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Beartooth

beartooth.com

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Re: Beartooth

#121

Post by jrowley »

andrewljohnson wrote: post #44
jdietrich wrote: post #30

As with any smartphone product being marketed for use in wilderness environments, a note of caution is necessary. Rescue services have seen an increasing number of life-threatening situations caused by the unwise use of smartphones. Phones aren't sufficiently rugged and often lack user-replaceable batteries, so cannot be relied upon as a navigation tool or as a means of emergency communication. If you're considering…

I agree it's foolish to do a dangerous trip with just one navigation method. But that doesn't mean your phone isn't a good tool, or that we'd have less emergencies if they didn't exist. I develop an app called Gaia GPS, which a vast array of backpackers, wildland firefighters, and SAR use as a tool to navigate in the woods. They use battery packs and rugged/insulating cases with their iPhone and Android devices to ma…

A bit off topic but the first thing I thought of when reading parent's comment was "What about Gaia GPS?". Thank you for that app/service! I really dig it. I've used it in Berkeley and all over the South Island of New Zealand and its been invaluable.

Re: Beartooth

#122

Post by froo »

In the "Ultralight" backpacking community, I don't see something like this taking off.

I remember watching a video the other day of a guy talking about his gear for the AT and he went so far as to cut his toothbrush down and even talked about drilling holes in the remaining handle to further cut down on weight.

Re: Beartooth

#123

Post by makomk »

sbierwagen wrote: post #42
freehunter wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been trying to solve an issue similar to what Beartooth is doing, and 2 miles is amazing range. Bear in mind, these aren't huge towers hundreds of feet above the ground with 50kWh power sources and million dollar price tags, they're battery-powered, handheld, and consumer-priced. And cell towers with all the advantages listed only travel less than 20 miles. 2 miles with those limitations is a great distance. I t…

2 miles is amazing range. Bear in mind, these aren't huge towers hundreds of feet above the ground with 50kWh power sources and million dollar price tags, they're battery-powered, handheld, and consumer-priced This guy did 7,600Km at 10mW on the 30m band, using a raspberry pi and a couple passives: https://gerolfziegenhain.wordpress.com/2013/04/13/raspi-as-w... Of course, the antenna was 44 feet long, and he was tran…

It's true that you don't need much power if both parties have ham radio licences, 44 foot wide antennas hoisted 30 foot into the air, and are willing to transmit unencrypted and very slowly. License-free handheld consumer gear is basically limited to UHF, which is pretty much line-of-sight.

Re: Beartooth

#125

Post by kcbanner »

Why do companies insist on disabling the youtube controls when embedding. I want to turn the volume down but I have to copy the URL and watch on youtube instead.

Re: Beartooth

#127

Post by bduerst »

micha_ross wrote: post #118
linksbro wrote: post #4

It transmits via some sub-1ghz free spectrum bands, which travel a good distance and have decent structure penetration. https://beartooth.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/216797018-Wh... This is why unlicensed spectrum bands are great; they allow for stuff like this to be built without a billion dollar spectrum price tag.

Anyone else think its kinda sketchy that they're just saying "sub-1Ghz" frequencies? There aren't a ton of options there, and they aren't secret information. This sounds like they're either heavy on the vaporware side of things and haven't figured out what they're doing, which doesn't bode well for them shipping anytime soon, or they are trying to do something which the FCC isn't going to approve, which again doesn't…

>Anyone else think its kinda sketchy that they're just saying "sub-1Ghz" frequencies?

No. Why is that sketchy?

It's probably because it's different from their competition and they don't want to release that signal yet. I don't remember GoTenna pre-releasing their exact frequencies either.

Re: Beartooth

#128

Post by tomphoolery »

jdietrich wrote: post #30

As with any smartphone product being marketed for use in wilderness environments, a note of caution is necessary. Rescue services have seen an increasing number of life-threatening situations caused by the unwise use of smartphones. Phones aren't sufficiently rugged and often lack user-replaceable batteries, so cannot be relied upon as a navigation tool or as a means of emergency communication. If you're considering…

> An FRS radio and a Garmin Etrex cost about the same, but are vastly better suited to the task.

That's what I was about to post...like why am I paying for a WHOLE NEW DEVICE?

Re: Beartooth

#129

Post by oasisbob »

baldfat wrote: post #107
oasisbob wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget about the $65 licensing fee to operate the GMRS radios legally, which can only be used by the applicant and their immediate family: https://www.fcc.gov/general/general-mobile-radio-service-gmr...

FRS = free the GMRS is not on by default and has to be programmed into the unit.

You're not going to get 23 miles or anything close to it with the FRS 500mW.

Re: Beartooth

#130

Post by chadzawistowski »

micha_ross wrote: post #118
linksbro wrote: post #4

It transmits via some sub-1ghz free spectrum bands, which travel a good distance and have decent structure penetration. https://beartooth.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/216797018-Wh... This is why unlicensed spectrum bands are great; they allow for stuff like this to be built without a billion dollar spectrum price tag.

Anyone else think its kinda sketchy that they're just saying "sub-1Ghz" frequencies? There aren't a ton of options there, and they aren't secret information. This sounds like they're either heavy on the vaporware side of things and haven't figured out what they're doing, which doesn't bode well for them shipping anytime soon, or they are trying to do something which the FCC isn't going to approve, which again doesn't…

~900MHz is pretty common for this sort of thing. I have a friend who uses the 900MHz spectrum for communicating with a hobby weather balloon.
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