Severe weather or other safety alerts to your InReach, Zoleo, etc.

[WanderingBison]

Hey everyone,

I have enjoyed this community for many years for build and trip inspiration and as a place to learn about new products and solutions.

So, as I am looking for people who enjoy remote adventures to test a new service I have launched, I thought I'd reach out to the community here.

Almost three years ago, my travels took me to Cape Scott Provincial Park, at the northern end of Vancouver Island, a remote area on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, where I spent a week. While there, I realized I would have had no way of getting notified of a distant earthquake and the resulting tsunami. My Garmin inReach would have allowed me to call for help in an emergency or to get a current forecast, but it couldn't alert me in the case of an immediate risk. Imagine a similar situation in an area at risk from flash flooding, forest fires or a tornado. When I got back to civilization, I tried to find a solution. Surprisingly, no one offered a notification solution using a satellite device like an inReach or Zoleo!

So, I founded a company called Adiona Alert to provide the service I needed but couldn't find.

After more than two years of work, including testing the service over the last six months throughout North America and issuing over 2000 safety alerts, including severe weather, to our small fleet of test devices, we are beginning to invite people to join our Early Access program so they can start using the service today for free!

Given where your adventures likely take you, I thought this community would be perfect to test the service. I would be honoured if you would consider signing up for the Early Access program.

As we slowly add small groups of users, it would be great if some of you would apply for our Early Access program. You would get these potentially live-saving alerts for free. All I ask in return is to share with my team and me your thoughts, suggestions and even complaints so we can improve the solution.

I would love you to visit our website - AdionaAlert.com, to learn more and apply for our Early Access program.

Thanks for considering this, and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.


J.S.


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[smbisig]

Sounds like a good service to have since I explore both near the coast as well as in the mountains where I could encounter a fire. I just signed up.

 

[WanderingBison]

Sounds like a good service to have since I explore both near the coast as well as in the mountains where I could encounter a fire. I just signed up.

Fantastic - just saw your application come through, which is exciting - after months of work, it’s nice to see people’s interest.

We’ll send you a survey to learn more about your use case in the next day or two as we try to get a good cross-section of users and use cases.

Let me know if you have any questions or feedback.


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[Pacific Northwest yetti]

Seems like a good idea, Happy to help out. I signed up.

 

[WanderingBison]

Seems like a good idea, Happy to help out. I signed up.

Awesome! Can’t wait to get your thoughts and feedback


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[Pacific Northwest yetti]

I got the email, asking to go to the next steps. And keep getting the same error. It has to do with the URL, also get the same if I only use the part after garmin.com/

Just an FYI

 

[Cabrito]

How does this work with the Garmin inReach? My experience with the inReach is that I need to initiate communication first before others can contact me. I could be mistaken here.

This would have been nice last year when I was camping in Tahoe National Forest and woke up to thick smoke surrounding us. I used my inReach to contact friends and ask if there was a fire nearby. I also used my Amateur Radio to reach out over simplex and managed to get a guy on a nearby mountain top. He was able to give me real time information and let me know that there wasn't a fire in my area, and the fire was some distance away.

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

How does this work with the Garmin inReach? My experience with the inReach is that I need to initiate communication first before others can contact me. I could be mistaken here.

This would have been nice last year when I was camping in Tahoe National Forest and woke up to thick smoke surrounding us. I used my inReach to contact friends and ask if there was a fire nearby. I also used my Amateur Radio to reach out over simplex and managed to get a guy on a nearby mountain top. He was able to give me real time information and let me know that there wasn't a fire in my area, and the fire was some distance away.

If someone uses the map share page, they can send you a msg anytime. Depending in your subscription. At least my in reach works that way. Or you have to send them one 1st, and they reply to that thread.

As far as the OP, He designed a system with that in mind. And is beta testing it, which is why he started this thread.

 

[Cabrito]

If someone uses the map share page, they can send you a msg anytime. Depending in your subscription. At least my in reach works that way. Or you have to send them one 1st, and they reply to that thread.

As far as the OP, He designed a system with that in mind. And is beta testing it, which is why he started this thread.

That makes sense. I should have known that because I do use mine quite a bit both individually and in groups.


For the inReach you would need to be in tracking mode for this service to know where you actually are when an alert is generated. Otherwise it might not be that valuable. Not everyone uses the inReach the same way and lots of folks I know hardly ever turn them on or us the tracking feature.


The website info seems a bit sparse in the "how it works" section, but I think I might give it a try because I like the idea.

 

[williaty]

Are you going to support this via the ACR Bivy stick? I've been looking for a service lik this for at least a year since we camp in flash-flood prone valleys. I signed up for the early access thing on the website.

 

[WanderingBison]

I got the email, asking to go to the next steps. And keep getting the same error. It has to do with the URL, also get the same if I only use the part after garmin.com/

Just an FYI
View attachment 808385

I think you are using the “main” share feed and not the raw KML feed.

If you click the small feed link next to your feed address on the Garmin inReach social page, you should be able to get the RAW address which will be along the lines of “https://share.garmin.com/Feed/Share/…”

Let me know if that doesn’t work - feel free to reach out to us by replying to your invitation email. We will get back to you quickly.


J.S.


PS - Sorry about the delay in replying here …busy day in the office and I forgot to check in here during the day.


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[WanderingBison]

How does this work with the Garmin inReach? My experience with the inReach is that I need to initiate communication first before others can contact me. I could be mistaken here.

This would have been nice last year when I was camping in Tahoe National Forest and woke up to thick smoke surrounding us. I used my inReach to contact friends and ask if there was a fire nearby. I also used my Amateur Radio to reach out over simplex and managed to get a guy on a nearby mountain top. He was able to give me real time information and let me know that there wasn't a fire in my area, and the fire was some distance away.

Great question Cabrito!

We are doing "a little magic" to address this while we explore other options with the Garmin team. We might become more "convincing" as we get more users, but we've developed a workaround for now.

It's not rocket science, but it's been part of the challenge of developing this solution.

We have reliably delivered over 2000 alerts to our internal fleet of Garmin and Zoleo devices and our first Early Access users, so it's working.

Zoleo and other providers' users find it easier since they are assigned a dedicated SMS number to each device.

And, your experience in the Tahoe NF is a perfect example of the kind of use we had in mind in addressing - I can't wait to get your feedback if you decide to try out our service.

Feel free to reach out to me or sign up for our Early Access program to find out more and give it a try.


J.S.


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[WanderingBison]

Are you going to support this via the ACR Bivy stick? I've been looking for a service lik this for at least a year since we camp in flash-flood prone valleys. I signed up for the early access thing on the website.

Our initial push is for Garmin and Zoleo devices, but we have designed our solution to provide the service to many other devices, including the ACR Bivy Stick.

Garmin is the dominant player, so supporting the inReach devices was a no-brainer. We have been working closely with the Zoleo team for nearly two years, and there are some benefits today (with the potential for more to come) to the Zoleo system that makes it a perfect fit for our service.

That said, we are confident we can support several other platforms (Bivy, Somewear, Solara, etc.) but have not tested with those devices.

We will send you a screening questionnaire in the next day or two where you can tell us you are using a Bivy Stick.

If you are willing to spend some time with us, we can likely get you up and running pretty quickly using the Bivy Stick. It will also allow us to work out the last few details before we offer the service more broadly to Bivy Stick users.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or want to discuss this further. I will also keep an eye out for your Early Access application


J.S.


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[WanderingBison]

That makes sense. I should have known that because I do use mine quite a bit both individually and in groups.


For the inReach you would need to be in tracking mode for this service to know where you actually are when an alert is generated. Otherwise it might not be that valuable. Not everyone uses the inReach the same way and lots of folks I know hardly ever turn them on or us the tracking feature.


The website info seems a bit sparse in the "how it works" section, but I think I might give it a try because I like the idea.

Yes, we designed the service for users who use tracking since we use the last location you or your device has reported to your provider’s servers, Garmin, Zoleo, etc.

Interestingly, some of our early users are not using tracking (they are typically on a “safety plan”) and use check-ins to update their location.

I don’t think it provides the optimum service, but we are working with them and it seems like it could work for them, with some downsides.

The challenge is two-fold for users who don’t user tracking.

If you only check-in in the morning and the evening (when I typically send my preset check-in messages to my loved ones), you will only update your location at those times.

If you aren't moving much after that check-in, such is likely the case at the end of day because you are settling in for the night, then we have your current location until morning. With the morning check-in, depending on your plans for the day and mode of travel, the location reported in the morning check-in may be "close enough" to provide you with relatively relevant alerts.

But, if you have a day where your activities will have you move quite a bit more, such as leaving your overnight spot to explore a slot canyon a half-hour drive away, your morning location may not be in the area for which a flash flooding alert is issued mid-morning.

The second part of this discussion often involves users who check-in and turn off their devices until the end of the day check-in.

In that case, the real problem is that you will not be able to receive a timely alert, such as that pesky flash flooding alert, when it's issued because your device is off.

If you’ll allow me to get on my soapbox for a minute, let me point out that by not using tracking except for your check-ins or an emergency call, you are short-changing yourself of the benefits of having a device like a Garmin or Zoleo and using a check-in.

You aren't leaving a breadcrumb trail for your loved ones to guide your rescuers should you miss a check-in after you've become incapacitated! Are you still at camp, or at that slot canyon you were planning to explore, or did you change your plans altogether because of impending weather?

Having tracking turned on can save your life because your rescuers will know where to begin looking for you. Add to that the benefits of our service, and we can't recommend strongly enough that you use tracking!

Of course, that’s only my take … I’m here so we can learn from YOUR expereince!


J.S.


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[WanderingBison]

Sounds like a good service to have since I explore both near the coast as well as in the mountains where I could encounter a fire. I just signed up.

Excellent! You should receive an email in the next day or two inviting you to complete a screening questionnaire. This allows us to gradually invite new users that are a good cross section of users, various devices, regions, etc.

Let me know if you have any questions!


J.S.


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