Author Topic: What3words app for your location  (Read 4770 times)

Yorci

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Re: What3words app for your location
« Reply #45 on: 18:48:25, 07/02/20 »
I have heard that if you need an ambulance out in the countryside, they may ask you for your post code.  It this true and is there an app for it?  :)
Yes they do, they also ask if the patient is conscious are they breathing, they tend to work from a script in a specific order, and very stuborn if you do answer them, as the information they ask for is essential to prioritise. If you don't have a post code, they will take other coordinates. I work for the emergency service and we have used the W3W a few times to help us locate victims who are hiding from their attacker or if someone has come across a person in distress, or where people are not sure exactly where they are. It has been very successful and saved a lot of time and resources. But you can also give any of ther services a grid reference or longitude and latitude coordinates, and we will find you.W3W is okay for providing a specific location, but useless for navigation as said in an earlier post. It does take up a bit of memory but no more any many other apps. If you can get a phone signal, it is okay I guess, but if out in the hill, I will always stick to a grid ref or long & lat to give emergency services my position.
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Life is short, time is fast, no re-play or rewind, enjoy every moment and make it count.

alan de enfield

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Re: What3words app for your location
« Reply #46 on: 22:42:58, 07/02/20 »
Yes they do, they also ask if the patient is conscious are they breathing, they tend to work from a script in a specific order, and very stuborn if you do answer them, as the information they ask for is essential to prioritise. If you don't have a post code, they will take other coordinates. I work for the emergency service and we have used the W3W a few times to help us locate victims who are hiding from their attacker or if someone has come across a person in distress, or where people are not sure exactly where they are. It has been very successful and saved a lot of time and resources. But you can also give any of ther services a grid reference or longitude and latitude coordinates, and we will find you.W3W is okay for providing a specific location, but useless for navigation as said in an earlier post. It does take up a bit of memory but no more any many other apps. If you can get a phone signal, it is okay I guess, but if out in the hill, I will always stick to a grid ref or long & lat to give emergency services my position.


If it was an emergency (not just my feet are tired) then I would use my PLB (I know we have had this discussion before ………….)

Battery power available for 6+ years
No flat battery
No telephone signal needed
No need to scroll down dozens of apps trying to find the right one (when you have a broken arm)
No trying to read, remember, & repeat three random, meaningless words, then having to spell them phonetically because the operator couldn't hear you very well.
No monthly charges
Will notify the SAR within 5 minutes giving your GPS location
Works worldwide on land, sea or air
Has a 121.5Mhz homing beacon to get SAR to within a meter of you.
« Last Edit: 22:48:03, 07/02/20 by alan de enfield »

alan de enfield

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Re: What3words app for your location
« Reply #47 on: 22:45:14, 07/02/20 »
  Yorci - "If you can get a phone signal, it is okay I guess, but if out in the hill, I will always stick to a grid ref or long & lat to give emergency services my position".


If you haven't got a phone signal how are you going to give the emergency services your position in any format ?
« Last Edit: 22:51:03, 07/02/20 by alan de enfield »

vizzavona

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Re: What3words app for your location
« Reply #48 on: 07:27:18, 08/02/20 »
Hello.... OS Locate and share on the mobile perhaps.

ninthace

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Re: What3words app for your location
« Reply #49 on: 08:50:41, 08/02/20 »
  Yorci - "If you can get a phone signal, it is okay I guess, but if out in the hill, I will always stick to a grid ref or long & lat to give emergency services my position".


If you haven't got a phone signal how are you going to give the emergency services your position in any format ?
Use the SMS emergency system.  It works on a weak or fleeting signal.  https://www.emergencysms.net/
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alan de enfield

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Re: What3words app for your location
« Reply #50 on: 10:14:18, 08/02/20 »
Use the SMS emergency system.  It works on a weak or fleeting signal.  https://www.emergencysms.net/

It works by finding another provider (all 999 calls do this - either voice or SMS)
If there is no provider service where you are then you get no service.

Googles answer :

Emergency calls can be made on any mobile phone network, not just your own. If you are somewhere where your network doesn't have reception but another does, you get Emergency Calls Only. If no networks have any signal, you'll be told there is no reception and you can't even make 999 calls.

ninthace

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Re: What3words app for your location
« Reply #51 on: 12:31:46, 08/02/20 »
But Google's answer is not the whole answer.  I refer you to my last sentence.  An SMS message works on a lower standard of signal and the reception does not need to last very long for the message to pass.  However, your phone has to be registered so do it now folks, don't wait until you need it.
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alan de enfield

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Re: What3words app for your location
« Reply #52 on: 13:19:13, 08/02/20 »
But Google's answer is not the whole answer.  I refer you to my last sentence.  An SMS message works on a lower standard of signal and the reception does not need to last very long for the message to pass.  However, your phone has to be registered so do it now folks, don't wait until you need it.

OK, but I just see it as a complication when you are in an emergency situation, according to your link, you need to text 999 with the following information :

Which service you require
Description of the problem
Exactly where you are



This last is a highlighted issue (by several emergency services) in that you need to get your W3W App and find your location and remember it (exactly), go onto your text screen / app and then include those 3 words in your text.

I'm not particularly adept at texting (all stiff fingers and thumbs) and being Diabetic the circulation in my fingers is the first to go in cold weather.

The problem highlighted is that if your W3W are (say) "Understanding : Horse : Rainbows" but when you come to type it out you remember (say) "Understand : Horses : Rainbow", those odd few missing / extra letters will mean you are not where you say you are.

It is a free choice, I just personally see too many possibilities for errors in time of pain and stress.

Each to their own.

ninthace

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Re: What3words app for your location
« Reply #53 on: 13:38:28, 08/02/20 »
Just tried on my Android phone.  I called up my location in the W3W app and held my finger on the location readout at the top of the screen and it automatically copied the location to the clipboard.  I then opened the SMS messager and pasted the location into it.  I could have pasted it into the memo/note app as well rather than try to remember it.  That should save your fingers.  I am not sure if the OS Locate app has a cut and paste option to do the same.  I cannot copy my grid ref from ViewRanger though so that would be a typing job.  In extremis, I would copy it across to the memo/note pad and check it rather than try to remember it.
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fernman

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Re: What3words app for your location
« Reply #54 on: 14:27:04, 08/02/20 »
You got me wondering there, Ninthace, so I opened up the GPS to Grid Ref app on my phone, which confirmed that I am sitting on my sofa at home, and I clicked on the 'three dots' menu at the lower right corner of the screen, which revealed an option to share current location. Selecting this gave me a choice of sharing by Messaging or Mail, and messaging opened a compose text screen saying I am at OS grid reference TQ xxxx xxxx, and I am with 28m of OS grid ref (as before), Latitude xx.xxxx, Longitude -x.xxxx

Very handy, but I'm not sure who I would send the text to  :-\

ninthace

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Re: What3words app for your location
« Reply #55 on: 14:50:45, 08/02/20 »
Well if your leg was broken, you could SMS it to 999 telling them it was broke because, of course, your phone is registered.  I am not sure what would happen if you used it to order stuff from Amazon or Tesco though - give it a try  O0
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ninthace

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Re: What3words app for your location
« Reply #56 on: 15:02:20, 08/02/20 »
You got me wondering there, Ninthace, so I opened up the GPS to Grid Ref app on my phone, which confirmed that I am sitting on my sofa at home, and I clicked on the 'three dots' menu at the lower right corner of the screen, which revealed an option to share current location. Selecting this gave me a choice of sharing by Messaging or Mail, and messaging opened a compose text screen saying I am at OS grid reference TQ xxxx xxxx, and I am with 28m of OS grid ref (as before), Latitude xx.xxxx, Longitude -x.xxxx

Very handy, but I'm not sure who I would send the text to  :-\
  There is a share button in W3W too which you can share with SMS on you phone or your contacts.  You can edit the share text message settings in the app so it includes a link to your location, an explanation of what W3W is for the recipient and a hyperlink to your location.  It can also include your location in lat long as any of WGS84, degrees mins secs, degrees decimal minutes.  There is even a choice of language to share the message in.
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alan de enfield

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Re: What3words app for your location
« Reply #57 on: 15:12:39, 08/02/20 »
Just tried on my Android phone.  I called up my location in the W3W app and held my finger on the location readout at the top of the screen and it automatically copied the location to the clipboard.  I then opened the SMS messager and pasted the location into it.  I could have pasted it into the memo/note app as well rather than try to remember it.  That should save your fingers.  I am not sure if the OS Locate app has a cut and paste option to do the same.  I cannot copy my grid ref from ViewRanger though so that would be a typing job.  In extremis, I would copy it across to the memo/note pad and check it rather than try to remember it.

Thank you, maybe not as difficult as I expected.

fernman

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Re: What3words app for your location
« Reply #58 on: 19:56:36, 08/02/20 »
Thanks Ninthace, so 999 it will be, if god forbid I should ever need to do it.
With of course the added message: Help! I'm tired and I've got sore legs.

I am not sure what would happen if you used it to order stuff from Amazon or Tesco though - give it a try  O0

 ;D ;D ;D

Percy

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Re: What3words app for your location
« Reply #59 on: 21:23:15, 08/02/20 »
I wonder what the location for the 3 words  “No f’ing idea” is?

 

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