Tools/Technology to Enhance the ES Mission?

[A.Member]

So, here's yet another hypothetical thread.  You get to be King for the day...

What is the one tool/technology that CAP is currently missing that you would add/make available to our members so as to increase the effectiveness or enhance our emergency services mission. 
 
Constraint - Proposal must:
   Adhere to all current regs (ie. no bringing in helicopters, etc)
   Be somewhat reasonable/realistic about costs (ie you can dream a little bit and assume some budget but no CAP owned satellites, etc).
   The technology/solution should currently exist/be generally available

With you proposal, briefly state your case as to why it would add value.   
Consider:
   Cost-effectiveness
   Advantages and disadvantages of your proposal

[lordmonar]

Real Time GPS tracking of Ground Teams, Aircraft, Vehicles and Key Personnel.

[A.Member]

Real Time GPS tracking of Ground Teams, Aircraft, Vehicles and Key Personnel.

Like a My Tracks solution but with a centralized dashboard/view?  Perhaps some sort of MDM type solution?

[JeffDG]

Real Time GPS tracking of Ground Teams, Aircraft, Vehicles and Key Personnel.

Like a My Tracks solution but with a centralized dashboard/view?

I have a Google Earth tool that gets our SPOT trackers on a globe.

[A.Member]

Real Time GPS tracking of Ground Teams, Aircraft, Vehicles and Key Personnel.

Like a My Tracks solution but with a centralized dashboard/view?

I have a Google Earth tool that gets our SPOT trackers on a globe.

Can they all be viewed centrally by say an IC or something?  Or can the team only see their SPOT?  Does every team/aircrew have a SPOT?

[JeffDG]

Real Time GPS tracking of Ground Teams, Aircraft, Vehicles and Key Personnel.

Like a My Tracks solution but with a centralized dashboard/view?

I have a Google Earth tool that gets our SPOT trackers on a globe.

Can they all be viewed centrally by say an IC or something?  Or can the team only see their SPOT?  Does every team/aircrew have a SPOT?

Hell, I give you the KML, you can see my folks!

We generally have a projector set up with GE on it with the planes.  We can even do a "central" rename of the device, so you don't see the big-ugly SPOT ID, I can just label it as "CAP4171".  Finally, if it doesn't get SPOT data for 30 minutes, it turns the symbol yellow, and 60 minutes makes it big (about 5x normal size) and red.

[lordmonar]

That's my thinking.   Every aircraft and vehicle would have something like Spot that could be tracked by anyone with a password.

Plus we would have a butt load more units for individual GT members out in the field.

No more one hour check-ins and we can actually see if the crews and teams actually covered that grid. 

[NC Hokie]

Let's get serious about airborne SAR by mounting sensor pods on airframes that can handle them.  Real time video could be streamed to a mission base with many other eyes assisting in the search (even - GASP - cadets!), and infra-red could allow us to keep flying once the sun goes down.

I have no idea what these systems cost, but they have to be cheaper than the ARCHER fiasco, and the added capability would be worth sacrificing one new airframe per year to cover the cost.

The biggest disadvantage that I see is that this may turn our birds into surveillance aircraft, with all of the associated headaches and hassles (posse comitatus, public perception, etc.) that brings.

[A.Member]

Real Time GPS tracking of Ground Teams, Aircraft, Vehicles and Key Personnel.

Like a My Tracks solution but with a centralized dashboard/view?

I have a Google Earth tool that gets our SPOT trackers on a globe.

Can they all be viewed centrally by say an IC or something?  Or can the team only see their SPOT?  Does every team/aircrew have a SPOT?

Hell, I give you the KML, you can see my folks!

We generally have a projector set up with GE on it with the planes.  We can even do a "central" rename of the device, so you don't see the big-ugly SPOT ID, I can just label it as "CAP4171".  Finally, if it doesn't get SPOT data for 30 minutes, it turns the symbol yellow, and 60 minutes makes it big (about 5x normal size) and red.

Does every team/aircrew in your Wing have a SPOT or is it limited to just a few?  How does this work in SAR(EX)s?  How does it improve your mission effectiveness?  Are your SPOTs subscription based?  How do you maintain signal?  Does your SPOT solution track and record path or only current location? 

You are using this device, correct?:
http://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=102

[JeffDG]

Real Time GPS tracking of Ground Teams, Aircraft, Vehicles and Key Personnel.

Like a My Tracks solution but with a centralized dashboard/view?

I have a Google Earth tool that gets our SPOT trackers on a globe.

Can they all be viewed centrally by say an IC or something?  Or can the team only see their SPOT?  Does every team/aircrew have a SPOT?

Hell, I give you the KML, you can see my folks!

We generally have a projector set up with GE on it with the planes.  We can even do a "central" rename of the device, so you don't see the big-ugly SPOT ID, I can just label it as "CAP4171".  Finally, if it doesn't get SPOT data for 30 minutes, it turns the symbol yellow, and 60 minutes makes it big (about 5x normal size) and red.

Does every team/aircrew in your Wing have a SPOT or is it limited to just a few?  How does this work in SAR(EX)s?  How does it improve your mission effectiveness?  Are your SPOTs subscription based?  How do you maintain signal? 

You are using this device correct:
http://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=102

Yes, we've been purchasing units for the last year or two, and now have enough in the wing to cover all of our aircraft, and starting to deploy them to ground vehicles too.

Yes, they're subscription based.  The signal is satellite based (not cellular), so toss the SPOT up on the dash of the airplane and it maintains pretty good signal.

About the one annoyance is that the lag time...they only update once every 10 minutes, so they're not a true "real time" thing.  We also train crews to use them to signal things when out of comm range...for example, one button is designates as "objective found, returning to base", another is designated as "OPS Normal", so we can keep track of aircrews that are beyond our comm range and still know they're OK.

[A.Member]

Real Time GPS tracking of Ground Teams, Aircraft, Vehicles and Key Personnel.

Like a My Tracks solution but with a centralized dashboard/view?

I have a Google Earth tool that gets our SPOT trackers on a globe.

Can they all be viewed centrally by say an IC or something?  Or can the team only see their SPOT?  Does every team/aircrew have a SPOT?

Hell, I give you the KML, you can see my folks!

We generally have a projector set up with GE on it with the planes.  We can even do a "central" rename of the device, so you don't see the big-ugly SPOT ID, I can just label it as "CAP4171".  Finally, if it doesn't get SPOT data for 30 minutes, it turns the symbol yellow, and 60 minutes makes it big (about 5x normal size) and red.

Does every team/aircrew in your Wing have a SPOT or is it limited to just a few?  How does this work in SAR(EX)s?  How does it improve your mission effectiveness?  Are your SPOTs subscription based?  How do you maintain signal? 

You are using this device correct:
http://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=102

Yes, we've been purchasing units for the last year or two, and now have enough in the wing to cover all of our aircraft, and starting to deploy them to ground vehicles too.

Yes, they're subscription based.  The signal is satellite based (not cellular), so toss the SPOT up on the dash of the airplane and it maintains pretty good signal.

About the one annoyance is that the lag time...they only update once every 10 minutes, so they're not a true "real time" thing.  We also train crews to use them to signal things when out of comm range...for example, one button is designates as "objective found, returning to base", another is designated as "OPS Normal", so we can keep track of aircrews that are beyond our comm range and still know they're OK.

I'd argue that real-time truly is not a need for any of our missions, so near real time is fine.   

How much is the monthly subscription per device?

Does SPOT report altitude or only location?

[Spaceman3750]

As a GTL, I have absolutely no interest in carrying a spot tracker. Let me work, I'll call if I need something. I suppose from a POD perspective it would be nice to be able to put a line on a map afterwards, but I can just give you my GPS track using equipment I already have.

[isuhawkeye]

As a ground team person I love the spot.  I actually have two of them.  I know that when comms is out and I am beyond cell phone range that I can still have one way communications out of my location if needed. 

[lordmonar]

As a GTL, I have absolutely no interest in carrying a spot tracker. Let me work, I'll call if I need something. I suppose from a POD perspective it would be nice to be able to put a line on a map afterwards, but I can just give you my GPS track using equipment I already have.

That's the beauty of the SPOT.....you don't have to do anything but turn it on.

Mission base does not have to get on the radio every hour (requiring you to get to higher ground to make a call).
Mission base can track your real time position to update their board.
After mission you can down load the file for your POD.
If anyone on the team gets into trouble....push the SOS button and immediate e-mails go out to the appropriate personnel to start the rescue operation.

[Eclipse]

Has no one heard of Latitude?

Free, and works with Smartphons as well as iOS devices.

[wuzafuzz]

I would love to see CAP fund SPOT devices and subscriptions for all aircraft and vehicles.  Being able to choose which devices to track on one web page view would be completely awesome.

I have a personally owned SPOT device and just bought two of them for my squadron's planes.  (Courtesy of grant money from my employer.)  It's really nice to be able to track aircraft locations, we like the ability to send canned messages, and of course the SOS feature is nice if needed.  The ability to send Ops Normal messages is great, plus I like the fact that we can press a button to send coordinates to mission base without reading them over the air.

The SPOT device is managed through an online account that permits customization of the messages sent for certain button presses, and where those messages are sent.  You can create multiple profiles for each device and select them on the web page to fit your expected activities.  For my personal device I have profiles for hiking trips, road and off-road trips, and for CAP missions.  My profile for CAP missions includes contact info for NOC and my wing alert staff in the event I press the SOS button.

I've used Latitude and similar services.  They are neat and the price is right.  Unfortunately I can lose cell service in the hills a couple miles from my house, not to mention significant portions of the Rocky Mountains a few miles further away.  Another factor is that SPOT is OK to run in flight.  Cell phones aren't.  Plus, my SPOT has been running for 8 months on one set of batteries (occasional use), and the manual says it can beacon for about 7 days before depleting good batteries. 

[A.Member]

Has no one heard of Latitude?

Free, and works with Smartphons as well as iOS devices.

Yes, but that is SMS based.  SPOT uses satellite messaging and, as a result, is not subject to the same restrictions.  This makes technology like SPOT potentially more appealing, especially in areas with poor cell service (and there are still a remarkable number of those).  In addition, the cost advantage of it's one time per unit cost and $100 per year subscription is potentially more attractive than purchasing smart phones with data plans.

[Critical AOA]

I guess some folks think that every square inch of the US has good cell service and that everyone has a smartphone.   

[Eclipse]

Has no one heard of Latitude?

Free, and works with Smartphons as well as iOS devices.

Yes, but that is SMS based.  SPOT uses satellite messaging and, as a result, is not subject to the same restrictions.  This makes technology like SPOT potentially more appealing, especially in areas with poor cell service (and there are still a remarkable number of those).  In addition, the cost advantage of it's one time per unit cost and $100 per year subscription is potentially more attractive than purchasing smart phones with data plans.

For the majority of professionals, and I would hazard nearly all the members involved in ES, no purchase or additional cost would be necessary. 

I guess some folks think that every square inch of the US has good cell service and that everyone has a smartphone.   

Of course not, but when you have a free tool sitting on the workbench, you don't disregard it because the more expensive hammer >might< work better.  There's no
guarantee of Satellite coverage or connection either.   My DOSA recently took a cross-country motorcycle trip and was all excited about us tracking him via the SPOT.
Didn't work worth a darn.  Fog and other poor weather, mountains, and other factors made the thing all but useless.

We need to work our way >out< from the lowest common denominator technology that is already in hand, and then supplement it when necessary.  For every
mission we do in an area with no coverage, we're doing 100 in full line-of-site of a cell tower.   

Also, to my knowledge, Latitude is not SMS based.  It also does not requires a GPS lock to function (though positioning accuracy is degraded when using tower triangulation).

[A.Member]

For the majority of professionals, and I would hazard nearly all the members involved in ES, no purchase or additional cost would be necessary. 

That assumption is not at all true in our Wing. And there is a significant difference between tracking a CAP owned device and tracking someone's personal device.  Not at all a fan of the latter.

[Eclipse]

What the heck are they using?  Do you know how far down into Playskool feature phones you have to drill to
find one without a GPS these days?

They don't have to be a GS4 or iPhone 5 for this to work.

[Brad]

What about APRS-like polling via CAP radios? Enough tweaking and almost any radio can send an APRS burst on any frequency that is set up to listen and interpret. And if you hook a GPS unit into the radio that can decode the GPS information it can send that too, so you get near-realtime tracking of aircraft, vehicles, and groundteams over conventional VHF.

I can even send an APRS packet via straight DTMF if the receiving station is set up right to decode it, doesn't take things too special. Well true you don't get GPS reporting, you only get the nearest receiving site, but it's still neat, and I think it would be a good capability demonstration.

[Fubar]

What about APRS-like polling via CAP radios? Enough tweaking and almost any radio can send an APRS burst on any frequency that is set up to listen and interpret. And if you hook a GPS unit into the radio that can decode the GPS information it can send that too, so you get near-realtime tracking of aircraft, vehicles, and groundteams over conventional VHF.

There are wings that used to do this. National HQ no longer allows it.

[wuzafuzz]

What about APRS-like polling via CAP radios?

APRS is a blast.  I use it frequently with my ham radios.

It has worked well for mobiles with high power transmitters and good antennas, and I've used portable devices in aircraft (with external antenna) as well. Performance with low power, portable ground stations has been dismal.  That's what pushed me to acquire a SPOT device. 

Part of the beauty of SPOT (and similar gadgets) is they work where cell phones and our VHF coverage don't.

My DOSA recently took a cross-country motorcycle trip and was all excited about us tracking him via the SPOT.
Didn't work worth a darn.  Fog and other poor weather, mountains, and other factors made the thing all but useless.

No device is perfect, but something must have been wrong with the SPOT in that story.  I've used mine in all kinds of weather and terrain.  I've taken it into steep canyons specifically to test coverage.  It worked great.  I always make sure I put the thing on the dash to get the best view of the sky.

This image is from a few weeks ago.  It includes some SAREX flying and my drive home from Montrose, CO to Fort Collins.  It can't get much more mountainous than this.  Weather was fantastic though.

Ultimately, use the right tool for the job.  Many people don't need SPOT.  For some, APRS and smartphone based solutions aren't adequate.  I use all three.

[JeffDG]

What about APRS-like polling via CAP radios? Enough tweaking and almost any radio can send an APRS burst on any frequency that is set up to listen and interpret. And if you hook a GPS unit into the radio that can decode the GPS information it can send that too, so you get near-realtime tracking of aircraft, vehicles, and groundteams over conventional VHF.

I can even send an APRS packet via straight DTMF if the receiving station is set up right to decode it, doesn't take things too special. Well true you don't get GPS reporting, you only get the nearest receiving site, but it's still neat, and I think it would be a good capability demonstration.

There's actually been a bit of discussion about that type of thing on the CAP-DC listserv lately...

There is a group somewhere looking at things like this.  Basically, our EFJ mobiles have the ability to interleave data on P25 alongside voice...or to dedicate a channel for better bandwidth. 

My thought was put a Raspberry Pi, a GPS and a Card Reader in a briefcase with an EFJ Mobile in a briefcase, with a power plug and antenna connection and you'd be able to send location and photos back to mission base pretty easily.

[Brad]

What about APRS-like polling via CAP radios? Enough tweaking and almost any radio can send an APRS burst on any frequency that is set up to listen and interpret. And if you hook a GPS unit into the radio that can decode the GPS information it can send that too, so you get near-realtime tracking of aircraft, vehicles, and groundteams over conventional VHF.

I can even send an APRS packet via straight DTMF if the receiving station is set up right to decode it, doesn't take things too special. Well true you don't get GPS reporting, you only get the nearest receiving site, but it's still neat, and I think it would be a good capability demonstration.

There's actually been a bit of discussion about that type of thing on the CAP-DC listserv lately...

There is a group somewhere looking at things like this.  Basically, our EFJ mobiles have the ability to interleave data on P25 alongside voice...or to dedicate a channel for better bandwidth. 

My thought was put a Raspberry Pi, a GPS and a Card Reader in a briefcase with an EFJ Mobile in a briefcase, with a power plug and antenna connection and you'd be able to send location and photos back to mission base pretty easily.

Yea the current EF-Johnsons can do a ton of neat things that CAP has barely even touched. There's one here that I had a chance to try out hands-on at a fire expo one year:

http://www.efjohnson.com/products/portables/51FIRE

Among other things, it has a P25 "heartbeat" which sends out a databurst every few seconds to the IC's radio and alerts if anyone is going out of communications range of the IC or other members. It also has an incident mode that can keep the radio from changing channels even if you bump the knob, and in emergency mode it can even stay on with the volume knob completely clicked off! Oh the joys of software radio.

[Luis R. Ramos]

Eclipse-

Can you post more info on Latitude? Like the website, requirements, your experience with it...

Flyer

[Eclipse]

It's pretty straightforward.

https://latitude.google.com

Any device that can load the app can connect to their servers.  Then you share your location information with whomever needs it (ie the SUL or GBD, etc.) and from their
they can track your position in real time via the above website.    Works with full GPS or tower coordination, and you can also chat, request a check-in and do some other
low-level functions as well.

It's enabled for a handful of folks I know all the time, including my wife, which is hand because I can see where she's at and vice-versa.

My experience is that is works "pretty good", depending on GPS lock, general cell coverage, etc.  When I've used it with ground teams, it helps
to have team members across the carriers, since then at least one or two of the team will always be tracked, regardless of your boonie-age.

[bflynn]

Any device that can load the app can connect to their servers.  Then you share your location information with whomever needs it (ie the SUL or GBD, etc.) and from their
they can track your position in real time via the above website.    Works with full GPS or tower coordination, and you can also chat, request a check-in and do some other
low-level functions as well.

Any OPSEC to be concerned with this?  Not that we're doing super secret missions, but there's no reason to broadcast a GT's position to everyone.

[Eclipse]

None.  Only people you specifically share your location with can see where you are.

[JoeTomasone]

One thing we have been implementing here in FLWG is a Jabber server so that mission personnel can Instant Message each other.   

The advantages: Works with both mission base and forward-deployed personnel, everyone can see the traffic, it's quiet in the MB (vice phones/radios), and it generates time and date stamped logs.    So, for example, Ops can request a status of CAPxxxx.  Comms sees it, radios the aircraft, and returns the response.  The IC sees the response as well and is updated.   If the question and response concern a found target, the MIO can begin preparing a press release, GBD can direct ground teams (who can be connected via cell phone/tablet or reachable by radio) to the objective or to RTB (and Comms sees responses from GTs and doesn't bother radioing them).   You can extrapolate from there.

However, I would love to see more adoption of the Mark IV Sniffer for UDF.  A full setup, including the unit & handheld/mobile antennas is around $350, or half the cost of a cheese-block L-Per, and much more effective.

[kratclif]

APRS, Google Latitude, SPOT, or DeLorme inReach - why limit yourself to just one technology? Use them all! Ok, not really, but check out this web site:

https://spotwalla.com

They call it a Secure Personal Location Manager, but it does more than that.

It gets data from the following services securely over the internet:

* APRS
* SPOT
* Latitude
* inReach

Then it can display them all on a password-protected map.

So if your Ground Teams all had smartphones (not each team member, but at least one person on each team) and they had cell coverage it would work. You could put a SPOT device in each aircraft. They would all show up on the same Google Map back at mission base, updating every 10 minutes or so.

I don't know that the SpotWalla site would ever work for CAP's needs, but it's an interesting concept.

Perhaps a CAP equivalent of this will show up in that new mission management thing that NHQ is supposed to be working on; I won't hold my breath.

Question: I know DeLorme's inReach is for personal use only. They don't allow for fleet/asset/personnel tracking without an enterprise account. I think SPOT is the same way (it was when I looked into it a couple years ago). What type of SPOT or inReach plan is everyone using? Personal or enterprise? I'd be interested in knowing the costs for an enterprise plan.

Regarding APRS: I use it every day in my car. But the only reason it works well for tracking is due to the ham radio infrastructure (digis and igates), and obviously CAP cannot use the ham radio network. Sure, APRS will work on an ad-hoc channel with no pre-existing infrastructure at all, but you are limited by line of sight. Even if NHQ did allow it (I think the latest 100-1 does allow for data with prior permission from NHQ, though I'd have to check to be sure) I just don't see it working well for us.

Regarding Google Latitude: for those of you using Google Latitude, check out Google Maps Coordinate: http://www.google.com/enterprise/mapsearth/products/coordinate.html. It's like Latitude, but for enterprises. You can assign "dispatchers" who can then assign "jobs" to "mobile workers". So imagine the Ground Branch Director re-tasking a Ground Team in the field by sending them a new target location and instructions. The phone would update with new driving directions automatically. Smartphone and cellular data required, of course.

Coordinate is quite expensive, but I think non-profits can get it at no cost. Something to think about for the wings using Google Apps for Non-profits already.  It does have some client software requirements (Android or iOS required, wheres Latitude has some other versions for not-so-smart phones).

None of the above would be a replacement for traditional voice communication, but it could potentially augment it -- if we don't make it so complex that nobody can figure out how to use it.

Kevin