[aprssig] Fwd: Help for First Responders

Thu Oct 20 13:02:51 EDT 2016

Your intuition is spot-on, Scott.  Keeping sensors clear will be a problem.
A few years ago, our area had an ice storm.  Weather stations reported no wind...yet wind damage was significant.  The sensors were covered with ice. :-)
Ev

      From: Scott Miller <scott at opentrac.org>
 To: aprssig at tapr.org 
 Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2016 12:18 PM
 Subject: Re: [aprssig] Fwd: Help for First Responders

 I haven't really monitored traffic other than that in the last few years.  Someone was talking about tracking a drone aircraft with a search light via APRS one year.  Mostly I try to take a break from work when I'm out there.

 There's a fair amount of radio infrastructure out there year-round, up on a mountain and in the town of Gerlach.  I've thought about building some deployable weather stations with nephelometers to measure dust levels in real time.  It'd be interesting to put them at several locations around the site and generate an animation after the fact showing the dust storms blowing through.  They'd need to be rather high-range sensors, since the dust can get so bad you can't see three feet.  Building a nephelometer doesn't seem difficult but I don't know if I could keep the sensors clean enough to stay accurate.

 Scott
 N1VG

 On 10/20/2016 4:09 AM, Ev Tupis wrote:

  Hi Scott.  Interesting.  This seems like primarily a traditional APRS AVL application?  Did APRS supply any other service in these events?  Do share! :-) 
  Ev

        From: Scott Miller <scott at opentrac.org>
 To: aprssig at tapr.org 
 Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2016 10:23 AM
 Subject: Re: [aprssig] Fwd: Help for First Responders

   Oh yeah, that project was fun.  Humbolt General Hospital lost the EMS contract right after that so I'm not sure where the trackers ended up.  They were running half a watt on 70 cm at 9600 baud, four time slots per second, two packets per time slot, with a cycle time of 6 seconds.  The trackers were all motion-activated with the goal of lasting ~10 days without recharging.  They were magnetically mounted gadgets about the size of a paperback book.  A few had their batteries die early because the sensors were too sensitive and were triggered by the wind against the vehicles.

 From a single receive site we had no trouble covering the whole event and got solid tracks on ambulances headed back down NV 447 out to about 15 miles where they started to get into the hills.

 There's also been some APRS activity among participants.  Someone was talking about putting trackers on the major art cars and building a physical model of the site with miniature versions  of the art cars moving around in real time.

 Scott
 N1VG

 On 10/19/2016 5:07 AM, spam8mybrain wrote:

 APRS is used annually in Black Rock City, Nevada, for fire and EMS resource management at the BurningMan Arts Festival. Scott  Miller would have more details about that, as he designed and built the hardened trackers used in that rather hostile environment. 
  Alas, I wasn't able to be personally involved, as I couldn't get the necessary additional features into my YAAC software on the  short notice I had, so they used another application, Depiction, as the display console. 
  Whether this sort of application has been obsoleted by Project 25 comm systems, I can't say. 
  Andrew, KA2DDO  

 -------- Original message --------
 From: Bill Vodall <wa7nwp at gmail.com> 
 Date: 10/18/16 8:14 PM (GMT-05:00) 
 To: TAPR APRS Mailing List <aprssig at tapr.org> 
 Subject: [aprssig] Fwd: Help for First Responders 

 Do we have any real life examples of APRS being used in real events?
 It still seems APRS is ideal for tactical operations but it's
 generally unused - at least from what I've seen here - out side of
 Montana...

 Bill

 ---------- Forwarded message ----------
 From: Ev Tupis <w2ev at yahoo.com>
 Date: Tue, Oct 18, 2016 at 11:01 AM
 Subject: Re: [aprssig] Fwd: [wl2kemcomm] Help for First Responders
 To: TAPR APRS Mailing List <aprssig at tapr.org>

 How funny that I was contemplating how to open this thread...and you
 did the deed for me, Bill! ;-)

 I would like to read stories of how APRS has been used to support
 Emergency First Responders (EmComm, Health/Wellfare, SAR ... not
 "public service" tracking of relay runners or balloon tracking).

 I would also be interested in learning if any APRS software authors
 have written EmComm-focused apps that rely on APRS as its' foundation.

 Ev, W2EV

 PS: Googling "APRS EMCOMM" doesn't turn up much of value in this
 regard...but I'm pleased to see that my article from EmComm East a few
 years ago popped up. ;-)

 ________________________________
 From: Bill Vodall <wa7nwp at gmail.com>
 To: TAPR APRS Mailing List <aprssig at tapr.org>
 Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2016 12:07 PM
 Subject: [aprssig] Fwd: [wl2kemcomm] Help for First Responders

 I suggested APRS as an tool for this situation described below...

 It is often surprising how APRS is not even considered in many EmComm
 situation when it (APRS) seems like such a good fit.

 There's much to be done with the user interface and messaging needs to
 be fixed - but the opportunity is here to provide an awesome useful
 Ham Radio service.

 10 years ago we had a storm in the Puget Sound region that knocked out
 power for days - weeks for some.  It was during those five long cold
 days that I came to consider APRS as the ultimate Ham communications
 technology.  Today I believe that even stronger...

 73
 Bill, WA7NWP

 ---------- Forwarded message ----------
 <wl2kemcomm at yahoogroups.com>
 Date: Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 3:00 PM
 Subject: [wl2kemcomm] Help for First Responders
 To: wl2kemcomm at yahoogroups.com

 I was approached by a Deputy today asking what we (Amateur Radio) had
 to offer to address a problem.

 IF/WHEN we have a big disaster (Cascadia Earthquake/Tsunami), First
 Responders rightfully need to first see to the safety of their own
 families. Only then are they free to attend to their professional
 responsibilities.

 In such an event, phones will be out, both landline and cellular,
 repeaters for Public Service and Amateur VHF/UHF radio will be out,
 and internet other than satellite dish will be out. Much of the County
 communications is by linked microwave.

 Our terrain is rugged, with narrow valleys and many areas where
 simplex VHF/UHF radio just does not reach.

 How are other areas handling this need? How can a Sheriff’s
 Deputy/Firefighter/Police Officer most reliably reach his family for a
 status check to enable him to attend to his job?

 KF7RSF
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