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by Greg Bartlett

As technology continues to advance, GPS tracking devices continue to improve and evolve. Systems that were once somewhat bulky are now a very small and manageable size. And they continue to shrink, but at the same time, their applications and power continue to expand. What changes have taken place lately in GPS tracking systems?

Smaller and Better Devices

GPS tracking units are continually getting smaller. More powerful, yet smaller, batteries are also being used in tracking devices. Advanced, powerful batteries can send more frequent signals for longer periods of time. This is very important to many consumers, because it eliminates the need to continually retrieve and charge the tracking units.

There are several reasons that smaller GPS tracking devices are in high demand: for easy concealment, for use with other devices, and for privacy.

As there is a higher demand for GPS trackers that can be easily concealed, developers are making smaller and smaller tracking units. It is very important that companies who protect their shipments and equipment with GPS tracking devices have small unobtrusive devices to make sure that they are not discovered. The smaller the device is, the easier it is to hide, because it fits in more places. There is only so much room inside of a GPS tracking watch or in a thin GPS tracking bracelet. The makers of these devices know that a small size is crucial.

Although many people use GPS tracking devices for various purposes, they might not want those purposes to be widely known. Although some might think it is a good idea, some parents of young children might not want to tell their children that they are wearing a GPS tracking device, because they might decide to play with it or take it off, which would prevent the child from being tracked. Owners of a passive tracking device might be concerned that someone would try to steal their device, so they want a small device that is not noticeable.

No matter what a person’s reasoning for purchasing a small GPS tracking system, companies are continually striving to create more advanced systems in smaller packages. GPS tracking technology has come a long way in the past ten years.  As people find new ways to use GPS tracking technology, innovations in the field will increase.

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By Greg Bartlett

When 13 year old Alycia Nipp decided to cut through a vacant field as a shortcut on her way home from Wal Mart one evening, she had no way of knowing that one of the transients who frequented the area was a registered sex offender who had no home and who would be her killer. The suspect in the case, Darrin Sanford had been convicted previously of rape and served time in prison. Upon his release, on parole, he was fitted with a GPS tracking bracelet to allow his parole officer to monitor his movements.

According to his confession, Sanford attempted to rape Alycia in the vacant field, but was unable to maintain arousal long enough to perform. When the girl laughed at him, he flew into a killing rage and beat her and stabbed her with various things that were strewn about the field, then made some attempt to hide the body. The data taken from his GPS tracking bracelet corroborates his confession by placing him in the field at the time of the murder and the movements he claims to have made are shown in the data.

Sanford’s arraignment in the case has been postponed to give both the prosecution and the defense an opportunity to prepare death penalty arguments in the case. While his attorney is refusing to comment on the case, the outcome seems pretty clear with a confession by the killer and the data from his GPS tracking bracelet to back it up. Had he not been wearing such a bracelet, Sanford may not have been so forthcoming with information when the police questioned him about the previous day after they picked him up.

Nothing in the world will ever bring this 13 year old girl back from the grave. Her family can, however, take some solace in the fact that the man who took her from them was caught quickly by police and knew that the evidence provided by the GPS tracking bracelet he was wearing would be enough to get him convicted. For that reason, he made a full confession to police and told them what happened and how he killed the girl. Without the data from the GPS tracking bracelet, police would have had a more difficult time locating Sanford and putting together a case against him for prosecutors. The fact he was wearing the device saved the taxpayers a great deal of money and got a killer off the streets quickly.

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By Greg Bartlett

This is a cautionary tale for those people who may want to dabble outside of their relationships. Did you know that many new cell phones are equipped with GPS tracking devices? If you are thinking of becoming a cheater you probably hope that your significant other remains blissfully unaware of these intentions. You no longer have to worry about stray numbers scrawled on napkins or the calls placed on your cell phone, just carrying your cell phone can give you away.

The service was introduced as a way of assisting people when they were in need of 911 assistance. It also has other great benefits like helping you to map out a trip based on where you are. However, with only a little bit of GPS tracking and access to account information your spouse can easily see where you are going during the day – you may want to avoid the by the hour motel district.

Most cell phones use a passive GPS cell phone tracking solution, which means that they store the location of the cell phone in relationship to satellites on internal memory. However, they can also be queried to report their location (as in the case of an emergency). This is usually not a problem for consumers, but it may be worrisome to the unfaithful. Simply with a few keystrokes on a computer, your wife or husband can find out where you have been for perhaps the last day, or week.

Not being among this crowd, I am going to make the assumption that part of the thrill of cheating is the possibility of getting caught. That may be true, but I doubt that actually getting caught is very much fun. If you can’t consider what you would be doing to your partner, consider what they will do to you if they find you in another’s arms.

Your other half doesn’t even need to know that much to be able to use your cell phone to catch you in the act. If they are suspicious they could contact one of the several companies that offer spouse tracking services. It is reported that with the cell phone number alone some companies can locate a cell phone that is turned on.

What’s my point? Do not cheat; it really is not worth the pain and the recriminations that will haunt both of you. If you are going to cheat and you turn your cell phone off, you might get away with it for now, but not forever. Cell phone GPS tracking has the power to bring you down, but only in this life.

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By Greg Bartlett

Heavy equipment represents a sizable investment for the heavy equipment operator. Due to the size of the equipment, it cannot be easily removed from the construction site on a daily basis. Road construction equipment, graders, scrapers and bulldozers are often targets of theft. The loss of this equipment represents a financial loss for the owner as well as delays in construction when replacement equipment is not readily available. GPS tracking systems are well equipped to fight this epidemic.

Heavy construction equipment is often stolen and then shipped overseas where it is sold as used equipment. The equipment typically disappears at night or over a weekend where it will not be missed for a period of time. This equipment is loaded on a trailer and simply vanishes into the night and can be hundreds of miles away from the construction site in a very short period of time.

Knowledgeable heavy equipment operators have equipped their equipment with GPS tracking systems. These systems allow the owner of the equipment to determine the exact location of their equipment at any time of the day, anywhere in the world. This ability to determine where the equipment is allows the owner to notify the local police department as to where the stolen equipment is for recovery.

In addition to the recovery of stolen equipment the systems allow the owner of the construction company the opportunity to determine how the equipment is being used on the job site. If a job turns out to demand more equipment as can be seen by the overutilization of the equipment on the site then more equipment can be placed on site to speed the completion of the job. If too much equipment is located at a particular site as evidenced by the underutilization of a particular piece of equipment then that underutilized equipment can be removed from the particular job and assigned to another job site.

The installation of GPS tracking systems on heavy construction equipment allows the owner of the construction company the ability to track the equipment. This tracking can aid in the recovery of the equipment should a theft occur. The tracking can also be utilized to create a database of equipment usage on the site allowing real time adjustments should the need arise to add equipment to the site or remove underutilized equipment from the site. The tracking ability helps prevent construction delays and the consequent failure to meet contract completion time penalties. GPS locator devices installed on heavy equipment pay for the cost of the GPS monitoring in a short time. For more information, call Rocky Mountain Tracking, Inc. at 1-888-242-0500.

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By Greg Bartlett

Have you taken your holiday pictures? Can you remember exactly where you were when that photo was taken? You can? What about the next one? Looks quite similar doesn’t it? The headache of trying to remember the exact location of a holiday snap is amplified many times if you have to take photos for a living. Travel photography can be a stop-start affair because extensive notes need to be taken about where the pictures have been taken. GPS tracking can simplify the issues.

GPS tracking systems are very good at providing accurate information about location. They receive satellite data and as long as they can see the open sky, they can work out where they are on the planet. Orbiting satellites accurately transmit time-stamped packets of data every few seconds. The receiving devices can compute their own location using the information from four of these satellites. The satellite data consists of information in relation to the exact time and the position of the satellite in its orbit relative to the Earth.

Rosco is a well known photographer who is slowly building a name for himself as a travel photographer. His eye for detail and the superb images he produces are very highly valued. So he was thrilled when he landed a lucrative contract which involved a lot of travelling and taking shots at different locations. His work involved travelling to several European capitals and taking candid shots of the tourists in these different cities. But to his horror, Rosco came back with nothing! Well he came back with three cameras full of images but the airline lost the bag which had his notes!

Some well known firms are now producing cameras which incorporate a camera with a GPS tracking unit. The two do not need to be connected to each other in order to work. As long as the device can see the sky, then it records location data every few seconds. There is no need to stop and jot things down. Back at home, the images and the information can be downloaded directly to the computer.

Rosco survived his contract and went back to take more photos with the new camera. Now there was no more trouble with taking notes or with trying to decipher his own handwriting. And he got the most exciting photos when he did not have to worry and could take all sorts of shots at any time. Whew! Thanks to GPS tracking devices!

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By Greg Bartlett

Using the Global Positioning System for tracking assets is not new; however tracking people seems to be the next tech-fad. As the size of tracking devices continue to shrink in size, it is ever more likely that you could be “tracked” completely without your consent.

Recently, one trend in GPS tracking has been to “catch cheating spouses.” This can be scary. If someone was cheating, the spouse would have a right to know. Some may feel that if you have that much doubt concerning the fidelity of your spouse then you should confront them personally.

There are three different types of GPS trackers. The first, data loggers have internal memory and record their location at pre-determined intervals. Then there are data pushers and data pullers. Data pushers send the location of the device to a centralized database at set increments (1 hour, 5 minutes, etc), while to extract the information from a data puller the monitoring personnel must send a query to the device. Data pullers can be sent information requests as often as is necessary. All three categories of devices work by triangulating their position based on the position of three orbiting satellites. As such they require a clear line of sight to the satellites and lose efficiency when underground or in cement parking structures.

The devices available commercially are becoming small enough to fit on a keychain and could easily be secreted into a briefcase to keep tabs on a wayward partner. The moral and legal aspects of such behavior have been questioned. There is no reason that it has to be a spouse that tracks the movements of the other spouse. As news reports of stalking become commonplace, this new use for GPS technology is a concern for some.

If private citizens have access to this technology, what is to stop governments from using it to track the movements of “persons of interest?” Since no warrant or consent is needed in most states for a private citizen to make use of these services, they are opening alarming doors throughout the privacy rights spectrum. We do not want to give the government any more power than they are supposed to have.

GPS tracking is a valuable tool at times, but we must closely examine our motivations for adopting any new technology. As has been said before, “Just because we can do something, does not mean we should.” As any GPS provider would say, technology should be used responsibly.

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By Harriette Halepis

When most of us think about GPS tracking uses, we tend to think of personal ways to use this technology. Uses such as teen tracking, shipment tracking, elderly tracking, and domestic animal tracking may come to mind. Aside from these very practical uses, GPS tracking can be used to record, track, and understand the wildlife that surrounds us.

Biologists, researchers, and scientists use GPS tracking devices in order to follow certain animals in their natural habitats. Thanks to GPS technology, it is now possible to understand and observe various animal habits and patterns. Studying wild animals in this manner helps mankind to understand the world as it moves, but it also serves another very important purpose.

Through GPS wildlife tracking, scientists can determine (and potentially prevent) animal-borne diseases. Diseases such as avian influenza (bird flu) and other transferrable diseases can be kept away from the larger population through Global Positioning System technology. How? If scientists can understand where infected animals have come from, where they are going, and how they are contracting a certain disease, then they may be able to prevent this disease from infecting humans far in advance.

There are various types of GPS tracking devices that can be used to track wild animals. Some larger animals can be tracked using collar devices, while smaller animals can be tracked using devices that are directly attached to their bodies. While this technology is important, it is also crucial that GPS devices do not interfere with natural animal habits.

Thus, scientists have managed to craft specific GPS tracking devices for various animals – including GPS trackers that can be attached to a bird without affecting its flight capabilities. Every day, scientists and biologists are following the animals that live amongst us. Through these studies, we can learn more about those animals that seem so far away from our daily reality.

While it’s true that GPS tracking devices are important when it comes to our own lives, they also play an important part in understanding our world. Most people never come in contact with a wild animal, but these animals are still a large part of our environment. Learning about our entire environment is the best possible way to understand the world in which we live. Thanks to GPS tracking, we can now begin to look into the animal kingdom with understanding and certainty – two things that will lead us closer to comprehending the way that the world truly works.

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By Greg Bartlett

Arctic wolves are a mysterious bunch to say the least. Where do they go? How much area do they cover? Are they always alone? Or do they congregate into clans or families? Traditionally this research involved long cold hours of observation. Hard to find and hard to see, the data was scant and incomplete. Conflicting reports were published about exactly what happens to the wolves because it was impossible to know with any empirical certainty exactly what they do.

The help of GPS tracking can be used to find out exactly what happens to these creatures. Once a wolf or wolf family has been found, they can be anaesthetized and collars can be put on them with GPS tracking equipment attached to the collars. They hardly notice the collars and do not realize that they have had a close encounter of the human kind. They are released before they wake up and can be monitored remotely to find out what they get up to.

GPS uses the benefits of circling satellites to discover the locations of any item which has a GPS receiver and transmitter. There are roughly twenty of these satellites available and they circle the Earth at a set distance. They send out signals at synchronized times to receivers down below on the planet surface. Using this technology the position of anything can be determined by calculating the difference between the signals from four of these satellites. Four are used to provide an accurate reading and to cancel out any mistakes which could potentially throw the reading off by hundreds of miles.

With GPS tracking devices attached to their collars, the movements of the wolves have provided a fascinating insight into the lives of these arctic animals. It transpires that only one or two wolves need to be collared in this way because the wolves do travel in large packs. They seem very vicious, but they are family oriented at heart.

When a single wolf’s location has been identified, then the other members of the pack can be counted. Also, it has been found that the wolves do not always stick to their packs. Sometimes, one, two or more wolves can leave a pack at a time. GPS technology has improved the lives of the researchers tremendously and hopefully it can go some way towards preventing these wolves from becoming extinct.

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By Greg Bartlett

Since the 1990s when GPS tracking technology first became available to the general public, people have found more ways that GPS tracking can be used every year. One of the most common uses of GPS technology is to incorporate it into GPS vehicle tracking systems. There are several different benefits of such systems.

1. GPS vehicle tracking systems provide an accurate location and speed check on vehicles being driven by employees of a company. These can also be used to track the amount of time employees spend at one location in the event that a customer complains that he is being billed for more time than was actually spent on the job.

These systems are also very useful to company dispatchers who can locate each mobile unit and route the nearest one to any calls that come in, whether for service calls or pick up of packages.

2. A second use of GPS vehicle tracking systems is providing an accurate location of the vehicle to police in the event of car theft. The signal from such systems can be received by any police cruiser with an internet connected computer on board, which is almost all these days. Police can follow the movements of the vehicle and arrest the thief in short order, often catching others at the same time if this is a professional chop shop operation. Recovery of the vehicle in an unharmed state occurs far more frequently when GPS vehicle recovery systems are involved.

3. GPS vehicle tracking systems are also very useful for parents of inexperienced teen drivers. These systems allow the parents to monitor the movements and whereabouts of their teens when away from home in the family car. They have proven useful in reducing accidents and moving violations because the parents can track speed data and call the teen with instructions to slow down before the police get involved or an accident occurs.

4. Finally, GPS vehicle tracking systems make it possible for a spouse who suspects that his/her mate is cheating to follow the movements of the vehicle and catch them in the act if the suspicions are founded. Spouses who prefer not to make a direct confrontation can provide information on the signal from the GPS device to a private investigator who can obtain any evidence of infidelity and turn it over for use in a divorce proceeding.

GPS vehicle tracking systems have proven very useful for a variety of commercial and personal applications when knowledge of where a vehicle is and how fast it is moving is necessary.

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A True Account of Life Saving Technology
By Greg Bartlett

I am an avid hunter. Every year, my father and I go out to the woods to try and bag a couple nice deer. The problem I always had was that although I love being outside, I can’t read a map. To compensate for that, I purchased a GPS tracking device two years ago. Using it with the maps has really helped me to get to the good deer runs in our area.

If I hadn’t had my GPS, I know that my father wouldn’t be alive today. Last fall, my father had a heart attack while we were in the bush. Getting to our location took an hour, and then it was another 2 hour drive to the nearest hospital. Carrying him out was obviously not an option, so I called the local ranger station and explained our situation.

I provided the ranger who took my call with my login information for the GPS service I subscribe to, and asked him to relay that information to the Coast Guard. In the normal course of a search and rescue, the Anchorage Coast Guard has to scour a relatively large area in a grid pattern to find lost hunters; in my case, they were able to find us in just over half an hour. One of the guys who worked on the chopper said that this was the easiest rescue he had been on since they had known exactly where we were.

We flew directly to the closest hospital, where there was a doctor waiting for my father. They rushed him through and he was on the operating table less than an hour after his attack. I am immensely thankful for the commitment of helicopter’s crew and the skill of the doctors, but I don’t think any of that would have mattered without the GPS. It was my “darned geek gadget,” as my father used to call it, that saved the day. It would’ve taken too long to find us, had we not pinpointed our exact location for the Coast Guard team.

Fellow outdoors men, I ask you to pick up a GPS tracking device. You may never need it, like I had, but it is a valuable tool in many ways. And if the worst happens, you will be able to get the help that you need as quickly as possible. Just because something is new doesn’t mean you shouldn’t adopt it. After all, once upon a time rifles didn’t have scopes, are you willing to give up that advancement?

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