Trackers
November 13, 2012, 9:28 pm
Thanks to my husband, we have become trackers. I am not referring to the deer and goose tracks on the beach or the possum, skunk, raccoon and myriad other tracks in our yard. No, we are now official trackers of ships, and our reporting number is 1080.
Last spring my spouse climbed to the peak of our steep roof and installed his absolutely free ship tracking antennae, thus making us an official reporting site for the University of the Aegean in Greece which maps global shipping.
We report on ships in Lake Michigan that are in our range and sending out radio signals. Thanks to the Saint Lawrence Seaway which connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, ships registered around the world regularly pass through our “front yard”.
Then my guy had another brilliant inspiration and started writing a computer program. “You’ll love this, Mary,” he beamed. “My cell phone will now ring every time a ship is in front of our house.” Since November is prime boat time in the Great Lakes, the phone started ringing around the clock and the cell phone bill started soaring. The program has subsequently been modified to notify the computer.
Our tracking station has a good record, online 89% of the time. Our cat, Batman, did, however, interrupt our ship reporting for a while. We discovered he was jumping up in the basement rafters where the antennae wire comes into the house and taking us offline. We gave him a lecture on Homeland Security and closed up his access to the wires.
Check out the worldwide Marine site at http://www.marinetraffic.com. Click on the ship icons to get a photo, name, destination, etc.
6 Comments for this entry
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Greetings and welcome...
The Suitcase Lady Blog is now in its fourteenth year. I am obviously a believer in these words from E. B. White. "We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry." Thank you for reading the writing that I delight in doing.
Posts
November 13th, 2012 on 10:31 PM
Cool!
November 14th, 2012 on 7:42 AM
Very interesting. Also, I have been following Russ’s tweets that let me know when a ship is going by. Fun!
November 14th, 2012 on 11:02 AM
Mary–Thanks for the smiles, Mary. I especially appriciated the line about your beaming husband . . .
November 16th, 2012 on 8:06 PM
That is soooooo coooooool. I’ll send your URL to Phil. Applause applause applause!
November 16th, 2012 on 9:26 PM
Hi Karen!
Yes, it is great fun to be able to see the worldwide shipping map. Some ports in China and Europe have so many ship icons it looks like colored confetti. We love knowing who is sailing by, but we are not good sailors like you two. I believe that Phil was born with boats in his genes!
Mary
mtooley@artinasuitcase.com
Peruse my blog:
http://www.thesuitcaselady.com
November 16th, 2012 on 9:33 PM
True – when you come to NYC, visit! We overlook the Hudson River and Midtown. We even have a queen sofa bed, so you are more than welcome to stay (or, for privacy, crash when Linds, Phil, and I are in Europe. Did Russ release his app to the general public? http://www.fultonhousecoop.com