Satellite emergency notification device

A Satellite Emergency Notification Device or SEND is a portable emergency notification and locating device which uses commercial satellite systems rather than the COSPAS-SARSAT satellite system. An example of one such device is SPOT.

The devices use an internal GPS chip to gather location information. When the SEND is triggered, this information is sent via commercial satellite to a commercial monitoring agency whose role is to pass the information to an appropriate responding agency. The responding agency contacted depends, in part, on the location. Examples of responding agencies would be military Search and Rescue, Coast Guard, local police, voluntary Search and Rescue.

Typical users/purchasers of these devices are participants in activities such as hiking, mountain biking, climbing, boating and flying. They are also useful for those who work alone in remote areas (loggers, foresters, geologists, fisheries and wildlife staff).

Additional features are increasingly being offered: sending preprogrammed messages, breadcrumb tracking via Google Earth. Some newer devices offer two-way communication via satellite, for example DeLorme's inReach Communicator and the Yellowbrick 3 Messenger/Tracker.

One of the considerations when buying one of these is ensuring that the International Emergency Response Coordination Centre (IERCC) which receives a distress call maintains an accurate and up-to-date database of response agencies to contact and can quickly determine which is appropriate to the situation/location. One such commercial IERCC is GEOS, used by both SPOT and DeLorme SENDs.

The US Coast Guard's National Search and Rescue Committee (NSARC) set up a working group which includes representation from other US agencies, international organizations and device manufacturers to discuss how these "technologies can be properly reviewed and integrated with the SAR response system in the United States" and to aid the Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services (RTCM) in "development of a minimum operating and performance specification for such devices". The RTCM working group SC-128 has completed and approved a standard for Emergency Satellite Notification Systems,RTCM 12800, which was published in August 2011.

BriarTek was granted a US Patent on August 2, 2011 for a "Global Birectional Locator Beacon and Emergency Communications System", which covers SENDs with Receive / Transmit capabilities such as the DeLorme inReach unit.