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Comment by Breefield | Hacker News Reader

I betcha it's https://gristleking.com, he's been advocating for paragliders to use LoRaWAN for a tertiary emergency communications network (primary being Garmin's Iridium network, then cell or perhaps iOS 14's GPS SOS).

The idea is to have multiple means of calling for help + tracking location when free-flying.

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I don't think iOS's SOS feature is feasible from a paraglider. You have to point it at a specific direction for a while to get a message out. An air band radio at 121.500 (emergency frequency) would make more sense (with the required permits of course)

InReach should work well though from a paraglider as a primary SOS.

From a paraglider: we are definitely paying attention to the new iphone SOS feature, many of us who fly over wilderness areas carry a spot or in-reach. We never activate in the air (no point), so having to point it in a specific direction is not an issue. Being blocked by limbs or terrain would be an issue.

Some people carry air-band radios, but largely we use the ham frequencies. Air band would be of limited utility for emergencies since we would just be using an aircraft as a relay to ATC to SAR. Satellite trackers have one button that does all of that without having to deal with air-band.

Ok I've never flown paragliders, but I have flown regular gliders. We did have air band radios on board anyway - not just for emergencies but also to communicate with other air traffic of course. Today they even have to carry ADS-B transponders, but when I did it that rule was not in place yet.

I'm surprised you use the ham frequencies, I'm also a ham but if I wasn't it would be a bit annoying having to study for the ham exam just because I would want to paraglide. For the air band there is another procedural exam here in Europe but that's ok because you really need to know how to behave on that band. But the ham exam is really focused on building your own radios which a paraglider would have no need for.

Typically you'd be landed before making an emergency call. But I definitely wouldn't wanna use my iPhone as an inReach replacement, supplement only.

So he accomplishes it by covertly installing thousands of dollars of hardware on PUBLIC land and opening himself up to thousands more dollars in recovery fees? Not likely.

He might be at one of the higher levels on the Helium "pyramid" (sorry-- couldn't think of a better term).

A year ago, that may have meant significant earnings.

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