Tech Tools for an Easy Mission

[Tubacap]

So last night we received an EPIRB mission, and started to prosecute.  After rounding up the usual suspects we sent a ground team to the site of wher ethe 406 beacon was stating it was going.  Some things that were interesting.

The ground team had an iPhone, and I (the IC) was at home with my computer.

1st speedy task...  I emailed directions from Google Maps directly to their phone so they didn't have to spend time downloading them.

2.  They had an issue with the L-per, but they were able to take a picture of it and email it so we could trouble shoot real-time together.

3.  Anytime I needed a status update I was able to just ask, and they could email me a link to the exact GPS coordinates from the iPhone.

4.  Plotting off the SARSAT hits on Google Earth allowed me to email a complete image of the mission to the GT as Google Earth lets you email a jpeg of your current screenshot, including pushpins.

All in all, it went fairly well.  It was about 5 hours for the total mission from notification to RTB.  This included 1.5 hours of drive time, plus some time convincing the guards it was on their property  .  It was interesting how much information and how easily the information was transfered between my house and the field due to the internet enabled device.

[davidsinn]

I'm working on a tool right now that will help a bit I hope. It's mainly for the GTL trying to figure out where he needs to go next. It's an excel spreadsheet that takes a pair or more of Lat/Lon/Azimuth and calculates where they intersect. I plan to run it on my WinMo phone.

[Tubacap]

Let me know if I can help.  I have an HTC Touch Diamond WinMo 6.1 Pro

[Eclipse]

If you enable and use Google Latitude you can track the team in real-time.

[cap235629]

I would think that this would work with just about any smartphone. I am on Sprint and I am considering upgrading to a palm pixi or pre. Any apps out there I should consider?

[Eclipse]

I would think that this would work with just about any smartphone. I am on Sprint and I am considering upgrading to a palm pixi or treo. Any apps out there I should consider?

It has to be a location-aware device with a full GPS to be really useful, that includes the iPhone, most Android devices, and most newer Windows mobile devices.

The also have to have a data plan and connection.

I know both the iPhone and Android market have a bunch of GPS toys that will help with mapping and related tasks.

Google docs could be used for shared, real-time logs.

[cap235629]

I edited my earlier post to say pre instead of treo. Both have full GPS capabilities

[swamprat86]

I have a Palm Pre and I can do all the items that they did during the mission.  It is a GPS supported phone that has Google Maps already loaded and can use Google apps.  Their apps library is growing and they have several mapping, GPS and even flight plan apps already.