Iridium Extreme Sat Phone

[nolagal]

I'm trying to figure out how to get my location (lat/lon) sent to my Google Map. The Extreme can send a GPS location to upto 5 recipients. Seems there would be an App that can put that into a Google Map.
Anybody know anything about this? Thanks.

[N3VR L8]

To send something like that you would need to have an active short burst data plan and a platform to interpret the data sent. There are 3rd party applications that do exactly what you are requesting.

[nolagal]

Do you know any?
I have been searching but haven't found anything?

[N3VR L8]

This link may help.

Iridium | Products | AWS Global Alerting Platform

There also is one called gsattrack, I believe.

[nolagal]

Thanks, my job today is to see if I can solve this. We leave in about 3 weeks to head East from Belize ending in Puerto Rico in the summer. Into the trades and current, oh well!

[N3VR L8]

Originally Posted by nolagal

Thanks, my job today is to see if I can solve this. We leave in about 3 weeks to head East from Belize ending in Puerto Rico in the summer. Into the trades and current, oh well!

Ah, yea tracking can be quite useful.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[madsb]

Originally Posted by nolagal

The Extreme can send a GPS location to upto 5 recipients.

Does it send its position as a text mesage (SMS)? What does that text message look like? Is it correct that what you need is an app to run on these (up to 5) receipients phones so they will be able to see where the sender are on a map? Or should it just be posted at a google maps based website where everyone can follow the sender?

[Luke_Y]

Per the users guide it sends this msg as a link, so im not sure you could integrate that into your google map.

To Share your location, use the 2-way Navi-key to select your desired
Share method and press the left soft key, labeled Select. This feature
will pre-populate a Web link to your location that will be sent to your
designated recipient(s). These recipients will be able to click this Web
link that is viewable on a smartphone, tablet, or computer’s Internet
browser. This information is not stored by Iridium and is subject to
Iridium’s Privacy Policy posted on Iridium.com and Google Maps’s Terms
of Service posted on the mapping page. Standard messaging rates
apply for use of this service and no additional fees will be charged for
use of the mapping feature.

The other option being a purchased service as described below;

Your Iridium Extreme® also supports integration with 3rd party online
portals using short burst data (SBD). These 3rd party online portals provide
the ability to track your phone’s location online, see location history,
two-way message, set-up geofences, and coordinate scheduled checkins.
This capability is helpful if you are managing a fleet of phones and
need to monitor workflow and/or safety with a solution that provides
more robust capabilities than standard messaging. For more information
about 3rd party online portal integration, contact your service provider or
visit How to Buy - Portal Partners - Iridium Extreme for
available Portal Partners.
Your Service Provider or designated portal provider will be able to advise
you on the appropriate service package required to enable this capability.
This service must be provisioned separately. Registration of the device
can be managed from the “Location Options” section of the menu under
“Portal Options” to “Register” or obtain “Portal Status” of the phone and
information on your designated provider.

[msponer]

From the excerpt of the manual, it looks like they are just sending a link to google maps with the lat and lon in the url. If so, its very easy to extract it and use it another way.

[Ozbullwinkle]

I used an Iridium Extreme on a recent passage from St Marten and across the Pacific. Ours also had the Axcesspoint module which also allows you to send and receive emails which allows you to receive any of the weather data through Sailmail which is quite extensive and the file size is small.

For tracking our position we sent an SMS to a brilliant free website which had been developed by a CF member but unfortunately he has now disabled it as he said it was not attracting much interest from the sailing community. This is such a shame as it posted your position on Google Earth and you could also send a 160 character SMS along with your position report. It was called bluewatersailingdata.com and we were the first to use it on an ocean crossing.

Maybe if enough people contacted him (his name is on the website) we could persuade him to bring it back. It may be worth opening a thread titled Bring Back Bluewatersailingdata.com but he is cruising at the moment so he may not be in a position to do so.