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Oplopanax Horridus
Oplopanax Horridus A veteran SAR volunteer's experiences in British Columbia

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Oplopanax Horridus
Oplopanax Horridus A veteran SAR volunteer's experiences in British Columbia

Off Canvas Menu

  • About
    • About Me
    • Copyright
    • Privacy Policy
    • Commenting policy
    • Disclaimer
    • Why Oplopanax
  • Popular
    • On Blaming the Victim
    • How to Kill Yourself Snowshoeing
    • Smart Phones and Battery Life
    • Don’t use Smart Phones for Backcountry Navigation
    • PLBs from the Rescuer’s Perspective
    • Finding Someone from a Helicopter
    • On Coordinates
    • A Social Media Storm
  • Projects
    • TrueNorth Geospatial
    • Missing Poster Generator
    • YourLo.ca/tion
    • SAR Teams Map
    • Range Rings
  • SAR Links
    • BC SAR Teams
    • SAR Agencies
  • Media
  • Contact

Category: Blog Entry

Regular blog posts

UAV Regulations

By Michael Coyle Posted on 12/05/2014 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with regulation, UAV
UAV Regulations
QuadCopter UAV

UAV regulations that ban their use are worse than nothing because people are going to fly them anyway. Common sense regulations need to be put in place.

TrueNorth public beta

By Michael Coyle Posted on 01/05/2014 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with beta, GIS, GPS, SAR, technology, TrueNorth
TrueNorth public beta
Mount Mamquam area

TrueNorth is in public beta – using a GIS is like writing a resume with Photoshop, come get your mapping word processor.

Not Just a Volunteer

By Michael Coyle Posted on 15/04/2014 Posted in Blog Entry, Short Posts Tagged with volunteer
Not Just a Volunteer

You’re not just a volunteer.

What does an under-funded SAR system look like?

By Michael Coyle Posted on 27/03/2014 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with accountability, funding, rant, SAR
What does an under-funded SAR system look like?

An under-funded SAR system might be difficult to detect, how do we tell when we don’t have enough resources to do things right?

Emergency response and mental health

By Michael Coyle Posted on 21/03/2014 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with emergency response, mental health, personal account

A tale of an emergency responder, a vandalized car and being attacked by a mentally unstable person wielding an axe.

Measuring GPS Precision

By Michael Coyle Posted on 13/03/2014 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with GPS, smart phone, tech, technology
Measuring GPS Precision

Following up on a series of posts on how to measure the error in a GPS, I’ve written a simple too that will let you calculate the precision of any GPS unit.

Avalanche Journal Article on UAVs in SAR

By Michael Coyle Posted on 01/03/2014 Posted in Short Posts Tagged with avalanche, journal, UAV

A link to my article in the Canadian Avalanche Association’s publication, The Avalanche Journal

Tax Credit not an “Incentive”

By Michael Coyle Posted on 13/02/2014 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with incentives, recognition, SAR, taxes
Tax Credit not an “Incentive”

Media reporting on the federal government’s tax break for SAR volunteers as an incentive misses the boat; it’s recognition of service, and not a motivation.

Tax Credit for SAR Volunteers

By Michael Coyle Posted on 11/02/2014 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with SAR, taxes, Tim Jones
Tax Credit for SAR Volunteers
Travel on lightly snow-covered rocks

The federal government of Canada introduced a tax credit for SAR volunteers. Full text of the section, and a link to the budget document.

Who is paying for SAR in BC?

By Michael Coyle Posted on 05/02/2014 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with funding, numbers, SAR
Who is paying for SAR in BC?
SAR Funding Uses

Who is paying for SAR in BC? Where does the money come from & where does it go? What does it mean that SAR funding is not stable, & how do we fix it?

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Oplopanax Horridus Copyright © 2025 by Michael Coyle
All content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada License
Creative Commons Licence
Oplopanax Horridus Copyright © 2025 by Michael Coyle
All content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada License