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AR15.COM
8/17/2009 9:13:00 PM EDT
How does this work? How accurate is the location in this situation?
8/17/2009 9:20:55 PM EDT
[#1]
Can you be a little more specific about what you're looking for?  Not sure what you mean by "pinging" a cell phone.  Do you mean E911 location information?
8/17/2009 9:33:10 PM EDT
[#2]
cell tower only triangulation, within 20-100 yards

gps enabled phones, within a few feet
8/17/2009 9:49:53 PM EDT
[#3]
Quoted:
cell tower only triangulation, within 20-100 yards

gps enabled phones, within a few feet


no shit within a few feet? wow.
8/17/2009 9:57:52 PM EDT
[#4]
Quoted:
Quoted:
cell tower only triangulation, within 20-100 yards

gps enabled phones, within a few feet


no shit within a few feet? wow.


Yep, the mil has some really cool shit
8/17/2009 10:21:31 PM EDT
[#5]


One and a half years ago we had a medical incident at my house while I was gone.  My Dad was visiting from out of state and dialed 911 on his cell phone.  They asked where he was and he did not know our address and street name.  They said they have begun cell phone triangulation but it will take some time (i don;t remember how long).  IIRC They advised him to find a piece of mail w/ and address if he could.  He did so quicker than the cell phone triangulation.  


8/17/2009 10:41:31 PM EDT
[#6]



Quoted:



Quoted:


Quoted:

cell tower only triangulation, within 20-100 yards



gps enabled phones, within a few feet





no shit within a few feet? wow.




Yep, the mil has some really cool shit


'Precise' GPS has been enabled for everyone, for some time now...



It's no longer .mil-only...
 
8/17/2009 11:07:05 PM EDT
[#7]
RE: the cell-phone triangulation and the GPS, that's about what I figured.

Someone pressed my paranoid button today: got into a faceoff with some roid-raged railroader, and an hour later, my cell phone starts ringing. No voice on the other end, just a few breaths and then they hang up. I am wondering if he could have got my name by looking up my license plate, then somehow started pinging my cell phone.

"The horror..... the horror...."
8/17/2009 11:07:49 PM EDT
[#8]
BTW there are applications used by land surveyors, to use GPS for survey work.
8/17/2009 11:52:52 PM EDT
[#9]



Quoted:


RE: the cell-phone triangulation and the GPS, that's about what I figured.



Someone pressed my paranoid button today: got into a faceoff with some roid-raged railroader, and an hour later, my cell phone starts ringing. No voice on the other end, just a few breaths and then they hang up. I am wondering if he could have got my name by looking up my license plate, then somehow started pinging my cell phone.



"The horror..... the horror...."


Don't worry.



It's harder than hell for LEO to get that done.



 
8/18/2009 12:55:59 AM EDT
[#10]




Quoted:





Quoted:

RE: the cell-phone triangulation and the GPS, that's about what I figured.



Someone pressed my paranoid button today: got into a faceoff with some roid-raged railroader, and an hour later, my cell phone starts ringing. No voice on the other end, just a few breaths and then they hang up. I am wondering if he could have got my name by looking up my license plate, then somehow started pinging my cell phone.



"The horror..... the horror...."


Don't worry.



It's harder than hell for LEO to get that done.



In a life-threatening emergency situation, I could get the location in 10 minutes or less, with one or two phone calls, accurate to 50 yards or so.



Otherwise, however long it takes for the phone company to get the subpoena and respond.

8/18/2009 1:15:50 AM EDT
[#11]
Technically its illegal without a warrant.  Congress banned it after one of them got pinged.  Seems they did not like someone tracking them to another "friends" residence.   I.E....  Someone got busted screwing around with a member of the same sex.......  Doh!

8/18/2009 1:16:20 AM EDT
[#12]
I'm not sure how it is elsewhere, but it's a pain in the ass here.

It'll take me a little while to get a constant ping on a phone, and only in true emergencies. Unless you have a newer phone and the gps would come up when you dialed 911.
8/18/2009 1:31:41 AM EDT
[#13]



Quoted:





Quoted:




Quoted:

RE: the cell-phone triangulation and the GPS, that's about what I figured.



Someone pressed my paranoid button today: got into a faceoff with some roid-raged railroader, and an hour later, my cell phone starts ringing. No voice on the other end, just a few breaths and then they hang up. I am wondering if he could have got my name by looking up my license plate, then somehow started pinging my cell phone.



"The horror..... the horror...."


Don't worry.



It's harder than hell for LEO to get that done.



In a life-threatening emergency situation, I could get the location in 10 minutes or less, with one or two phone calls, accurate to 50 yards or so.



Otherwise, however long it takes for the phone company to get the subpoena and respond.

After you talk to me, then I call AT&T/whoever...



I've done it once in 1.5 years.  That was for someone threatening suicide who had called earlier, then called back on a non-911 line.





 
8/18/2009 1:36:58 AM EDT
[#14]
My blackberry has it's own tinfoil hat just for it's GPS thingie mabob, can't find me!
8/18/2009 1:40:49 AM EDT
[#15]




Quoted:





Quoted:





Quoted:





Quoted:

RE: the cell-phone triangulation and the GPS, that's about what I figured.



Someone pressed my paranoid button today: got into a faceoff with some roid-raged railroader, and an hour later, my cell phone starts ringing. No voice on the other end, just a few breaths and then they hang up. I am wondering if he could have got my name by looking up my license plate, then somehow started pinging my cell phone.



"The horror..... the horror...."


Don't worry.



It's harder than hell for LEO to get that done.



In a life-threatening emergency situation, I could get the location in 10 minutes or less, with one or two phone calls, accurate to 50 yards or so.



Otherwise, however long it takes for the phone company to get the subpoena and respond.

After you talk to me, then I call AT&T/whoever...



I've done it once in 1.5 years. That was for someone threatening suicide who had called earlier, then called back on a non-911 line.







Over 9 years, I've probably done it 20-30 times.
8/18/2009 1:46:23 AM EDT
[#16]



Quoted:





Quoted:




Quoted:




Quoted:




Quoted:

RE: the cell-phone triangulation and the GPS, that's about what I figured.



Someone pressed my paranoid button today: got into a faceoff with some roid-raged railroader, and an hour later, my cell phone starts ringing. No voice on the other end, just a few breaths and then they hang up. I am wondering if he could have got my name by looking up my license plate, then somehow started pinging my cell phone.



"The horror..... the horror...."


Don't worry.



It's harder than hell for LEO to get that done.



In a life-threatening emergency situation, I could get the location in 10 minutes or less, with one or two phone calls, accurate to 50 yards or so.



Otherwise, however long it takes for the phone company to get the subpoena and respond.

After you talk to me, then I call AT&T/whoever...



I've done it once in 1.5 years. That was for someone threatening suicide who had called earlier, then called back on a non-911 line.







Over 9 years, I've probably done it 20-30 times.


You probably have a larger call volume than a rural county with a population of 20k.



I've never seen the paperwork for these requests...care to comment?



 
8/18/2009 3:18:47 AM EDT
[#17]




Quoted:





Quoted:





Quoted:





Quoted:





Quoted:





Quoted:

RE: the cell-phone triangulation and the GPS, that's about what I figured.



Someone pressed my paranoid button today: got into a faceoff with some roid-raged railroader, and an hour later, my cell phone starts ringing. No voice on the other end, just a few breaths and then they hang up. I am wondering if he could have got my name by looking up my license plate, then somehow started pinging my cell phone.



"The horror..... the horror...."


Don't worry.



It's harder than hell for LEO to get that done.



In a life-threatening emergency situation, I could get the location in 10 minutes or less, with one or two phone calls, accurate to 50 yards or so.



Otherwise, however long it takes for the phone company to get the subpoena and respond.

After you talk to me, then I call AT&T/whoever...



I've done it once in 1.5 years. That was for someone threatening suicide who had called earlier, then called back on a non-911 line.







Over 9 years, I've probably done it 20-30 times.


You probably have a larger call volume than a rural county with a population of 20k.



I've never seen the paperwork for these requests...care to comment?





Very basic: agency and contact info, case number, brief synopsis of the event providing the reason for the emergency ping, and the phone information, all on letterhead provided by the phone company. My previous agency handled a ~300K county, so yeah, we did have a bit more volume.
8/18/2009 3:21:33 AM EDT
[#18]
my understanding is that if there is too much volumn on one tower that the phone will override to the next tower. Would that throw off the location ?
8/18/2009 3:25:15 AM EDT
[#19]
Launch the Predator
8/18/2009 3:25:39 AM EDT
[#20]



Quoted:


my understanding is that if there is too much volumn on one tower that the phone will override to the next tower. Would that throw off the location ?


If it uses cell tower triangulation, yes.  GPS, no.



 
8/18/2009 3:32:18 AM EDT
[#21]
Quoted:

Quoted:
my understanding is that if there is too much volumn on one tower that the phone will override to the next tower. Would that throw off the location ?

If it uses cell tower triangulation, yes.  GPS, no.
 


No, to both.  Cell triangulation checks power on all receiving towers, then gives you a grid coordinate to check on.  Takes three towers, two might get you  a poor grid.
8/18/2009 3:42:40 AM EDT
[#22]
my 8320 BB with google latitude on a good day <no gps> 10-15 feet outside my office window. at home 1-200 yards.

a lot of it depends on signal coverage.