Can a GPS beacon react, like a cell phone can ring?

Question

For instance, if the beacon were attached to a car that went out of a prescribed area, could it set off an alarm on its own? Or is it just capable of sending location data?

Answer 1

No but im sure that it can send you alerts,

Answer 2

you need to understand a couple things first...



GPS - is the Global Position Satellite... it orbits the earth



What you have a is GPS RECEIVER. It receives the date stream that is sent by the GPS.



The data stream has several sentences of meaningful data.



You parse off the data you want to use.



IF you use a computer, running a map program, you can set boundries and when your posit exceeds the boundries, it can ping you... a reverse proximity alarm.



Then you need to transmit that alarm to a central receiver, and this is the difficult part - this requires a license and a radio service that permits data transmissions.



There are two services that I know that allow data, one is licensed, the other is not.

Amateur Radio is licensed and the hams are already doing what you want, www.aprs.net



The other is unlicensed and is low power and subject to interference, that is the MURS service.







The best solution is Google Earth, a cell phone with a built in GPS, and Google's Latitude service.

Answer 3

In theory, yes, you could have a GPS receiver report basic lat/long to a computer, which can execute an action if the recever falls out of a range.

Answer 4

That does not sound unrealistic, but check the web sites for companies that handle GPS tracking equipment.