I'm marshalling the Dragons Back week at the end of May - my fourth time (and I swear my last, getting too old for this!) and they use tracking. For an event like that it is a godsend from the safety aspect, there being runners all over the mountains in whatever conditions and after dark. It only takes a single person sat in front of a computer and everything is covered, no worries, phone calls to checkpoints, chasing up missing runners.

It also has the added benefit of confirming everyone's exact route, if somebody strays into a "no-go" zone, hops over fences or any other illegal route activity there can be no questioning the organisers decisions regards penalty or disqualification.

This year we have 500 entries (probably 400+ starters), so it will be of a similar size to the ldwa 100, I'll have a word with Shane if I have a chance, I think it worth considering for the future if the cost is not prohibitive. It will provide a lot of peace of mind to organisers.

GPS receivers do not communicate with the satellites. All they do is listen to the satellite transmissions.

Most phones do do basic recording of your position (google call it your timeline), and you can access it from their web site https://www.google.co.uk/maps/timeline. Google do allow you to share that information via location sharing.

All of the systems generally need some form of server to work as the tracker has to communicate back to something.

The electronics work is full of cheap and nasty which claim they do the job, but struggle to work reliably.

I doubt you would be able to build a system for much less than opentracking charge. One of the killers on cost will be the mobile contracts.

Basic checkpoint data as mentioned by Don could be done simpler and cheaper using Bluetooth LE tags, which you can get for ~£1/each

The cost of Satellite tracking systems seems to be coming down rapidly. When I looked at this for the Hadrian Hundred a couple of years ago it was around £50 a head and you had to use their tracking service as well for an additional charge. I see that we could do it now for £15 a head and use our own computer to track everyone.That could very well be the way to go in the future

The problem with using apps like Beacon Buddy on Viewranger on a mobile phone for tracking is that the GPS uses a lot of battery power and although the phone knows where it is all the time, it needs a signal to tell anyone else its location. At the moment a lot of remote areas have no phone signal. On an event like the Hadrian Hundred, you are going to be off the screen for hours

It's not generally appreciated (I didn't till I read Greg Milner's remarkable book 'Pinpoint') that recent smartphones use (GPS) satellite tracking in order to identify their position with respect to ground-based cell-masts, in order to orient themselves to the best available phone signal. (This is so whether or not they offer an explicit 'navigation' app). So long as a smartphone is charged, on, and can communicate with three or more GPS satellites, its position - but not necessarily that of the person who was carrying it - can already be tracked, regardless of the strength of its local capacity as a 'mobile phone'.

So it wouldn't need a large extra cost investment in order to pinpoint the location of Hundred or other challenge event participants. But I would suggest that this be reserved for emergencies, such as non-arrival within reasonable time at a checkpoint, or a reported incident.

Iain

Touching in part on the earlier thread in the forum about the workload of organising 100's for local groups, and standardisation being one way of reducing the workload, something I'd be VERY keen to see specifically on the hundred is a move towards satellite tracking and away from Pacer.

The technology is pretty much standard now for most ultra events of that distance, and would leave checkpoints to focus on their main tasks of providing respite and a retirement option to walkers.

The bigger selling point for me would be that I know not only that a walker reached a checkpoint but when they left it, where they are at that precise moment, even what speed they're going and in what direction.

No need for self clip points, no frantic searching for someone who left one checkpoint hours ago but hasn't been seen at the next - as happened on a 100's marshals I assisted on, no worries about tired walkers or checkpoint staff failing to register an arrival.

Does it cost? Yes, some basic research I did a few months back suggested somewhere between 20 - 30 pounds a person. But factor in the massive increase in safety, that we seem to charge on average much less than half the cost of similar ultra events, and that as an organisation we would likely get a better price if we negotiated an ongoing contract with the same supplier, then not using it starts to look downright irresponsible.