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Leaving tonight - SPOT tracking page

When you zoom in as close as it let's you, on the Satellite view, it looks like he or at least the Spot Tracker is in the middle of the woods. I don't know how accurate those things are, so he could be portaging or some critter stole his tracker, I guess we will find out in due time. I wonder when the satellite photos were taken? I know the Satellite photos of my fathers farm in Minnesota look like the house just burned down, I know for a fact that it was many years ago, all traces of the old farm house are gone, now as well as the fire scars.
 
Boreal Birch said:
When you zoom in as close as it let's you, on the Satellite view, it looks like he or at least the Spot Tracker is in the middle of the woods. I don't know how accurate those things are, so he could be portaging or some critter stole his tracker, I guess we will find out in due time. I wonder when the satellite photos were taken? I know the Satellite photos of my fathers farm in Minnesota look like the house just burned down, I know for a fact that it was many years ago, all traces of the old farm house are gone, now as well as the fire scars.
Click to expand...

I would chalk the middle of the woods spot up to "GPS hop". I don't know if that is a real term but it's what we called it in the military. Since the earth and the satelites are both moving, and depending on which and how many sats ping his location at a given time, your location will "hop" around. You can see this in action right at home, turn on your GPS and sit it on the patio table for a while with the tracks turned on. When you zoom in far enough, you will see it dance around.

With the weather report for up there I hope he has his canoe tied down too! My vote is windbound also.

Jason
 
My spot is pretty accurate. More accurate than the iPhone, and I see way more "hop" with my garmin etrex.

We had a system at work that averaged the readings over a time period to give a more consistent read. Maybe the spot does the same when it takes a reading. I don't know - just a guess

His log is making me want to get out - at least the canoe is down and on the floor. Progress!
 
This is why I don't do the spot thing. If there is an error or no signal then people...especially the ones who are insistent on my getting one....tend to over think and obsess. I hardly ever stick to an itinerary once I am on the road.

Alan is a fit, hard driving, young man. I have no worries about his ability to tackle whatever comes up. It's all part of the adventure. I am totally jealous of his trip but that is another story.

Christine
 
Mihun09 said:
3 days in the same spot, Alan must be wind bound. It is a big a** lake to cross.
Click to expand...

He must be chaffing at the bit. I expect to see some serious makeup mileage once he gets started.

I have had one trip wind bound at the launch for days on end and it was maddening. That was a permit required coastal trip and I spent much of the days repeatedly listening to the weather radio praying for a change in the forecast.

It got worse, not the weather, but the permit restrictions. No permits would be issued while there was a small craft advisory in effect. The wind eventually calmed and the forecast improved. . . . but the small craft advisory was not lifted.

Skunked I gave up, moved 20 miles inland and paddled a couple of tidal rivers.
 
My garmin etrex hops too... Much more than the military version, but even with the government stuff it still happened... and we had dedicated sats. Being as far north as he is, and the lack of population, there probably / definitely aren't as many sats "watching" that area, so the results will vary.

Not only is he strong, he is smart. Smart enough to know when to stay put. That's canoe tripping though. I already can't wait for his return and the following trip report! Selfish?

Jason
 
Looks like he got bored waiting on the shore and took a walk up the hill.

GPS accuracy will improve over time if you occupy a site. We set up a base for 12 hours or so to get an accurate location for our RTK systems. This creates a data file that we email to Nat Resources Canada that comes back with a sub 2cm accuracy inc. elevation. Initially there are wide swings in the estimated position but over time the "randomness" dampens down to give a stable value.

I assume that most GPS receivers are now using the Russian(?) GLONASS systems as well as the US satellites.
 
Bothwell you sound like you might do some surveying!

The SPOT receivers use a different constellation altogether, known as GLOBALstar, and do not pick up signals from GPS, GLONASS, or GALILEO. But yes, many handheld receivers are now receiving signals from GLONASS as well as GPS, and high end receivers can now speak to all three constellations with some amazing results.
 
Uncle_Skwid said:
Bothwell you sound like you might do some surveying!

The SPOT receivers use a different constellation altogether, known as GLOBALstar, and do not pick up signals from GPS, GLONASS, or GALILEO. But yes, many handheld receivers are now receiving signals from GLONASS as well as GPS, and high end receivers can now speak to all three constellations with some amazing results.
Click to expand...

I think Globalstar is the system used to transmit the message. They still rely on the regular positioning network for location information.
 
Ahhh. The separate constellations are for messaging and voice options ONLY. That explains why Iridium can have 100 satellites up there while GPS is sputtering with 26. Gotcha. Thanks.
 
Alan seems to have had a good day today. I want to thank everyone for explaining (?) GPS and SPOT to someone that doesn't have one, now I will make sure not to get one.
I remember when I was young, flying into the headwaters of a salmon spawning stream in the Eastern Seward Peninsula in Alaska. We were on the river to float it's length, to retrieve tags that had been placed on Chum salmon in the ocean. As the Cessna 185 engine noise faded into the distance, The old Biologist (he was in his late forty's) that I was with smiled at me and said "Now we can holler for help and no one can hear us!" We had a great time collecting salmon tags, fly fishing in the evening for Arctic grayling, Dolly Varden and making blueberry pies in Rick's reflector oven.
 
The straight line distance he covered was 30km, I doubt he went straight across though. 20km NW wind today but he should be able to make it into the river channel, likely already on the water.
 
I've been following along with great interest. I suppose we all concluded by now that Alan was windbound for a while...but that's old news now!
As I look at the associated map, I have more questions than answers, the NR Canada topo maps do not follow the same conventions as US Geo maps.
So, I needed to look up the legend for the NR Canada maps.
Here is a link to the legend, in case anyone else is as curious as I am.

http://geokov.com/education/topo-map-symbols-legend.aspx
 
There ya go. He booked it today. If he does a few longer days on the water he can be back on schedule soon. Just dont take one or two layover days and its alll good. What else does he have to do anyway besides paddle?

As much as I say I will not get a spot, this is pretty cool.

Christy
 
If you check the times, he has had a few longer days. last spot was noted 11:17 pm

I used tracking while travelling across Quetico in 2012 and those I gave the link to enjoyed it very much. Especially when we got off track one afternoon! They could see we were headed in a wrong direction - but we didn't.
 
roy gage said:
Alan's father Roy here. Watching sons spot progress with interest. Am posting a link to map which shows his progress on a map of his proposed route. His Mother put this together. Shows his route and locations nicely.https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/1567774797a2a9e4
Click to expand...

Well, that worked the first time I tried it. If I was smarter I would try a second time but as the first time when it did work it showed Alan's mothers e-mail address ect. better to just let it go.
 
Yeeeaaaayyyy. He is in Manitoba now. I don't know what it's like up there but the weather here has been pretty good, although hotttt.

I would likely not get much past the first good fishing spot...lol.

Christy
 
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