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Garmin To Marry GPS with FRS/GMRS
zornorph writes "Garmin is set to come out with the Garmin RINO in June, which integrates FRS and GMRS radio with a GPS unit, which will give it up to a 5 mile range of communication. Garmin has a unique twist though, to quote their site: "What really separates the Rino from the rest of the FRS herd is the ability to "beam" your exact location to another Rino user within a two-mile range using the FRS spectrum." However, there are concerns about the implementation of this "beaming", as it causes interference with GMRS users."
Shame the devices look like military-supplied ice-lollies...
Generally its not a good idea for a company to screw wtih the FCC's carefully regulated spectrum. I'd image Garmin would get in a lot of trouble if they interfered with any other band. But, because Garmin is a large company with lots of influence and most of the GMRS users are small potatoes by comparison I doubt the FCC will do anything other than urge them to be more careful about staying withing their bands.
It would be cool if someone came out with some of those devices that offered some kind of data connection. Probably a bit slow, but if it's free it could offer some nice features.
I will add the Garmin RINO to my list of iPod, mobile phone, pager, PDA, car keys, smokes, and wallet, that I have to remember when I leave my cube. Can anyone spare a pocket?
And it's called APRS/Packet radio.
Which also can allow for messages and weather data.
And the associated packet TNCs can allow for low speed data, as one poster asked for.
"All those tubes and wires and careful notes!"
the location beaming seams slightly gimmiky. you could just as soon tell the person where you are(it is a radio after all.)
I think these would be far more versatile devices if instead of looking like a rhino horn, they implemented a bottle-opener.
As for "interference", well, it's not radio interference people are talking about, it's the use of channels for data that were designated for voice services. I mean, why stop at transmitting 100bytes or so? If this use is permitted, why not run a wireless modem over it?
Altogether, both the patent and the abuse of voice spectrum for data services reflect poorly on Garmin.
Just what the parents need! an electric leash for the children! Imagine.. you're at disneyland and your parents tell you.. "Ok honey.. we're going to go relax.. here you go.. keep in touch with us" and then every 5 minutes they tell the kid to beam their location PRONTO to them.. so they know EXACTLY how far their scrawny ass is!
"Hey! Get away from that ride! you're too short for that ride!"
The Rhino is a very interesting new product, but it's certainly not unique. Check out this recently introduced product from Audiovox.
Another thing worth considering is that these radios are only available in the United States. They are GMRS radios (not FRS) and owners need to have a GMRS license from the FCC (cost $70).
/Don
-adam
--------------
"I rule. -aron"
Garmin is set to come out with the Garmin RINO in June, which integrates FRS and GMRS radio with a GPS unit, which will give it up to a 5 mile range of communication.
Okay, I guess this makes me a bad nerd, but I have no clue what FRS or GMRS are. I'm cool on GPS though. Anybody care to explain? And in the future, can you please expand the acronyms in submitted stories, or at least link to explanations? As it is, I don't have the faintest idea why it's newsworthy for Garmin to combine GPS and FMRS or what that enables one to do.
rooooar
A good joke involving RMS
BRAIN FREEZE!
Those who do not study Amateur radio are doomed to reinvent it.
We've had this "location beaming" capability for some time - it's called
APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System).
We've also had interference problems, a**holes on the bands, and repeaters causing interference. That's why we have licenses and are held accountable by the FCC - so that if somebody starts doing this, they get hit with a $8000 fine.
Just look at Children's Band (CB) - one big heterodyne squeal from end to end. Why did this happen? Because the FCC allowed anybody to use CB without a license, and stopped enforcing the law there. Now Chicken Band is like reading at -1.
If they want to stop this, the FCC needs to enforce the law. Go after anybody causing interference, require radio manufacturers to show their nifty new features don't cause harm, etc.
Otherwise, FRS will be CB at a higher frequency.
(And personally, I'm glad there's a place for these morons to play that isn't where I am trying to communicate.)
(Of course, many BPOFs (brass pounding old farts) will say the same about me, since I am a DSNCT (dirty stinking no-code tech).)
www.eFax.com are spammers
I live in Canada and heard about these a month ago. According to my favorite retailer, the Rino isn't approved for Canada yet. I looked into things in a little more detail and also discovered that travelling worldwide with GMRS equipment is of dubious legality outside the US.
GMRS use requires an FCC license (~$75 for 5 years, last time I checked). Manufacturers and retailers of low-end GMRS radios often conveniently neglect to mention that fact. See: http://wireless.fcc.gov/prs/genmbl.html
Am I the only one who thought that this was another Slashdot marriage proposal?
is transponder. It would be so cool/useful if you're trying to find a friend at a campground/concert/etc. is for you to be able to press a "where are you?" button, and have the other unit respond with its GPS location.
... its existing laws about regulated frequencies, and when it does, it does so selectively. I have a friend who lives in a huge planned housing development with acre-sized lots. Dave's neighbor runs a ham-style system with a huge antenna, and spends hours a day chatting with remote buddies. The interference from the system wreaks havoc on the entire neighborhood telephone, cable, and broadcast systems. Landline (even corded, not to mention cordless) telephones frequently are unusuable because of the interference. But despite repeated calls to the FCC from Dave and many of his neighbors, nothing is ever done. (Seems like a good use for some SEMTEX or a hand grenade.)
The point is, the FCC may have pretty strict laws about interference. And it may spent lots of bucks and time on Big Industry. But in my experience, the FCC has no interest in enforcing the laws for Mr. Small Guy - that is, unless Mr. Small Guy does something that gets Big Industry mad.
--Brandon / Split Infinity Music
Going to be an issue since the data stream is not legal on GMRS. Garmin has requested a wavor on data streams on FRS.
Quoted from:
http://www.provide.net/~prsg/wi-gmrs.htm
"All GMRS licensees must cooperate in the selection and use of the assigned frequencies. For more than two decades the FCC has cautioned commercial and industrial GMRS licensees that they must cooperate with personal/family users. The FCC further advised these entities that if they did not wish to cooperate with personal licensees, they should instead relicense for one of the other private land mobile radio services. (The PRSG can provide you with a copy of this important 1977 FCC Public Notice.)
The GMRS is not "the other business radio service," the FCC emphasized in adopting new GMRS rules effective in 1989."
-- dieman - Scott Dier
for Lojack type applications. Stuff one inside the dash or in a fender and connect to be powered by cars electrical system in case the battery runs down. If your car gets stolen you can track it down. In Lojack systems, only the police have access to this info and will deal with it "when they get around to it." Also makes it easy to tail a spouse susspected of cheating or making sure that if they kids borrow the car, they really are just going to the library.
The short answer was: If you decide to broadcast your position on some frequency, anyone on that frequency (esp with a RINO) would have you.
It won't be useful for my paintball needs until I can be sure the other guy doesn't know exactly where I am.
Where is the spread spectrum version???
-anon $.02
Does his wife know? And isn't polygamy illegal anyways?
The Rino 120 looks great as it has the capacity to store uploaded maps from CD-rom. I do this with the Garmin 3+ and it is extremely handy when travelling, however I am disappointed that Garmin haven't provided more than 8meg of storage. On a recent trek I wanted to load all of South America and Cuba into the Garmin 3+ (which also has 8meg) only to find that it wouldn't all fit, so I ended up dropping three our four contries. This lead to some hassles along the way.
(Note to Garmin: There's no point providing detailed city and topographical maps for countries like Cuba that confiscate GPS's at the border, then, because you have a GPS with detailed local maps, search all of your gear and interrogate you.)
In terms of the exchange of positional information (I see this as being somewhat akin to the peerpeer aspects of Bluetooth) this is an awesome feature, particularly if you're four days into a hike in the Andes, the weather is closing in and you're wondering where the hell your girlfriend is.
Family Radio Service and General Mobile Radio Service share the first 7 channels. Channel 8 on FRS is not the same channel as GMRS channle 8. One of the GMRS channels is designatated as an emergency channel (Ch 10 I think.. don't slam me if I'm wrong here.) FRS radios are very limited in power and have a typical range of up to 2 miles with a maximum half watt power with a self contained antenna. (No roof or tower antennas permitted) GMRS radios use more power for up to 5 mile range and they can use a repeater which FRS may not.
The truth shall set you free!
Congratulations to the lucky couple! I also hope this proves to be a boon to both Open Source and Free Software.
(..must learn to read /. headlines a little s.l.o.w.e.r..)
Something like this occurred to me a few weeks ago. I was linking with up group of friends in an unfamiliar city, several of us where coming in from out of town, in a few different modes of transit. We started this round robin type of calling to try and find both each other and the place where we were going to finally end up that night. After about the fifth call from someone asking if I new a landmark which I didn't, or if I could give better direction to a landmark I did, it occurred to me that if we could transmit our locations to each other and pinpoint the final destination location this exercise would be much quicker and less confusing.
We have GPS to tell us locations; we have networks like GSM/GPRS to transmit voice and data, It doesn't seem like that great a step to build cell phone like devices that would allow both voice and location data to be sent our to other users. Even if it's not a map overly, just being able to tell distance and direction to a point would be helpful.
Of course releasing your location over GSM/GPRS would be at the users discretion.
--Sovereign, White, Southern, Male
Wasn't this the plot of that recent movie about the three really hot girls who work for Bill Murray, or Murray's wealthy sugar daddy?
No, really...wasn't this sort of thing the central plot point?
sig not found
Certainly, yes. (I'm licensed myself and have a TNC.)
However, please point me to a unit as compact as this that has integrated LCD display, mapping, and tracking. I would love to investigate. Last I looked APRS basically required a laptop for tracking.
The bicycle thing was his old project.
Did GPS propose on /. like a dork?
man...how do posts like these get in? This was announced months ago...just because someone get's a mail with the details? /. get your act together.
come on
Audiovox be Garmin to the jump on this unit. http://www.audiovox.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMac ro/product_mainpage.d2w/input?prrfnbr=711407 I have two of these units and they work very well. While Garmin is going to offer a scrambled version on their Rino 120 model, using most likely inverted audio, currently used by Motorola, and Kenwood and some Cobra models,they work great. The issue of telling someone where you are is great, that is if you know where you are. If you don't especially if you beamed your location, then fell down and got hurt or passed out, at least someone on the other end would know how to find you. Working in Search and Rescue for a number of years, this feature is more valuable than you might realize. Not sure why type acceptance is holding production up on this when the audiovox version has been out for a few months. It maybe the TX on FRS as opposed to the GMRS frequencies.