trickydicky Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 hi all I was wondering if anybody has a tracker fitted ?what are my cheapest options and how much per month are the sims ? are there any other costs involved ?has anybody got any tracker stories and advise ?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejparrott Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 There's all sorts of types available, some with monthly and annual fees, some without. The Landywatch forum has some very good advice about trackers. You don't have to have a pay monthly sim, you can have pay as you go, you just need to send a test signal every few weeks so the sim stays active 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peaklander Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 People probably not going to say too much about trackers on here as it's obviously a private subject. It's fair to say that there are several, some seem much more expensive than others. The basic operating mode can be something like GPS signal so tracker knows where it is, SIM to transmit emails and text messages and a reasonable amount of configuration so it alerts what you want. Some are live monitored meaning a control room watches over them. Others rely on the user to respond to the alerts. It's fair to say that there is quite a crossover between "theft trackers" and trackers to monitor positions, speeds, stop time etc. of vehicles in normal use. Some (all?) use special sims that are not tied to a specific mobile network and roam constantly, logging onto the most suitable system. These are 'commercial sims' and are the type embedded in lots of non-phone units I think and they aren't necessarily expensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanuki Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Many depend on access to a good mobile-phone signal to 'call back to base' with position-info. Entirely useless to those of us in semi-rural Berkshire/Wiltshire/Dorset where - away from urban population centres - *none* of the mobile-phone networks can give even one bar of signal. When needing to track various bits of construction-plant round here, I found the only reliable 'call-home' channels were Inmarsat or the Iridium "Short Burst Data" service (which essentially emails you your target's GPS coordinates at regular intervals) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peaklander Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Some trackers buffer the tracked waypoints when there is no mobile network and then upload all of them when there is a connection. So eventually the route is made available. That does assume that at some point the signal is restored. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Sparkes Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 When I bought it, in 1999, I thought my 38A Range Rover was valuable. Part of the selling spiel was that it had a Tracker system fitted. I only discovered after I had bought it that it had to be 'activated' so the company would monitor it, and that activation came at a cost, repeated yearly if I wanted cover maintained. I paid the first year, but not thereafter. This mild 'deception' soured my opinion of the industry, although I am a person who once I buy something I want it to be 'mine', so paying yearly, and having nothing to show for it, doesn't appeal to me. (Yes, I buy my mobile phone outright). So, I have no recent direct personal experience, BUT, there has been a recent series of 10 programmes on the BBC One, entitled Thief Trackers. Thief Trackers tells the story of what becomes of everyday possessions when they are stolen, and how police and members of the public use cutting-edge technology to fight back. The first episode was 29th September, the last episode was Monday 12th October. Today, the first episode is available for 10 more days, availability is apparently for 30 days after broadcast. So it means all of them are still available via iPlayer (otherwise I wouldn't have bothered posting). They don't cover vehicles every week, but when they did it seemed apparent that while a hidden GPS got to an industrial estate, say, it wouldn't pinpoint the exact unit. For that, an investigator visited the estate and used a handheld Radio Frequency detector. My conclusion was that you need both systems to get total coverage. GPS did have some success. With a articulated tractor unit the thieves ripped out all the visible electrical extras, but missed the GPS unit, which then tracked the vehicle across the channel to a collection site, just before the border outside Europe. Via Interpol, the local Police acted, and recovered 'many' vehicles. The tracking company did admit this was a 'first' for them. A similar story in the UK, but this ended at a collection point near the East coast, again, 'many' vehicles were recovered. Unfortunately, neither of these vehicle thefts (there was also a caravan theft, successfully tracked) were highlighted in the episode trailers, You will have to watch the first few minutes of each episode, sorry!! HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peaklander Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 I am a person who once I buy something I want it to be 'mine', so paying yearly, and having nothing to show for it, doesn't appeal to me. (Yes, I buy my mobile phone outright). Fair enough but you still pay for the SIM and that's all you need to pay for with some trackers. You don't necessarily have to pay for monitoring as you can do it yourself. The prog series sounds interesting; one that I hadn't noticed. Will take a look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanuki Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 Some trackers buffer the tracked waypoints when there is no mobile network and then upload all of them when there is a connection. So eventually the route is made available. That does assume that at some point the signal is restored. The trick used by the Bad Guys to get round this is to disconnect the vehicle battery then park the stolen vehicle up somewhere there's no mobile-signal and leave it for a few days. The tracker battery then runs flat and - assuming there's not been any obvious police action in the area in the meantime, the bad guys then go back to recover the vehicle on a trailer... The other thing they do with construction-site plant (generators, mini-diggers etc) is load them into shipping-containers: the steel weakens both the GPS and mobile signals to the point of uselessness, giving them the opportunity to load the container on the next ship to the Far East without interruption. Locally the latest thing the thieves are going for is the temporary traffic-lights used at road works! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peaklander Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 Yes - it does rely on the signal being restored! It's all a bit of a b&$$^r really isn't it?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GW8IZR Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 What you could do if you just want to dip your toe in the water here and see whether its worth while, there are knock off Chinese trackers on e-bay for about 40 quid, a ten quid pay n go sim and just do a temporary lash up in the car. Use it for a few weeks and see what you think. If it doesnt work out re sell it for a few quid and its not cost you the earth.I've deployed a few on plant ( not in the UK, but in a country where 4G and LTE is the expectation not just 2 bars of GSM if you are very lucky. But thats another story ) Its worth looking at what the operators are doing in your area to find out who has the best ( even vaguely acceptable ) coverage. If you garage the car and the roof is steel the device will probably lose GPS, in that case it ups the current consumption as it uses more GSM data to keep its location and that might be a consideration if your battery is a bit flaky or the vehicle only gets occasional use. GSM and GPS can be fairly easily jammed so like all security devices - treat them as part of a system, not the end game. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honitonhobbit Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 I always recommend Skytag units to my clients. They are very good; very easy to hide, very hard to shield and work pretty much all over Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.