All analog T.V. Stations will become digital on June 12, 2009. This may result in decreased signal range if you have channel 13 (frequency 210-216) in your area.
Please check your equipment tracking range before and after June 12, 2009 to determine if there is a decrease in reception. Please use the exact same Transmitter and Receivers for both tests. If you are with a Sheriff’s Department, please check your equipment at various points in your county.
If you have Care Trak Tracking equipment (see below) we can change your frequency to another channel. We are authorized to work on channel 7- 13.
If you have any question please feel free to contact us at 800-842-4537.
Due to the overwhelming success of Care Trak Products in saving lives, we could not possibly reference every news article in which Care Trak has been mentioned. However, below is a small selection of stories that have been published.
When an autistic child or an adult with dementia wanders off and gets lost, finding them quickly sometimes can make a difference between life and death.
As the market for search-and-rescue technology expands, LoJack Corp., the maker of wireless devices that allow cops to find stolen cars, is announcing Tuesday the launch of a radio-based product designed to locate people.
Several companies already offer devices that use wristband radio transmitters to help police locate people quickly. But advocates for the elderly and disabled say there's a large and unmet need for more such services.
An estimated 18,000 people are already using wristband radio-tracking devices made either by Care Trak International, a LoJack competitor, or by Locator Systems, a Canadian company acquired by LoJack last year. Some of them are distributed by police departments. On average, they cost about $25 to $30 a month to use, though in cases of need, they may be provided free.
There are an estimated 5.2 million Americans with Alzheimer's, and more than half of those affected sometimes go on random and dangerous walks, according to the National Alzheimer's Association. Wandering is considered among the most life-threatening behaviors associated with the illness.
The National Autism Association says 92% of respondents to an online poll last year said their child was at risk of wandering. In the past four years, the group says, 14 autistic children died because of wandering, including a 7-year-old boy in Pennsylvania who got lost in winter and was found four days later frozen to death.
Autistic children often don't respond when rescuers call out for them, so tracking technology would help, says Wendy Fournier, the association's president. "There's an enormous need for this," she says.
Such technology was first rolled out on a very small scale in the mid-1980s when an Illinois company called Wildlife Materials Inc. went beyond its core business of tracking endangered animals. A subsidiary called Care Trak International built a radio transmitter worn on a wrist that would emit a signal to a receiver, usually placed in a police car.
In 1996, a nonprofit called North Carolina Project Lifesaver started using Care Trak technology to search for people with Alzheimer's and other ailments, including traumatic brain injury. The nonprofit charges clients $16 a month on average, and works with nursing homes and private caregivers.
Derek Ellis, an official with the North Carolina rescue team, recalls once looking for a woman with dementia who walked out of a nursing home and was found within 30 minutes. Even then, she was close dying of hypothermia, he says.
From North Carolina, the rescue model spread nationwide through a separate nonprofit called Project Lifesaver International, founded by Gene Saunders, who as a police officer had led search-and-rescue teams in Virginia.
Mr. Saunders, who recalls once finding a lost child standing in a creek, started training police departments in the use of Care Trak technology. Care Trak sells receivers directly to police departments, who would often install them in their cars. The devices can locate people up to a mile away.
Roger Mulch, the sheriff of Jefferson County, Ill., spent nearly five years fund-raising and eventually spent about $10,000 on Care Trak equipment and training, and now tracks 11 people wearing wristbands. "The people who need the technology are often too embarrassed to ask for it," he says.
For Mr. Mulch and other police officials, one of the main draws in buying the tracking technology was the savings in time. Before, "I remember looking for people for 10 to 12 hours at a time," which stretched police resources, Mr. Mulch says. Now he says he can locate people much faster.
By 2006, Project Lifesaver International decided to use a competing product made by Locator Systems. Mr. Saunders says there are about 900 police departments using the radio-tracking technology, split roughly equally between Care Trak and Locator Systems.
LoJack chief executive Ronald Waters says the Westwood, Mass.-based company hopes to leverage its nationwide network of 1,900 police departments that already use its car-tracking system. LoJack plans to give away receivers for free, and charge clients a $30 monthly fee, on top of a $99 enrollment fee. Project Lifesaver International, which works exclusively with LoJack, is now approaching police departments with offers to switch from the Care Trak technology.
Referring to LoJack's marketing might, Care Trak vice president Mike Chylewski says he expects a tough battle. "It's David and Goliath," he says. Each company says its product is superior. Care Trak claims its frequency band is free from interference by wild animals wearing tracking devices. LoJack says its frequency is not affected by interference from some television channels.
Before signing up for any tracking service, consumers should check with their local police departments to inquire about support.