Tracking device for you canopy!

[freeflajankie 0]

I have searched around for a tracking device that you can use on your canopy.
I had an intentional cut away this weekend and I wasn't paying attention to where I cut the canopy away. So we spent hours and days looking for that canopy. After 3 days search we found it...

Now I have this idea of putting a small inexpensive tracking device on your risers and maybe on your spring-loaded reserve P/C as well.
It's a small tracking device that wouldn't interfere with your gear.

Now the "problem" is that it's no point in having a tracking device if you don't have the tracker right. And normally this is the totally way expensive part. But the company I'm in touch with has a transmitter that you can fit in your pocket.
This device is about $550.00 and then the receiver part around $15.00
Would you all be interested in having your Dropzone invest in a tracking device and then you pay say around $25.00 for the receiver? That way the DZ won't have to put up much money to get the tracker. And I will all break kind of even.

You can buy as many receivers as you want on each tracker.
And of course I have to investigate so they are not all the same receivers, because it would suck to find all the canopies in the air and lying around the Dropzone.
You obviously just want it to search for your canopy.

But guys think of the time you would save on looking for that canopy.
You don’t have to follow the canopy down to a risky bushy area.

Thanks for your time and input!

Ankie

Skydivers are a bunch of insensitive jerks...
And that's why I don't skydive anymore!

[darkwing 5]

There is a guy at my DZ who said he'd pay for the base station, and those wanting the individual canopy units could pay for them, and give him a few dollars, say $20-$25 for rescuse involving his base station.

Edit: I seem to recall that these devices already exist, but I searched a few months ago and couldn't find them.

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

[Chivo 0]

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that the transmitter is the one that should be on the gear, and you use the receiver to find it?

How does it work? GPS? RF?

~Chivo

[FrogNog 1]

Most of our intentional cutaway canopies are worth less than the $550 for the device that would have to be attached to the cutaway canopy, I reckon.

-=-=-=-=-
Pull.

[shropshire 0]

Quote

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that the transmitter is the one that should be on the gear, and you use the receiver to find it?

Maybe not.... what about an avanlanche type rescue device.... you have a passive device in your ski jacket and then the searchers uses a tracker to find you.

These passive devices are small, light and cheap (and easily available) and could easily be fitted to your para gear.... The all you would need is a single searcher unit at each DZ that could be loaned out to find your gear.

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[Chivo 0]

Quote

Maybe not.... what about an avanlanche type rescue device.... you have a passive device in your ski jacket and then the searchers uses a tracker to find you.

These passive devices are small, light and cheap (and easily available) and could easily be fitted to your para gear.... The all you would need is a single searcher unit at each DZ that could be loaned out to find your gear.

I thought that you need a device that can transmit on whatever it is you need to recover (people/canopies/etc). In which case, the receiver (which you have in your hands) can get the signal and tell you in which direction to go, to find the transmitter.

If the canopy has the receiver, it will receive the signal from the transmitter, and then what? It must emit sound or something for you to be able to find it. Otherwise, it will just receive the signal and do nothing...that is, being just a receiver.

Depending on the complexity of the receiver, it could know from which direction the signal is coming, but it has no way of notifying the transmitter. So, if you have the transmitter on your hands... how would you find the receiver?

~Chivo

[shropshire 0]

The RECO on a ski suit is passive (no tranmitter) it simply reflects the signal sent out by a device operated by the searcher. The reflect signal can then be pinponted by direction finding etc..
I dont know the working range, but it seems to work O.K for locating buried people

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[skydiver30960 0]

I've tried to get some interest going at my past couple of DZs, including the one that Darkwing is from. Hey JW, wazzup? Who's wanting to sponsor the system, Jack? Anyhow here's what I wanted to use:

Go to www.marshallradio.com. They're a company that provides transmitters used by falconers. The transmitter is about the size of two bottlecaps stuck together (a unit of measure all skydivers are familiar with i'm sure) with about 6-8" of steel fishing line for an antenna. It runs off of hearing-aid type batteries and gets about 8 days of constant transmission. So, if you only jump on weekends, and turn off the transmitter every weekend after jumping, you'll have to change the batteries once a month. Best place to go with it would be sewing a pocket on the riser near the three ring (not too close) since the antenna is flexible and you need access to the transmitter to turn it on if the rig is packed. Cost for the transmitter: $120-200.

The recievers cost $300-1500 depending on how many channels you want. The biggies have 100+ channels so every main canopy on the DZ can have it's own channel. You could get by with 10-15 channels too, just keep a list of who is on what channel and if somebody has a cutaway you need to do a little homework to make sure everybody elses' transmitters (who is at the DZ) are turned off while you find the missing one. They have attenuators (sp) installed, so you can get maximum reception when you're far away, then tune it down when you're closer to get close to the target. The guy says they can find a bird, at night, hiding in tall grass. Literally step on it if they're not paying attention.

I think this would be a great system for a DZ to buy. Invest in a good receiver, and sell or lease the transmitters to the jumpers. When a jumper returns a transmitter, give them back "a deposit" to keep them happy, then turn around and sell that same transmitter to the next guy. The $1500 receiver would be a bit of a purchase, but it's paid off the first time you pull a canopy out of a hiding place you wouldn't have found otherwise.

The biggest resistance I have found is the argument that "normally we find them anyhow" and nobody wants to spend the money until it's too late i.e. the main is already lost. I, for one, would love to see this system in place, and would definitely be installing one on my main.

(p.s. would be tough to get them on freebags though. would be difficult to change batteries, and would probably void the tso on the system. Plus you're spending $200 to protect a $200 freebag, not as good a ROI as a $2000 canopy)

Elvisio "spent hours last weekend looking for a buddy's main, never found it" Rodriguez

[Chivo 0]

Ah, that's the thing. It reflects the signal. That was the part I didn't understand.

Yeah, I'm sure something like that could work, but like you said... depends on the actual range.

~Chivo

[Chrisky 0]

I looked into it last year considering the RECCO system. I used to jump at a DZ that was pretty much in the middle of a big forest and cutaway canopies would usually take some time to befound, sometimes a week.
The Recco Reflector is pretty small and coud be sewn to the risers (one each side). The trouble is that 1st of all you'd need to have the reflectors and second you'd need the detector, a big unit that can be used from a helo for searching, and that thing doesn't have a price tag but can only be rented from RECCO IIRC. The smaller, shortrange detectors for skiing patrols wouldn't be good enough, and they are still quite expensive.
I figured for the system to work, you would kinda have to get it to a decent number of DZs, but i don't think there are enough DZs close to tricky terrain that doe have the budget to fund all that equipment.

And i never got an email reply from Recco on my inquiries...

The mind is like a parachute - it only works once it's open.
From the edge you just see more.
... Not every Swooper hooks & not every Hooker swoops ...

[kingbunky 3]

...better still, design or adapt the system so that the transmitter is off until a cutaway. . no interference from canopies that aren't lost, no swapping batteries all the time. it could ba attached to the risers and connected to the container by something like the rsl, but it wouldn't have to be nearly as heavy-duty.

"Hang on a sec, the young'uns are throwin' beer cans at a golf cart."
MB4252 TDS699
killing threads since 2001

[freeflajankie 0]

I talked to recco aswell because to me that seemed to be the best idea.
however they said it wouldn't work, It needs a pretty clear pass to find the lost person/parachute So for example dence woods, would cut the signal.
Also their tracking device is very expensive.
That's why I went for this other option.

I guess I have to keep track of my canopy...

The company that I talked to said that if I wanted to have several different frequencies it would cost way more.
He suggested that if you loose your canopy, tell all the other ones to turn off their signal and then go look for your canopy...
I Think not

Skydivers are a bunch of insensitive jerks...
And that's why I don't skydive anymore!

[riggerrob 643]

The trick to saving battery life is a pull-to-activate switch. That way the device would only activate after it separates from the harness during a cutaway.

As to the value ??? After Jesse spent the better part of Sunday tripping through blackberry bushes and rain forest searching for his - almost new - Stiletto, Jesse relented and to borrowed a - $1,000/hour - helicopter and a chain saw!

[Chrisky 0]

Quote

After Jesse spent the better part of Sunday tripping through blackberry bushes and rain forest searching for his - almost new - Stiletto, Jesse relented and to borrowed a - $1,000/hour - helicopter and a chain saw!

YIKES!

Hope he got a rebate and could cut it out quickly!

Well, usually if people would not pay attention where their canopies landed (in the woods near Spa/B), the pilot would do a low pass of the area on approach for one of the next loads, an usually saw it. Was Part of the reason i have stripes of really bright colors on my canopy and a custom color (neon yellow) Freebag...
The Recco system doesn't need batteries for the gear-attached part, as you only need to attach reflectors. The reflector goes for i think like 5 $ a pair.
The detector works kind of like Radar with radio frequencies/magnetic field lines (might be i'm mixing things up with the Orthovox principle), so you have a portable device that is a sender and receiver at the same time, as it detects the location of the strongest reflection. It will work good in snow conditions, but as soon as the terrain gets more complicated (like woods) it looses range badly (like thoser handheld radios).

It's too bad, as the reflectors are great in size to sew it in (almost) anywhere you want without causing a big hassle. They are about 0.5-0.75 inches wide and about 2 inches long strips (Aproximate number outta my head, but shouldn't differ much). That in conjuntion with the battery-less principle made it so promising for use. Too bad the detector falls short at exactly what we would need it for (and the price tag of course).

The mind is like a parachute - it only works once it's open.
From the edge you just see more.
... Not every Swooper hooks & not every Hooker swoops ...