In the past year I’ve heard of two situations where the improper use of a satellite emergency notification device (SEND) such as an DeLorme InReach or SPOT Messenger have caused SAR to be called out to search. In both cases I suspect user…
Tag: tech
UAV use cases for SAR
This is part three of my series of posts on the operational use of UAVs for SAR. The first post was on the basics of UAV use in Canada, and the second was on how SAR works in BC for…
How far did I go?
Back in the day we read guidebooks, and those told us how long a hike was. We also used maps, and would estimate distances using a ruler, and a scale. The modern way is to carry a GPS, and trust it…
Uses for UAVs in SAR
I realized that despite thinking a lot, and taking to a lot of people about the various uses for UAVs in Search and Rescue, I have not actually posted some of those ideas to the blog. Allow me to correct that. First, I’d…
Measuring GPS Precision
Two years ago I wrote a post on how to measure your own GPS accuracy, and followed that up with a post on measuring the accuracy of a smartphone GPS. This was in a series of posts on GPS units…
Smart Phone and GPS
I noted that there was some chatter recently on how cell phone GPS units work, and some misinformation that deserves clarification. First I would like to point out that the most probable place where an error in a GPS location…
The SnowBe Beacon
There’s an article over on the UnofficialNetworks blog about a new piece of “avalanche safety gear” made by a company called Snow-Beacon. The article, which I encourage you to read for yourself, describes the “SnowBe” as the “THE MOST DANGEROUS…
Satellite Phones and 911
Some information came through the SAR grapevine the other day about Satellite Phones and how to call for help. One of the SAR teams had been advising people to take a Satellite phone with them when heading into the backcountry,…
Google moves to Crowdsourcing
Talk about being scooped! The day I post my article on how great OpenStreetMap is for SAR and how Google will never have the detail that OSM has, they open up to crowdsourcing. Now, Google Map Maker is not new,…
SAR and Crowdsourced Maps
The months of September and October have been almost all urban searches for me, a new SAR manager. A few weeks ago we searched for a missing man in North Burnaby, a very urban environment. I’ll give the ending away;…
Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with: management, map, mapping, OpenStreetMap, OSM, rescue, SAR, tech, urban, urban interface
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