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GPS and tinfoil hats


Mofino

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I don't know if this is the correct forum for this post but it does fall under unusual so here it is:

 

About a month ago when I first got my GPS I was camping on state land (NY) and walking down a dirt road playing with my GPS. A guy was camping off the road a ways from me and when I walked by he says"GPS?"...

 

I thought he was just a friendly type who knows about GPS and geocaching so I told him I had just bought it and was practicing tracking back to my campsite...

 

All of a sudden he yells out angrily "Go point that thing at your own campsite, don't be pointing that GPS near my campsite!!" :laughing: I wasn't even pointing it at him (not that it would matter). I was just walking by holding the GPS in front of me a couple hundred feet from his campsite...

 

I told him I was on a state forest road and said I'll use my GPS as I want to and kept walking back to my campsite but it left me with an uneasy feeling of why this guy was so paranoid of GPS's...

 

Than last night I was talking to my brother in law who had never heard of geocaching before about my new Garmin Vista HCx and he starts telling me that that the government is gonna crackdown on GPS's being so accurate because of terrorism... yada yada yada.

 

I explained to him that the government turned off selective availability in in 2000 and it was highly unlikely that they would turn it on again because of pressure from the FAA as well as the fact that it would be a hazard and costly to to US and foreign shipping but he kept insisting that he had read all about how they were gonna put a stop to civilians having accurate GPS's. I think he has been reading Tinfoil Hat Monthly... :wub:

 

Did you ever hear of people being paranoid about GPS's or have any interesting/unusual stories of people giving you a hard time for having a GPS?

 

Bob

Edited by Mofino
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GPS-Enabled Cell Phones

The increased demand for enhanced 911 (e911) emergency calling capabilities, stimulated by the events of 11 September 2001, has pushed forward GPS tracking technology in cell phones. At the end of 2005, all cell phone carriers were required to provide the ability to trace cell phone calls to a location within 100 meters or less.

 

To comply with FCC requirements, cell phone carriers decided to integrate GPS technology into cell phone handsets, rather than overhaul the tower network. However the GPS in most cell phones are not like those in your handy GPS receiver that you take hiking. Most cell phones do not allow the user direct access to the GPS data, accurate location determination requires the assistance of the wireless network, and the GPS data is transmitted only if a 911 emergency call is made.

 

Naw. All you need is a cell phone, and you can be tracked anywhere.

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:cry: I think Harry hit the nail on the head. About a month ago in the Madison area, a girl was abbducted and killed, left in a wooded area. The ploice found her body 10 days later by gps tracking her cell phone. Now, I never did hear one way or the other, but I believe her phone must have been turned off or she had the best cell phone battery I ever heard of to last at least 10 days.

 

Now I personally never bought into the story that the gps signal comes from satellites in space. No, I believe they come from alien UFO's in space and that is why at some caches my signal jumps around so much. The UFO is starting to home in on me and that's why you must find the cache quickly and then run away from the area as quickly as possible after putting your gpsr back in its lead lined, foil covered case. :cry:

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:) I think Harry hit the nail on the head. About a month ago in the Madison area, a girl was abbducted and killed, left in a wooded area. The ploice found her body 10 days later by gps tracking her cell phone. Now, I never did hear one way or the other, but I believe her phone must have been turned off or she had the best cell phone battery I ever heard of to last at least 10 days.

It's not done by GPS tracking but by the same principle. It's triangulation off cellular towers. A fairly simple procedure. Do it all the time when we (law enforcement) would get notified of overdue travelers. Also some other LE uses which I won't go into here but they require a warrant.

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GPS-Enabled Cell Phones

The increased demand for enhanced 911 (e911) emergency calling capabilities, stimulated by the events of 11 September 2001, has pushed forward GPS tracking technology in cell phones. At the end of 2005, all cell phone carriers were required to provide the ability to trace cell phone calls to a location within 100 meters or less.

 

To comply with FCC requirements, cell phone carriers decided to integrate GPS technology into cell phone handsets, rather than overhaul the tower network. However the GPS in most cell phones are not like those in your handy GPS receiver that you take hiking. Most cell phones do not allow the user direct access to the GPS data, accurate location determination requires the assistance of the wireless network, and the GPS data is transmitted only if a 911 emergency call is made.

 

Naw. All you need is a cell phone, and you can be tracked anywhere.

 

Maybe we should wrap our phones in foil?

Link to comment
GPS-Enabled Cell Phones

The increased demand for enhanced 911 (e911) emergency calling capabilities, stimulated by the events of 11 September 2001, has pushed forward GPS tracking technology in cell phones. At the end of 2005, all cell phone carriers were required to provide the ability to trace cell phone calls to a location within 100 meters or less.

 

To comply with FCC requirements, cell phone carriers decided to integrate GPS technology into cell phone handsets, rather than overhaul the tower network. However the GPS in most cell phones are not like those in your handy GPS receiver that you take hiking. Most cell phones do not allow the user direct access to the GPS data, accurate location determination requires the assistance of the wireless network, and the GPS data is transmitted only if a 911 emergency call is made.

 

Naw. All you need is a cell phone, and you can be tracked anywhere.

 

Maybe we should wrap our phones in foil?

"Can you hear me now?"
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To paraphrase Freud: Just because you happen to be paranoid, does not mean that you don't actually have enemies. :(

 

No, no, no, you haven't got it quite right yet, and I probably won't either. It's what stoners say to each other. "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that everybody isn't out to get you". :(

 

Please pass the tinfoil, which is actually aluminum foil, but I have other issues, OK? :mad:

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I believe her phone must have been turned off or she had the best cell phone battery I ever heard of to last at least 10 days.

 

My phone easily goes two weeks if I'm not using it.

Yes, if turned off, the batteries in my cell phone hold a usable charge for at least a couple of months. If it is turned on (but using no charger), I can usually get 6 days out of it if I make no calls and receive no calls.

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I believe her phone must have been turned off or she had the best cell phone battery I ever heard of to last at least 10 days.

 

My phone easily goes two weeks if I'm not using it.

 

Obviously not a Motorola Razr. Those pieces of poopie barely last a day even if you don't use it.

 

 

Now that's weird I use my Razr and let it go for 3-4 days without charging and no problems. Maybe a bad battery? My sister just took her Motorola phone back after sending it back 3 times and they told her it was a dead cell in the battery. It's worked great since they put a new battery in it.

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I had one of my friends start to get weird with me for having a GPS with me one day when we were going to go hang out, and he was just positive that "they" could "track us". :( I must destroy this ignorance like sandblasting a saltine cracker.

 

I started off explaining that GPS signal works off of reccieving time signals from satalites, and that a GPSr has no ability to transmit information. After a very short crash course in that, he still didn't believe me. So I asked if he had his phone on him that day.

 

I started to explain about the FCCs' Enhanced 911 act, in 2002 the government mandated that all cellphones be able to have the ability to give the 911 system your location data within 150 feet. (Either true GPS or just Triangulation off cell towers). I mentioned that even though you can turn off the position reporting in general, that it will always report to 911. I also pointed out that even if his phone had absolutely no location awareness, that someone with access to whichever cell network he was on could easily take his Cell ID and triangulate position fairly easily. erm, that's uh, with a court order ofcourse B):unsure:

 

All the sudden he didn't want to talk about this anymore and didn't hassle me about the GPSr again.

Edited by Double Agents
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:cool: I think Harry hit the nail on the head. About a month ago in the Madison area, a girl was abbducted and killed, left in a wooded area. The ploice found her body 10 days later by gps tracking her cell phone. Now, I never did hear one way or the other, but I believe her phone must have been turned off or she had the best cell phone battery I ever heard of to last at least 10 days.

 

Now I personally never bought into the story that the gps signal comes from satellites in space. No, I believe they come from alien UFO's in space and that is why at some caches my signal jumps around so much. The UFO is starting to home in on me and that's why you must find the cache quickly and then run away from the area as quickly as possible after putting your gpsr back in its lead lined, foil covered case. :cool:

 

 

Just a tidbit of info. If the phone was off it would not send a signal! :cool:

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About a month ago in the Madison area, a girl was abbducted and killed, left in a wooded area. The ploice found her body 10 days later by gps tracking her cell phone. Now, I never did hear one way or the other, but I believe her phone must have been turned off or she had the best cell phone battery I ever heard of to last at least 10 days.

 

I would think the police would just put a waypoint where the signal was and just search from there.

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About a month ago in the Madison area, a girl was abbducted and killed, left in a wooded area. The ploice found her body 10 days later by gps tracking her cell phone. Now, I never did hear one way or the other, but I believe her phone must have been turned off or she had the best cell phone battery I ever heard of to last at least 10 days.

 

I would think the police would just put a waypoint where the signal was and just search from there.

The triangulation using cell phone is not as accurate as GPS coords. With cell phone triangulation the best we could get was within 300 ft radius. That's a lot of territory in the brush if they got the best signals. If they didn't get the best signals then that radius opens up a lot.

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About a month ago in the Madison area, a girl was abbducted and killed, left in a wooded area. The ploice found her body 10 days later by gps tracking her cell phone. Now, I never did hear one way or the other, but I believe her phone must have been turned off or she had the best cell phone battery I ever heard of to last at least 10 days.

 

I would think the police would just put a waypoint where the signal was and just search from there.

The triangulation using cell phone is not as accurate as GPS coords. With cell phone triangulation the best we could get was within 300 ft radius. That's a lot of territory in the brush if they got the best signals. If they didn't get the best signals then that radius opens up a lot.

All cell phones have a chip inside them that are trackable with a GPS that is only available to 911 and police. Police and emergency workers can pin point to where any cellular signal is coming from. Who knows if the aliens have figured out how to use this technology, if they have, everyone who has a cell phone is screwed lol. Wonder if covering ur cell in tinfoil would help.

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All cell phones have a chip inside them that are trackable with a GPS that is only available to 911 and police. Police and emergency workers can pin point to where any cellular signal is coming from. Who knows if the aliens have figured out how to use this technology, if they have, everyone who has a cell phone is screwed lol. Wonder if covering ur cell in tinfoil would help.

I am aware of the "chip" and triangulation. I spent 35 yrs in LE with about 20 yrs conducting and supervising nvestigations at the federal and state level. The "pinpoint" isn't quite as accurate as GPSr. There's still a bigger fudge factor unless we wanted to get really close which took a bit more doing than what would be expended for a lost person. I won't go into what that involves.

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I live on the Mendocino Coast in California and for the longest time we couldn't get a cell tower in the village of Mendocino because some of the residents claimed that they could hear the cell conversations and that it would kill them because of the radio activity (pun fully intended). Finally there was a site privately installed and a few of the individuals that were against it moved out of town because of the noise in their heads. I am very careful with my GPSr where ever I go in the area.

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I live on the Mendocino Coast in California and for the longest time we couldn't get a cell tower in the village of Mendocino because some of the residents claimed that they could hear the cell conversations and that it would kill them because of the radio activity (pun fully intended). Finally there was a site privately installed and a few of the individuals that were against it moved out of town because of the noise in their heads. I am very careful with my GPSr where ever I go in the area.

 

Shaw, people from California should have been your first clue.

 

I should know, I was born there.

 

Hold on, I have another call coming in. Dang party lines. :P

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Dang! I thought my aunt was the last person on North America with a Party Line, and she died in 1975. Utilities cannot force you to upgrade. They have to offer you the price that you signe dup for, originally. I refuse to pay the extra ten cents a month for touch tone phone service. Rotary is fine for me! So what if there hasn't been rotary service in ten years! They cannot make my pay that extra ten cents a month!

It should be noted that tin foil has not been available for maybe thirty years. That's aluminum foil that your supermarket sells you...

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I live on the Mendocino Coast in California and for the longest time we couldn't get a cell tower in the village of Mendocino because some of the residents claimed that they could hear the cell conversations and that it would kill them because of the radio activity (pun fully intended). Finally there was a site privately installed and a few of the individuals that were against it moved out of town because of the noise in their heads. I am very careful with my GPSr where ever I go in the area.

 

I suspect that there are a few areas in Mendocino (and Humboldt, Trinity, etc) where walking around the woods with a GPS might annoy some of the "crop producing" residents.

 

For those unfamiliar with Mendocino county (I was born in Ft. Bragg) when thing died down around Haight Ashbury and lot of the people moved up the coast and now live in Mendocino county.

 

BTW, it's been a few years since I've been there but there appears to be a cache on a bench way out on the point in Makerricher park. Since my grandparents lived in Cleone I used to spend many a day as a ute in that park.

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A friend at work has now joined geo.com, but refuses to have a gps or a cell phone. He loves to hike/bike trails and often hits the AT. We always get some comment on a new 5/5 grabbed (which shows he's watching ME ) but won't tag along, due to us with our cells/gps.

 

His reason - "The government (and not just the one we know about) knows where you are at all times. You no longer have any privacy whatsoever. They pinpoint where you are and can zoom in, watching you poop if they want."

 

It's 1984 all over again...

 

Every morning after work, he gets into his newer GM truck ... with onstar :)

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