telemetry to GPS

[Falcon Boy]

is it possible to hook up a telemetry unit to a GPS to get the approximate location of your bird?

[Jay]

Yes there is a system already made for birds like this. It uses the back pack harness that many western long wingers are using. Instead of just telemitry it has GPS. I don't rember the name but I have a link to their web site sitting around somwhere.

[raptrlvr]

I checked with the guy who makes the R-400 about GPS transmitters. He said that they do have them now, but, the cost to hook up to the service of the satellites is way up around $10,000 to $15,000. He did say that eventually those cost would come down the more people that hook up to the service. Right now some of the major reasearch centers have this service because of grants from the government and so forth. It would certainly pinpoint your birds location when lost.

[Falcon Boy]

lol, that price is a tad outrageous. Thanks!

[Weasel]

The system being used in the UK is not really a true GPS from what I understand. It uses a similar triangulation via signals from a transmitter picked up by the receiver which is then fed into a laptop computor that displays an approximate triangulation of the birds location. The GPS units shown in evey spy movie out there are rather expensive at best as raptrlvr also noted.

[raptrlvr]

I think this is the way it works, but, if not, someone correct me. There would have to be a main company or individual to hook up to the service of the satellite and pay the $10 to $15,000. You would then have subscribers to the main company for the use of thier service. Your monthly/annual fee would be according to how many subscribers you have plus whatever profit the main company would charge. I think there are only about 3500 to 4000 falconers in the US and you know a lot of them would not want to use this service. So it would probably take a while for the price to become reasonable.

[Weasel]

Here is a link that Talks about true GPS triangulation.
www.trimble.com/gps/triangulating1.html