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Car owners guide to: Car Security > Low Cost Vehicle Tracking
Low Cost Vehicle Tracking Using Your Old Mobile Phone
While car alarms and immobilisers provide a first line of defence and most vehicles are equipped with at least a basic security system, vehicle tracking adds an extra dimension. With a typical security system, if someone is able to override the system (quite commonly by simply getting hold of your car keys) and drives off with your car, what happens next? What if they took it hours ago and you've only just realised. The police will find it difficult to recover the vehicle quickly enough to save it or its contents and perhaps catch the thieves in the act. Finding it burned out and adandoned a day later leaves you feeling angry and frustrated at being unable to do a thing to stop them.
Hopefully it's not a feeling you've already suffered, but even just thinking how you'd feel probably makes the possibility of having a device in the car that tracks its position an attractive idea. Now you can do something about it! It gives you - and the police - the means by which the car can be quickly located. Time is the critical factor when a vehicle is stolen, and a tracking device can turn it from being a 'needle in a haystack' search to odds much more stacked in your favour. But the issue, of course and as always, is the cost. In this case it's the cost of buying, fitting and monitoring a vehicle tracker. But what if you already have the hardware, it needs no special fitting, it can be used to track other things too, and you've probably got it in a draw at home right now, doing nothing. I'm talking about that old mobile phone of yours.
There are now several web-based tracking providers that offer a service that allows the position of a mobile phone to be tracked using an ordinary web browser and internet connection, and even via the browser on another mobile phone. It doesn't need to be one of the latest cellular phones (although we'll come back to that later), so that old mobile you shoved in a draw when you upgraded to a new model could suddenly become useful again. Put in a 'Pay As You Go' SIM card (it doesn't need to make any calls out, so any credit will last a while - just remember you may need to make an occasional call to prevent the SIM from being disconnected). The phone simply needs to be switched on and in a position where it's getting a signal on the network. The celluar phone system will triangulate the phone's position between the closest transmitter masts and show the location on a map. The only cost is for the tracking service - some are also 'Pay As You Go', so no contract, no subscription - and very reasonably priced for occasional private use.
You're probably waiting to hear what the catch is. The service does have a limitation using the cellular phone system. The accuracy of the locator depends on the density of masts in any particular area. In cities and other built-up areas, there tends to be a higher density of masts and the accuracy can be between 150m and 400m, generally good enough, but out in the suburbs it can be anywhere between 400m and 2km. Looking for a car that might be parked, possibly under cover, anywhere within a 2km area obviously isn't ideal, but it does still help. In the countryside, the accuracy will often make the system all but unusable as a vehicle locator once the car is stationary. If it's moving, then the sparseness of the surrounding roads and buildings may work in favour of the police.
There is the possibility of using a mobile phone to give a much greater accuracy, but at the moment that phone in the draw may not be up to it. Some of the latest 'smart phones' from Nokia, Blackberry and others feature built-in GPS, which uses the GPS satellite system in the same way as most of the satellite navigation devices. The GPS system was designed for tracking and gives better accuracy (down to 50m or better, even in countryside) than the cellular network.
Apart from ensuring the phone is able to pick up a signal, the only other consideration is where to store it in the vehicle. Clearly the glovebox isn't the best place... unless you prefer to track the thief rather than the car! It should be somewhere hidden but at the same time accessible to you, as it will need to be recharged. Alternatively, you could wire it to charge from the vehicle's electrical system - be aware that the lifespan of the battery may be reduced if permanently connected in this way, but that may not concern you unless you still want to be able to use it as a portable device.
Of course, the portable nature of the phone means it can be removed from the car and used to keep a track on something or somebody else - a child, a trailer or caravan, even an important package being delivered by a courier. Just remember that if you use it to track a person, there are rules and regulations about getting the person's permission first.
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