then, I guess I'm back to Ham radio and the APRS sytem. it'd work for what I want to do, except that two dogs would have to run off together. one to carry the gps receiver, TNC and VHF tranceiver and the other to carry the battery paks. and they don't much like each other as it is. I was hoping the commercial guys had bested the hams but, again, all capitalism means is hype. harv On 4/21/07, Chuck Cole <cncole at earthlink.net> wrote: > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: tclug-list-bounces at mn-linux.org > > [mailto:tclug-list-bounces at mn-linux.org]On Behalf Of Brock Noland > > Sent: Friday, April 20, 2007 8:13 PM > > > > Some cell phones have gps, but not the cheapies. Even with the ones > > that do I doubt you could get it remotely. > > > > There maybe a market for such a device... > > > > Brock > > > > > > On 4/20/07, Harv Nelson <ai9nl at arrl.net> wrote: > > > IS it possible for an "ordinary" person like me to retrieve the GPS > > > info from a Cell phon. > > > > I'm thinking of hanging one of those cheapie prepaid > > walmart Variety > > > TRACphones...on my puppy's harness. the next time she > > takes off after a > > > deer or kid on a bicycle. i'll be able to know exactlywhere > > she is with no > > > chasing, yelling or crying by pluging the numbers into map > > quest or google > > > earth. I can know exactly where she is and if I do it > > quickly enough ... how > > > she got there. > > > > > > thanks for any links, contacts or info. > > > > > > harv > > > washburn, wi > > > I checked into the GPS offered in a Verizon ad for phones that did GPS, > music, and photo storage. One of my concerns was whether the phone > could provide GPS when off in the Boundary Waters and out of cell tower > reach. Another concern was whether the phones provided actual lat/lon > coordinates. > > > > The "GPS service" is NOT providing GPS coordinates to the phone user. > Their GPS works only through cell towers, and has none of the GPS > satellite data available to the phone user. It only supports their extra > cost map services. The phones do not have actual GPS receivers > built-in: it's some funny business with cell tower signals, and they > call it "GPS". I doubt that the towers are densely placed enough > outside major metro areas for that locator system to work, and their > extra cost maps probably don't go far outside of town either. It seems > to be more like a Mapquest service to locate businesses. > > The music storage and picture storage were dependent upon plug-in memory > cards that had not been made commercially available at the time of the > ads, and they had no availability schedule. I asked whether the music > feature could work in the Boundary Waters away from towers, and what > storage capacity it would have. They said the music system would not > work without a tower system in range, and did not work at all without > the memory card... same with photo storage. > > Getting this data was very difficult. I had to get deep into their > technical support department to get any credible answers at all. > > I think there's another problem. The locator system seems to be > "special access" like 911 services, and may require claiming an > emergency event to get any help at all. There may be cost for > discovery/recovery by this means. > > I think there are products that do true GPS locating, but I don't > believe cell phones presently do that for just anybody. The amount of > BS about cell services is alarming! I think it's false advertising. > > > Chuck > > > >