All very good points and all the more reason to carry and EPIRB if you
travel in out of the way places. Of course, the entity performing a search
probably has to know that a traveler is EPRIB capable to be able to locate
the signal. With mariners, it is probably safely assumed that offshore
sailors are EPRIB equipped.

On 12/7/06, Loren Busch <starwagen@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> RE: GPS and cell phones
> All cell phones and cell phone systems are now supposed to have GPS
> capability BUT all the GPS capable phones I have seen also have the option
> to turn the GPS signal off except for 911 calls.  And a cell phone can only
> be tracked if it is turned on.
> But a cell phone only works if it has a connection to a cell antenna.  In
> the case of the Kims they had no connection. But their phone did receive a
> text message and acknowledged that, refereed to as a 'ping' by those that
> hunted through records and found the record of that signal.  That put the
> searchers in the right area.  Prior to that the search was many miles away.
>

--
mordo
1990 Carat