On 5 Jun 2014, at 1:03 pm, DMcD <[email protected]> wrote: > I don't plan to use Spot next season. There are better alternatives.
What are they? * Radio - not technically allowed in the glider, special equipment needed, not long distances, ground stations required. * GSM - Not enough coverage in Australia, again not technically allowed by operators (although not policed either) As far as I know there are only two satellite systems available that cover where we fly, Iridium and GlobalStar - SPOT is the cheapest Global Star system that I know of, and Iridium. Each time I investigate the alternatives I find that the subscription costs are lower, but the per message is far higher, so trying to do a 1 minute update (new SPOT can do more often updates) or 10 minutes (like old SPOTs) is prohibitively expensive due to those transmission costs. Might be worth coming up with a page and some coverage maps - so we can see what technology covers what areas. Hard to beat something for 10 minute updates for $150 a year though ($11 a month). Scott
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