Airguard — technical white paper
Link My Gear Airguard (Link My Gear Tracker, hardware rev 54).
Airguard clips to your canopy. Find your gear. Replay every jump — solo, group, or the whole formation. Send an alert with a knock.
This document describes what the device is, what it does, how it is built, what it does not do, and what has not yet been determined. It is written to be read by someone evaluating the device for an organisation, and to be forwarded without further explanation.
The problem
A main canopy that is cut away is no longer under anyone's control. It descends unsteered, drifts with whatever wind is at altitude, and lands where it lands. The jumper is under a reserve and is dealing with their own landing somewhere else. Neither of them knows where the other came down.
What follows is a ground search. Someone walks the likely drift line — through crop, scrub, standing water, or onto a neighbouring property that has to be asked first. The people doing that walking are usually people who were doing something else: staff pulled off the loading area, jumpers who stood down from a load, occasionally an aircraft flown to look from above. Jump operations slow or stop while it happens.
The equipment is recoverable and usually recovered. The cost is the hours, the people, and the operational time, and it is paid every time regardless of whether the canopy is found in twenty minutes or at last light.
The same search happens without a cutaway. A canopy landed off the drop zone, out of sight behind a treeline, produces the same problem in a smaller form.
We do not publish figures for average search duration or recovery cost. We have not measured them, and a number we cannot stand behind is worse than none.
How it works
Airguard is a self-contained device that mounts to the main canopy and stays with it. It has its own battery, its own cellular radio, and its own position fix. It does not depend on the jumper's phone being present, powered, or in range.
Architecture, end to end:
- Device. Mounted on the canopy. Takes a GNSS position fix and reads its barometer and accelerometer.
- Cellular. The device transmits over LTE-M / NB-IoT to the Link My Gear backend. This is a direct wide-area link — it does not relay through a phone, a ground station, or drop zone equipment.
- Backend. Link My Gear receives, stores, and processes the data.
- Notification. Any alert is issued by the backend to the recipients configured in the Link My Gear app.
Bluetooth Low Energy is used for local pairing and configuration between the device and the app. It is not the alert path.
The direction of the alert matters and is easy to misread. Airguard reports to the Link My Gear backend, and the backend notifies the recipients an account holder has configured. Airguard does not signal people in the vicinity, does not signal the drop zone, and does not contact any public authority or dispatch service. Anything beyond notifying configured recipients is not part of the product.
The two alert paths
| Path | Trigger | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Knock | The jumper knocks on the device. A deliberate, human action. | Engineering-confirmed |
| Hard landing | The device's own sensors register a landing above a threshold, with no human action. | Detection thresholds and false positive / false negative behaviour have not yet been validated |
Both paths issue the notification the same way: device to backend, backend to the recipients configured in the app. Delivery is not guaranteed and depends on network, backend, and recipient configuration.
The three replay modes
Every jump is logged and can be reviewed afterwards in the app. Replay is available at three scopes:
| Mode | What is shown | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Solo | One device, one jump. Track, altitude, and timing for a single canopy. | Reviewing your own flight and landing pattern |
| Group | Several devices on the same load, drawn on one timeline. | Comparing separation, opening altitudes, and canopy traffic between a few jumpers |
| Formation | Every device on the load, drawn together. | Reviewing a whole formation's break-off, tracking, and canopy descent as one picture |
The three modes differ in scope, not in the data recorded. Group and formation replay place the same per-device tracks on a shared timeline so they can be read side by side; each device still contributes only its own track. Data quality in every mode depends on GNSS and sensor availability and on device condition.
Specifications
Values not yet determined are listed as such rather than omitted. This document is pre-release, and an undetermined figure is a decision that has not been taken yet — not one we are declining to publish.
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 2" × 1.125" × 0.625" (50.8 × 28.6 × 15.9 mm) |
| Mass | 100 g (3.5 oz) |
| Battery | 420 mAh rechargeable Li-ion, charged over USB-C |
| Battery life | Not yet determined |
| Attachment method | Mounts to the main canopy strap |
| Operating temperature range | Not yet determined |
| GNSS constellations | GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou |
| GNSS accuracy | Not yet determined |
| Cellular technology | LTE-M / NB-IoT (Nordic Semiconductor nRF9151) |
| Cellular bands | Not yet determined |
| Coverage assumptions | Not yet determined |
| Other sensors | Barometer, 3-axis accelerometer |
| Short-range radio | Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0 (STMicroelectronics STM32WB5MMG) |
Five figures an evaluator will reasonably ask for — battery life, operating temperature range, GNSS accuracy, cellular bands, and coverage assumptions — are not yet determined. They will be published here when they are, at this same URL.
Regulatory compliance
The device's regulatory statements are published as an electronic label under 47 CFR §15.19, at https://linkmygear.com/compliance. That page is the authority; this section summarises it and cites it rather than restating it.
Both radio modules are separately certified, and both grants can be verified independently in the FCC and ISED databases without reference to anything we publish.
United States (FCC). 47 CFR Part 15, Subpart B — Class B digital device, conformity declared under the Supplier's Declaration of Conformity procedure. The radios operate under the existing grants of the integrated modules, within their granted conditions.
- Contains FCC ID: 2ANPO00NRF9151 — Nordic Semiconductor nRF9151, LTE-M / NB-IoT
- Contains FCC ID: YCP-32WB5MMGH02 — STMicroelectronics STM32WB5MMG, Bluetooth LE
Canada (ISED). ICES-003, Class B digital apparatus.
- Contains IC: 24529-NRF9151
- Contains IC: 8976A-32WB5MMGH02
Testing. Nemko Canada Inc., reports REP174694 and REP174695, released 23 July 2026.
RF exposure. A minimum separation of 20 cm applies. Cellular transmission occurs only when the device is detached from the body.
Responsible party. Link My Gear Inc. 254 Chapman Rd, Ste 208 #22154, Newark, DE 19702, USA certification@linkmygear.com
Data handling
The full statement is the Link My Gear privacy policy at https://linkmygear.com/privacy-policy. The points an evaluating organisation usually needs are these.
What is collected. Device telemetry — position, altitude, and motion data associated with a jump — plus the account information needed to operate the service.
Where it is stored. Link My Gear operates from the United States, under Delaware jurisdiction. Data may be transferred to and processed in the United States or other countries. For transfers from the EU, EEA, and UK, Link My Gear relies on Standard Contractual Clauses or an equivalent legal mechanism.
Who can access it. The account holder, through the Link My Gear app, and Link My Gear staff to the extent needed to operate the service. Payment processing is handled by Stripe; Link My Gear receives transaction metadata for receipts, fraud prevention, and accounting, and does not generally store full card details. Data is protected with encryption, firewalls, hosted controls, and periodic audit.
How long it is kept. Retention follows the active analysis entitlement: approximately 30 days on Free, 1 year on Analyst, 3 years on Pro, or unlimited while a one-time grant remains in force. After that, data is deleted or anonymised, subject to legal holds.
Deletion on request. Account holders can request access, correction, or erasure of their personal data. Requests are made at https://linkmygear.com/data-deletion-request.
Organisational note. Link My Gear is a commercial consumer service and makes no claim to any government or defence accreditation, authorisation to operate, or data classification. An organisation with its own handling requirements should evaluate this section against them before use.
What Airguard does not do
This section is as material as the rest of the document.
Airguard stops reporting when any of the following is true:
- There is no cellular coverage. The device transmits over LTE-M / NB-IoT. In an area with no service from a supported network, nothing reaches the backend, and no alert is issued.
- There is no GNSS fix. Under dense canopy, in a building, or in terrain that obstructs the sky, the device may have no position to report, or may report an older one. The app shows the time a position was taken so a stale fix can be recognised as stale.
- The battery is exhausted. The device is not powered from the rig. Once its charge is gone it reports nothing.
- The device has separated from the canopy. Airguard reports its own position. If the mount has failed or the device has been torn free, its position is not the canopy's position.
Beyond those conditions, Airguard does not:
- Summon assistance, or contact any public authority or dispatch service. Alerts go to the Link My Gear backend, which notifies the recipients an account holder has configured — nobody else.
- Guarantee delivery of an alert. Delivery depends on network, backend, and recipient configuration and availability.
- Guarantee that a hard landing is detected, or that a detection is correct. Thresholds and false positive / false negative behaviour have not been validated.
- Replace, modify, or interact with any part of the parachute system. It is carried by the canopy and does nothing to it.
- Substitute for any procedure, equipment, or judgement an operation already relies on.
Airguard helps locate a main canopy after landing or a cutaway. Outcomes depend on battery, signal, device condition, network availability, and correct attachment.
Rigger and airworthiness considerations
Nothing goes near a canopy without the rigger responsible for it being comfortable, so the figures a rigger needs are stated here rather than on request.
Mass. 100 g (3.5 oz), carried on the main canopy strap.
Attachment. The device mounts to the main canopy strap. It is not sewn in, not routed through the harness, and does not attach to the reserve, the three-ring assembly, the cutaway housing, or any part of the reserve system. It introduces no new component into any load path of the parachute system.
Effect on canopy flight. Not yet characterised. The device's mass and position are stated above so a rigger can form their own view; Link My Gear has not published flight-characteristic testing, and this document does not assert that the effect is negligible. Establishing that is on the pre-release programme.
Inspection and maintenance. The device is externally mounted and can be removed, inspected, and refitted without opening the container or disturbing the packed canopy.
A rigger who is not satisfied on any of the above should not fit the device. That judgement is theirs.
Maturity
Airguard is pre-release. It is not generally available, and this document does not imply a ship date, a production quantity, or a supported service level.
Several specifications in this document are undetermined, and hard-landing detection is not validated. Both are stated where they occur. This document will be revised as those close; the version and date in the footer identify which revision a reader holds.
Contact
Link My Gear Inc. 254 Chapman Rd, Ste 208 #22154 Newark, DE 19702, USA
Regulatory statements: https://linkmygear.com/compliance Privacy policy: https://linkmygear.com/privacy-policy This document: https://linkmygear.com/whitepaper