Satellite beacons

QSAR has 5 Somewear Global Hotspots — small satellite trackers that talk straight to the Iridium satellites, so they work everywhere.

A searcher needs zero apps and zero setup. Charge it, turn it on, carry it. That’s the whole job.

The one rule that matters: assign at checkout

In the Somewear system, whoever the beacon is “Assigned To” is the name that appears on the map. If the beacon says “Assigned To: Sean” but Wassillie is carrying it, the map shows a dot labeled Sean — at Wassillie’s location. On a real search that lie can cost hours.

So: when a beacon leaves the charger, change its assignment.

1. Go to Grid (Somewear’s website) → Account → Devices
2. Find the beacon (check the serial on its back)
3. Assigned To → pick the person carrying it
4. When it comes back, assign it back to nobody (Unassign)

Low-tech backup: the whiteboard by the charger — beacon serial, name, date out.

Why this rule exists: we learned it the hard way on 2026-07-06. A beacon assigned to one person was carried by another, while the assigned person’s phone also reported. The map showed one person teleporting between the village and the Arolik River every minute.

Using a beacon

• Power on: hold the button until the light comes on.
• Tracking: confirm the device is tracking (its light pattern / the Grid map shows it reporting). Tracking interval is set centrally — ask the admin, don’t fiddle per-device.
• Sky: satellites need sky view. Pocket or pack-strap is fine outdoors; a metal boat cabin or a house blocks it. First report after power-on can take a few minutes.
• Battery: days of life when tracking. Check the % on the Grid Devices page before handing one out; charge at return.
• SOS: the dedicated SOS button works with no phone — it alerts through Somewear’s emergency system.

Messaging (optional — this is the only part that needs the app)

Position tracking never needs a phone. But if the carrier wants to send/receive text messages off-grid:

1. Install the Somewear app (App Store / Play Store), log in with your QSAR Somewear account.
2. Pair the beacon over Bluetooth in the app (one phone at a time — the beacon remembers the last phone, re-pairs automatically).
3. Messages go over satellite, attributed to whoever’s phone is paired.

Handing the beacon to someone else? They pair their phone; nothing to undo on yours.

Where you’ll see beacons on the map

• iTAK / ATAK / phones and tablets: yes — beacons appear like any team member.
• The tak.qsartak.org web map: currently does not draw beacon tracks (a quirk of the server’s web page, not a data problem). Use a phone/tablet for the live picture; this may improve with server updates.
• A beacon that stops reporting goes stale on the map — old position, grayed out. Stale means “no report lately” (dead battery, no sky, or powered off) — the person is not necessarily at that dot anymore.

How often each thing on the map updates

Everything on the team map updates at its own rate, and a beacon is the slowest thing you will see. This is the single most common “is it broken?” question, so here is the honest answer:

What you’re looking at	Updates about every
A drone in flight	twice a second
Your own phone, and other members’ phones	2 minutes
A satellite beacon	30 minutes
A wave buoy	1 hour

A beacon dot that hasn’t moved in 20 minutes is normal. It does not mean the beacon failed, and it does not mean the person stopped. A beacon sends a short burst up to a satellite on a schedule; between bursts there is simply nothing new to show. Compare it against another beacon or the Grid map before you decide something is wrong.

What would be wrong: over an hour with no update from a beacon that should be running. That’s worth a radio check.

Beacons used to blink out between reports — the dot aged out after 5 minutes, so for 25 of every 30 minutes it looked dead, and twice during a 10-hour run in October it disappeared from everyone’s map entirely. Both causes were fixed server-side on 2026-10-02. If you still see a beacon vanish and come back, say so — that’s a bug now, not normal.

For admins (the plumbing)

• Beacon data reaches the TAK server through a Somewear → TAK server connection (Grid → Account → Settings → Connected Servers). It is one-way: Somewear pushes to TAK.
• A beacon’s workspace must be toggled ON in that connection’s OUTBOUND settings, or its data silently never arrives. All 5 QSAR beacons live in the Nalaquq workspace. Symptom of a missing toggle: track visible on Grid’s map, absent from TAK. Re-toggling the workspace also un-sticks a stale feed.
• Setup details, certificates, and server-side troubleshooting: server/VPS-DEPLOY.md in the repo.

Troubleshooting quick table

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
On Grid map, not on TAK	Workspace not toggled outbound	Grid → Settings → server connection gear → OUTBOUND → toggle workspace, Apply. Or toggle off/on to un-stick.
One name in two places / zig-zag track	Beacon assigned to someone whose phone also reports	Fix the assignment (see “the one rule”)
Beacon not even on Grid map	Not tracking, no sky view, or dead battery	Power/tracking/battery/sky, in that order
Marker stale/gray in iTAK	No recent report	Same as above — battery, sky, power
Dot hasn’t moved in ~20 min	Normal — that’s the 30-minute beacon cadence	Nothing. See the update-rate table above
Beacon disappears, then returns	Was the server deleting the marker on an idle feed; fixed 2026-10-02	Report it — it should no longer happen
Interval was set to 2 min but updates arrive every 30	The device setting isn’t what reaches us — plan tier / workspace interval governs	Admin: check the plan + workspace tracking interval in Grid, then verify server-side