________
"Death to Toasters"-John Connor

"All Hail the Power of Bauer"

"Only the Paranoid Survive" - Andy Grove

"Why is it called the American Dream? Because you have to be ASLEEP to believe it!" - George Carlin

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#98352 - 06/25/07 04:28 PM Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t [Re: hercdoc]
teacher Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 12/14/05
Posts: 988
Of course a map and compass would have helped, too

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