I began this experiment a week or so before the International UFO Conference (mid February) and have been running it for approximately six weeks. I have found that the Garmin Fenix 2 seems to meet my requirements (ability to track location and altitude, and be wearable all the time). However, it has a number of inconveniences and rough edges that make it not so simple to use.
Background
I got the idea after working on "The Case of the Flying Fisherman" about 10 years ago. In that case, the witness/experiencer had a fisherman's GPS device attached to the side of his boat. He used it to record the locations of fishing spots, etc. However he also had missing time experiences. On several occasions he noticed a discontinuity in his conscious experience, finding himself and his boat in a different location. The memories faded until he later noticed unusual GPS traces that seemed to correspond with the time and location of his experiences. Each time, a trace diverged from the point where his missing time began and ended in an arc - frequently passing over land. The trace would resume some time later in an arc that ended at the point where his memory resumed.Unfortunately the GPS didn't have altitude built into it so it couldn't conclusively establish that he had been 'picked up' in some way. But as a result, I have been increasingly interested in using GPS with altimeter to track possible anomalous movements of experiencers - perhaps associated with their abduction or contact events.
I have been waiting for the price to come down (I'm a cheap engineer at heart). To date the smaller trackers haven't been easily kept on the body 24/7. For some time I've been using the GPSTracks app on my iPhone with excellent result. However it is an iPhone app and it isn't easy to keep an iPhone attached to the body all night (at least without annoying a significant other).
So now that the price of GPS watches had come down, I have been testing the Garmin Fenix 2. This looked like the closest match to what I needed - GPS capability, altitude tracking, reasonably long battery life, ability to wear it 24/7, and data retrievable to a computer. Of these, the Fenix 2 appeared to most closely match my requirements. It was reasonably priced, as well as being oriented toward general purpose use.
Evaluation
I bought the Fenix 2 device a couple of months ago, refurbished through Amazon, for approximately $125 (very rough estimate). This is in a price range many experiencers could conceivable afford so I decided to evaluate it for possible use as a CE4 tracking tool. So far the device has been pretty reliable, although it definitely has its limitations.One of the biggest issues is the battery life while the GPS is running. I have found it to be about a half day to a full day or so - it seems pretty variable. So the user needs to remember to recharge it about twice a day. I found it works best to plug it into the computer in the evening at about 9PM, while I am on the computer, and in the morning after waking up. You will want it to have a full charge each night when you go to bed. You will also want to make sure the device is turned on and the keys are locked (more on that later).
I found the device often lost satellite lock when inside a building. I also noted that it is easy to accidentally turn it off. I found on several occasions, the device became deactivated during the night. I noticed the GPS was off and when I pressed the on button, the 'Resume' option came up. It wasn't clear how long the recorder was off or how it got deactivated, but most likely it was due to my accidentally pressing the start/stop button sometime during the night. The start/stop button is in the upper right hand corner, easily accessible. Unfortunately, that makes it easy to accidentally bump it and turn off the tracker as well. However there is also a button lock function, so you can lock out the buttons and prevent yourself from turning off the device during the night. I found it pretty easy to make a mistake and accidentally lose or not record a night's worth of data.
I subjectively noted some of these mysterious 'off' times occurred when something unusual might have been going on. One time was while I was at the International UFO Congress. I woke up that morning feeling very groggy and recalled a number of rather unusual dreams. In addition, my roommate had a large geometric bruise-like mark on his abdomen. Several other people at the conference described possible unusual events during that 24 to 48 hour time period. Coincidence? Perhaps. But if the GPS device had been running the entire time, it would have been easier to rule out my having "gone somewhere" during the night.
Another issue is the nonstandard way the device records data. I haven't yet found an easy way to save the data from the Garmin software into a standard format like CSV. That makes it hard to save the data in a way that other programs can analyze it. In addition, the accompanying PC software has been pretty temperamental. It requires use of their website to sync with the watch and download data. This is an inconvenience, although the site actually works pretty well. Furthermore, it won't display (at least not very rapidly) while the device is syncing with the computer. Note: I am using an old dinosaur of a laptop to run the software, so that goes some way toward explaining the lack of speed.
Conclusions
The difficulty of retrieving data could be a major issue. Garmin needs to address this in future releases of their software. The other disadvantages are mostly inconveniences and in each case there are likely workarounds for them. If one is careful and makes sure the settings are correct, it is likely to work just fine. The device recorded data quite reliably and did its job well in spite of these annoyances. However, the issues combine to suggest that while it would work for the purposes of experiencer and anomaly tracking, it looks like this device isn't quite there yet for general use.Alternatives
The best app I've found so far remains the GPSTracks app on my iPhone 6S Plus. I have found it records nearly flawlessly, often when the Garmin Fenix 2 loses satellite lock. It also saves data in CSV format, easy to analyze with other software. I also notice that the GPSTracks app now has a stand-alone version that runs on the Apple watch, series 2. The Apple watch is rather expensive (approximately $400) so I have not jumped on that bandwagon. However the Series 2 has an on-board GPS, so I think it might be time to try that as another technology alternative for possible anomaly tracking..
