Missing hiker - Elbert, Massive, La Plata or Huron

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rpdawes
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Re: Missing hiker - Elbert, Massive, La Plata or Huron

Post by rpdawes »

I agree 100% with Brad's comments. Since I am a solo hiker and 76 of age, I ALWAYS use SPOT wherever I go. I NEVER reply on my smartphone for any communication with any people because 24/7 coverage is always not guaranteed in the high country. I use my smartphone for GPS tracking and picture taking. Having SPOT certainly helps my wife worry less about my whereabouts. As of now , SPOT has helped rescue 4,645 lives that could be lost. So every solo hiker should make a personal locator as a MUST on his/her essential list in order to save his/her life and save SAR people a lot of time and sweat. Bless SAR for their efforts to save lives, but we need to be considerate of their time and energy they sacrifice to serve hikers.
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AyeYo
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Re: Missing hiker - Elbert, Massive, La Plata or Huron

Post by AyeYo »

powhound wrote:Glad for the outcome!
bmcqueen wrote:1) Solo hiking raises the stakes. I solo hike frequently, so I can't and won't throw any stones here, but your communication has to be bulletproof. If you're unsure if your messages are going out, send yourself a message and see if YOU get it. If YOU don't get your own message, no one else is getting the message either.
A word of caution - There have been a few times where I have done the test mentioned here, and I sent ... and received my own text. However my wife, who was a couple hundred miles away, did not get the text I sent her from the exact same location. Go figure. Maybe something to do with multiple towers bouncing the signal around? I don't understand how cell technology works. Maybe someone with knowledge could explain this.
Towers only bounce signals in special circumstances. It's on a land line as soon as it arrives at the first tower. Text messaging is just generally unreliable. I miss texts all the time, sometimes receiving them hours or days later, or never - and that's when I'm sitting at work in the middle of Denver with LTE and full bars. It could be a channel throttling issue, a phone issue, a carrier issue, etc. There are way too many variables and chances for error with text messaging for it to be used as solid, reliable communication.
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SkaredShtles
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Re: Missing hiker - Elbert, Massive, La Plata or Huron

Post by SkaredShtles »

AyeYo wrote:<snip>
Towers only bounce signals in special circumstances. It's on a land line as soon as it arrives at the first tower. Text messaging is just generally unreliable. I miss texts all the time, sometimes receiving them hours or days later, or never - and that's when I'm sitting at work in the middle of Denver with LTE and full bars. It could be a channel throttling issue, a phone issue, a carrier issue, etc. There are way too many variables and chances for error with text messaging for it to be used as solid, reliable communication.
And this is why some professionals still carry pagers. Yeah - old fashioned, out-of-date, fuddy duddy pagers.
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the toninator
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Re: Missing hiker - Elbert, Massive, La Plata or Huron

Post by the toninator »

Dex wrote:
bmcqueen wrote:
SchralpTheGnar wrote:So she was never actually lost, just a failure of communication? Were you guys relying on cell phones to provide updates and agreed upon times to call sar if no here from? That usually works ok for shorter trips where say you're never out of cell range for more than 12-24 hours but on longer trips you'd probably want something more reliable, like spot or plb or whatever else is out there. Either way glad the outcome was a positive one!
Correct - she was relying on her cell phone to communicate with her friend. We were just the emergency contacts that she provided to her friend. On the drive down yesterday, she told me she will be purchasing a SPOT as soon as she gets home (like the one I carry with me everywhere I go).

Before you buy a SPOT research the difference between SPOT and a PLB and others like ACR.
a SPOT would have been perfect in this situation.
billycox
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Re: Missing hiker - Elbert, Massive, La Plata or Huron

Post by billycox »

a SPOT would have been perfect in this situation.
Would it? I'm asking because I'm not really sure. As I understand, she was just coming back down because she wasn't sure her messages were getting through, not because she thought she was in trouble. Given that SPOT only allows for predetermined messages, basically: OK, something intermediate, and SOS, would she have had a preset message applicable to her situation? Idk. Kinda why I'm thinking the DeLorme would've been more perfect in this situation.
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the toninator
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Re: Missing hiker - Elbert, Massive, La Plata or Huron

Post by the toninator »

billycox wrote:
a SPOT would have been perfect in this situation.
Would it? I'm asking because I'm not really sure. As I understand, she was just coming back down because she wasn't sure her messages were getting through, not because she thought she was in trouble. Given that SPOT only allows for predetermined messages, basically: OK, something intermediate, and SOS, would she have had a preset message applicable to her situation? Idk. Kinda why I'm thinking the DeLorme would've been more perfect in this situation.
Yea, you'd send a OK. People would be wondering but they'd know everything is good. The message goes to whomever you set up to receive it. Each of the functions have their own distribution lists. There's also a custom message setup, preset that you can. I have one setup to say "At the trailhead/On the peak" then I send an OK when I'm back at camp.
The only function that contacts Emergency Services is the SOS button.
There's also an assist button - if your riding a bike or something and you have a flat or mechanical the function means come help me i'm stranded but it's not an 'emergency'
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kingshimmers
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Re: Missing hiker - Elbert, Massive, La Plata or Huron

Post by kingshimmers »

billycox wrote:
a SPOT would have been perfect in this situation.
Would it? I'm asking because I'm not really sure. As I understand, she was just coming back down because she wasn't sure her messages were getting through, not because she thought she was in trouble. Given that SPOT only allows for predetermined messages, basically: OK, something intermediate, and SOS, would she have had a preset message applicable to her situation? Idk. Kinda why I'm thinking the DeLorme would've been more perfect in this situation.
Basically any satellite communicator would have worked, SPOT or DeLorme. The two-way communication with the DeLorme is nicer IMO because you can be assured someone received your message when they respond back to you, but you could still send enough "OK" messages from the SPOT to have reasonable confidence that at least *some* of them get through. That said, I personally use a DeLorme because it has higher transmit power than the SPOT (last I checked), so more likely to get your message sent.
"Be the beta you wish to find."
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