Rocky Mountain Tracking

By Greg Bartlett

Contrary to popular belief, not all cell phones will make good GPS trackers. The most accurate phones have AGPS or Assisted Global Positioning System. This kind of positioning uses cell towers in addition to the GPS network to more accurately track locations. Let’s discuss the positives and negatives of a cell phone GPS tracker.

Price is probably the biggest negative factor. Real time tracking is much more expensive than passive tracking because of the monthly contract required for phone locating. Phones that are capable of using AGPS are also more expensive than the basic phone options which can make setting up a cell phone GPS tracker a little pricy.

Privacy can also be a concern with any kind of GPS technology. With the rise of identity theft as well as kidnapping and stalking, people are more concerned with their privacy. The thought that just anyone could access their GPS information and track their location is indeed scary, but it is entirely untrue. Companies that work with GPS technology know the dangers and are very careful who they give information to. People do not have to live in fear that using a GPS tracker on their cell phone is going to make them an easy victim.

The benefits of GPS tracking on a cell phone far outweigh the disadvantages. These systems can give parents peace of mind because they will be able to track the location of their children, even if their children have a habit of lying about where they are. This allows parents to keep better track of their children, which will in turn keep them safe. These trackers can also be used to locate people for others reasons. Wives may be interested in a GPS tracker in order to make sure their husbands are staying faithful. GPS tracking can also be used to help locate lost or kidnapped people.

As the technology of a GPS tracker increases, it will be able to be used for many other purposes as well. Law enforcement officers want to be able to use GPS tracking to find the location of 911 calls which will be very helpful when people are in trouble but they do not know their exact location. As of now, it is possible for law enforcement officers to find the rough location of a cell phone as required by law after the 2001 terrorist attacks, but many improvements are still needed in this area.

By Greg Bartlett

With the recent rise of GPS technology, many people may appreciate the convenience of a cell phone as a GPS tracking system. However, there are a few areas where these systems are not quite up to par.
Several things can happen to hinder its use as a GPS tracking system. The cell phone could lose reception inside a building or move out of range of the towers. Cell phones also use low power chips for their GPS tracking because they are more inexpensive and they are easier on battery life. This means that cell phones are not as accurate as other GPS trackers and they can only give an approximate location.

Cell phone batteries are continually being drained by the many functions that they are now used for. A combination of constant text messaging, sending and receiving email, surfing the internet, taking pictures, and listening to music will quickly kill a cell phone battery, which eliminates the tracking ability because the cell phone must be turned on and running properly in order to function as a GPS receiver.

There are also a few ways that the cell phone owner can keep from being tracked. “Forgetting” the phone at home or keeping it turned off prohibits them from being tracked. The cell phone user can also disable the tracker feature, which makes it difficult to track someone who does not want to be tracked.

Because of these many reasons, cell phone trackers do not measure up to the high standards of a quality GPS tracking system. Traditional GPS tracking devices are continually giving out strong signals that point to an exact location. These signals can be viewed on a digital map by computer that literally show a trail of everywhere that GPS tracking system went.

The battery life of passive tracking devices will last longer than cell phone batteries and active systems (also called real time trackers) send a signal out, but do not store any of the location information on the system, allowing its battery to work for a very long time.

So while cell phones are great communication devices and can also be used as mini-computers, cameras, and CD players, they are not good GPS trackers. Although GPS tracking on cell phones may improve in the next several years, they have a long way to go before they can start competing with traditional tracking systems.

A woman in Lansing, Michigan will be celebrating a very happy new year, knowing that she was able to escape an attempted abduction. But getting away from her captor is only part of the story. She will also be able to ring in the new year knowing that the man who attempted to abduct her has been apprehended thanks to cell phone tracking technology.

The woman was with another friend at a motel when a man forced his way in by breaking a window on the first floor. He carried the woman out of the room by force, made her get into his car and then drove away from the motel. Somehow the woman was able to break free from her captor and get out of the car not too far from an intersection.

Because she already knew the man who attempted to abduct her, the woman was able to give the police important details about him. She was also able to tell the police what kind of car the man had used when he tried to kidnap her.

Then the police used GPS tracking technology to track phone calls that the would-be kidnapper had made to house. Later they were able to arrest him.

It is a good thing that the police were able to use cell phone tracking to find this criminal. However, GPS tracking can be useful in a variety of ways when it comes to preventing crime and unpleasant situations.

If you fear that you or someone you know may be in some kind of danger, you can use personal GPS tracking device for safety. GPS tracking is not just for extreme cases like kidnapping either. You can use a personal GPS tracking device to keep track of yourself and others while hiking or as a way to ensure safety when going out in rough winter weather. You and elderly relatives may also benefit from the added peace of mind that comes with using personal GPS tracking.

Take a look at the PT-200 GPS. The PT-200 GPS is the world’s smallest tracking unit for personal tracking. Although it is the world’s smallest, and quite unobtrusive, the PT-200 GPS has great tracking capabilities. It may be small but, the PT-200 provides accurate information, even in hard-to-reach environments and it does all of this without using antennas.

Recently, police in Maryland use cell phone tracking technology to help them solve a crime. The officers got a tip that made them investigate a suspect’s cell phone records. Using cell phone tracking technology, the police were able to associate the perpetrator and the victim with the crime scene.

You may not be on the police force, but you can still use GPS tracking technology to get to the bottom of things. Most of us feel that we just don’t know where all of the money goes. Sometimes it just seems to disappear. Well, that is not exactly true. Your money is going somewhere. If you own a business and employ drivers, it is in your best interest to so a little sleuthing of your own.

Use GPS tracking devices to figure out how more efficient mileage and gas usage can close up that hole in your pocket. Tracking the habits of your drivers will tell you who is idling, speeding, or making side trips. Then the mystery of why your transportation costs have gotten out of hand will become less of a mystery.

Even if your drivers are not siphoning away money with bad driving habits, GPS tracking can still provide you with valuable information about your business. If may give you a better idea of what customers need more or less attentions. Or you may see that there are areas of town that you need to market to more.

Visit Rocky Mountain Tracking’s website to learn more about fleet tracking and how it can save you money.

One state university decided to give all first year students a cell phone that has a GPS tracker. After all, most of them carry around cell phones anyway, why not put it to good use. You may wonder what s the school’s reasoning behind giving everyone a phone. To make sure students go to class? Although some schools do use GPS tracking for attendance purposes, this was not the reason.

This school gave new students phones that are equipped with safety features because they recognize the need to keep students safe. An inebriated student can enable the phone’s Guardian feature. This will alert the police station. The police station remains on alert for 15 minutes and the student gets a reminder to turn the Guardian off after that time has passed. If for some reason the student does not turn the Guardian off, perhaps because they have passed out, the police call the phone. Since the phone is equipped with GPS tracking technology, the police will be able to locate the student and see what happened.

It isn’t a perfect system, but it certainly can do a lot to keep co-eds safer on this particular campus.

But you don’t have to enroll in this college to use GPS tracking for safety. For those of you with loved ones whose college days are over or yet to come, Rocky Mountain Tracking has a selection of personal GPS trackers that you can use for safety’s sake. A GPS tracker can help you keep watch over an elderly parent or young child. These devices don’t even require that they activate any special features. Visit the RM Tracking website to learn more.

Earlier this month, A Nebraska man’s life was saved thanks, in part, to cell phone tracking.

The man called the police in the wee hours of the morning, using his cell phone, to tell them that he had been in an accident. Unfortunately, the man had been drinking and the police believe that the use of alcohol contributed to the accident.  The man told police what he thought was his location. In addition to be being affected by the alcohol, he was in pain from injuries he suffered as a result of the crash.

The police went to the area the man indicated and found no one. In his unstable condition, the man was confused, and did not know where he actually was. The police continued to search because it was imperative that they reach the injured man as soon as possible.

About 14 minutes after the man’s initial call, the police decided to employ GPS technology. The dispatcher was able to pinpoint the man’s location by tracing the signal that came from his cell phone. And this is what made all the difference. Not only was the man not where he thought he was, he was also not readily visible since his car had plunged into a ravine.  Once he was found, the man was treated at a local hospital and released. Who knows just how long he would have been in the ravine, out of sight, if they had not thought to locate him using his cell phone signal?

You may not experience something so very dramatic and dangerous as this (we certainly hope not), but that doesn’t mean that you cannot benefit from GPS tracking.

You, your teenage children, your older relatives or anyone else you care about can be helped by GPS tracking because it can find people when time is precious.

And if you run a business then you know how important it is to know where your employees or products are at a given time.