Dear cavers,

I?m writing on behalf of a new app launching in 2015 called Maroon. We are currently looking for beta testers and think your club members would be suitable.

The app is designed for sporting activities, particularly those which can be done alone and along secluded routes, such as cycling, running, hiking, horse riding and canoeing to name a few. You simply set your activity, route and expected duration, and if you do not tell the app that you have completed your activity safely, an emergency alert will be sent to designated contacts.

There are several examples of when this app can come in handy, here?s one we have thought of:

A man is exploring a caving route and gets knocked off and falls unconscious. There?s no one else on the route that day. If he didn?t leave a note with the likely routes and times then no-one will find him before hypothermia sets in. If he had Maroon, he would never have to worry about this.

For more information, please visit our website at www.maroonapps.com
It would be great if you could spread the message that we are looking for testers to iron out any issues and take feedback on the positives and negatives.

If any of your members are interested in taking part, all they need to do is email esugden[at]nms-adaptive.com with the subject ?Maroon App Testing?.

If you have any questions, please get in touch. At this stage, the app is only available for iPhone users.

Will it work in a cave?

Read the description more fully to find out why your comment is probably irrelevant.

quite like the sound of this as my call out arrangements with my othet half aee sometimes a little flaky.

doh... just read the last line. [headbang]

remote tracking and automatic accident detection - we've been here before

it does look quite a good app idea as its not availiable for android [ yet ]

i will leave the insult - iphone users probally need it more

rhychydwr1 said:

Will it work in a cave?

Click to expand...

yes - actually it will

[ assuming to set the alert before entering cave ]

read the description of how the idea works - it stores your call out on a remote computer - and unless your phone makes contact before the callout expires - it initiates a call out

not sure how that would work with brittish CRO // MRO though as the controllers want to speak to the call initiataor

I believe, although have not tried it, that you can write a text and set a future time at which it is sent.

So before you go in a cave, write your future texts to your trustworthy recipients.
If you get out in time, cancel them.
If you are late then the texts will be sent, provided of course you have not taken your mobile phone with you or left it in an area with no signal and have made sure the battery has plenty of charge.

Could also include a message in the text for the recipient to try calling you before they do a callout. That might prevent false callouts if you happen to forget to cancel the future text.

A quick browse produced two apps, Future Text and Text Later, probably plenty more.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.TextTimer&hl=en_GB
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iamcaptaincode.textLater&hl=en_GB

Some of the above advertise themselves as automated SMS messages so you do not forget birthdays.

Have I just destroyed the business plan of Maroon App ?

Personally, knowing how unreliable mobile comms in general, and text messages in particular, are, I would not want to rely for my call out on any system which doesn't involve a live human who can confirm that a message has actually got through and can take alternative action if the original plan fails to work for some reason.

Text Messaging (ie:- SMS or MMS or for multimedia) is a non time guaranteed service. I used to a lot of PHP work with both also using messaging services like mms2web and csoft. However, messages can arrive in a different order to that sent (had happened to me several times) in and are not even guaranteed to be delivered! (Happened to me too.)

SARCALL is SMS/text-reliant though, isn't it?

http://www.world-text.com/docs/sarcall_mrew.pdf

If the majority of cave and mountain rescue teams are OK using texts nowadays, why shouldn't we be?

Cap'n Chris said:

SARCALL is SMS/text-reliant though, isn't it?

http://www.world-text.com/docs/sarcall_mrew.pdf

If the majority of cave and mountain rescue teams are OK using texts nowadays, why shouldn't we be?

Click to expand...

Fair point Chris. Maybe the mobile companies have improved the service in recent years. If you could find a web site to schedule messages for you, then you'd probably be OK. I'll look into SARCALL though, sounds interesting...

Cap'n Chris said:

If the majority of cave and mountain rescue teams are OK using texts nowadays, why shouldn't we be?

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Very dangerous logic.

The mode of operation is different. SARCall sends multiple messages to multiple people so it does not matter if some do not get through. Furthermore there is still a live person who initiates the message in real time and can follow it up with other action if there are no responses.

Maroon and (especially) the apps mentioned by kxdn are totally reliant on the hardware and software in the system working properly when wanted. Even if this happens 99% of the time would you be happy with a 1% chance of your call out failing?

I wouldn't.

very good points Nick, I wouldn't be happy relying on it either. 

I think there is a potential problem with this which could lead to a lot of unnecessary callouts.

I'm sure I'm not the only one with this problem, frequently when I go caving by the time I get back to my phone it's died, because it's been hunting all day for a signal in a blackspot - Kingsdale does it every time. If I'm not able to charge and restart my phone to cancel the callout then a lot of peoples time could be wasted.

It depends on exactly how it works, but if does what it seems to then once the callout is set it it'll be triggered if the phone is flat.

Bottle bank - why don't you turn your phone off while underground?
If it did ring while left in your car it might attract the attention of a nearby tealeaf even if you have hidden it.

Aubrey said:

Bottle bank - why don't you turn your phone off while underground?
If it did ring while left in your car it might attract the attention of a nearby tealeaf even if you have hidden it.

Click to expand...

I might if I remembered to.

The tealeaf would have to have pretty good hearing - I can't hear the bloody thing when it's in my pocket.

I think it depends what type of phone user you are - some people seem to have a physical attachment to their phones so would no doubt always remember. I use mine to make the odd phone call and check emails now and again. Once I arrive in the Dales I've escaped the modern world so the last thing I worry about is where my phone is!

I can see this as being a useful back up. At the moment my call out procedure is to leave full call out details on a piece of paper with my only available call out, with instructions to implement if I haven't phoned by the call-out time. In other words, he's waiting for a negative - an absence of  phone call. If I were to use this, I'd do it as a back up - if no phone call, then the app would contact him and remind him that he hadn't had a phone call.

Trouble is, my phone is a

Cap'n Chris said:

If the majority of cave and mountain rescue teams are OK using texts nowadays, why shouldn't we be?

Click to expand...

Because text messaging is unreliable?

For several months now, my wife's phone has not been receiving any of the text messages I send her. This is despite me having confirmation messages on my phone saying they have been delivered successfully. We are both on EE 3g. After multiple calls to EE help desk (who have been really helpful), a solution has not been found (have tried factory resets, updating software, swapping sim cards, using sim cards in other handsets, etc etc)