Welcome to Balto Beacon™

Balto Beacon is a free app for iOS and Android devices that talks to the Loko LoRa-based GPS trackers and acts as a bridge between them and CalTopo. With a Loko Air unit attached to a dog, you can see the dog's position on a map and send its position to a CalTopo Locator.

Balto Beacon

Balto Beacon is a cross-platform mobile application published by Birchwood Limited for search-and-rescue (SAR) K9 teams. It receives real-time GPS position data from Loko hardware trackers and relays those positions to CalTopo via its Shared Locations API, allowing incident command and field teams to see live dog and handler positions on a shared map.

This page is the entry point to the Balto Beacon documentation set. Use the links below to find the page relevant to what you're trying to do.

Documentation Set

Balto Beacon User Guide — For SAR team members and handlers using the app in the field.
Balto Beacon Setup and Deployment — Build environment, platform targets, and deployment steps.

At a Glance

Item	Detail
Publisher	Birchwood Limited
Platforms	iOS, Android, macOS
Hardware supported	Loko Ground unit (Bluetooth), Loko Air unit (radio, worn on collar)
Data destination	CalTopo Shared Locations API
Status	Field-validated; active development

What Balto Beacon Does

Scans for and connects to Loko Ground station hardware over Bluetooth.
Receives GPS fixes relayed from Loko Air units (worn on dog collars) via the Ground unit.
Uploads live positions to a CalTopo map so incident command and other field assets can see dog/handler locations in real time.
Displays a live map with per-unit tracks, battery status, compass heading, and distance-to-tracker.
Buffers and backfills position uploads through CalTopo outages or connectivity gaps so no data is lost.

Related Projects

Balto K9 — Birchwood Limited's published K9 training log app. Serves as a design reference for maps, gestures, and UI conventions shared with Beacon.
Original SAR Hardware — A purpose-built collar + ground station system in development, intended to eventually supersede the Loko hardware that Beacon currently talks to.

Support / Ownership

Balto Beacon is developed and maintained by Birchwood Limited. For technical issues, see the project's issue tracker (link TBD).