BSA SAR AAR

[Walkman]

(Hows that for some acronyms, eh!)

I had the opportunity to be one of the instructors this past weekend for about 40-ish scouts working on the new SAR merit badge. Using this as a possible recruiting tool was brought up in the previous thread on the subject, so here's my take on it.

I was one of three instructors, the others were a firefighter and SWAT team member. We each took a section of the requirements and rotated three groups around so we covered our portion three times.

• Make sure you schedule enough time! There's a lot of classroom work in this and it's all completely new to the scouts. Our schedule was too tight. This is easily an all day activity. And since much of it more classroom type work, break up the day with hands on activities.

• A majority of the the reqs have nothing to do with much of the GTM or UDF tasks. There's a bit on ICS and 1st aid, a hasty search, etc. Other than that, don't expect a GTM3 to go in and really be prepared to cover most of these topics. That being said, most of it consists of basic stuff that someone with some time under their belt in ES could study up on and reasonably teach (YMMV). A few of the tasks deal with planning, so a person working their way through the IC track would be familiar.

• The land nav section is an issue. The MB reqs use Universal Transverse Mercador (UTM). None of our ES ratings (that I know of) deal with UTM, and neither does the orienteering merit badge and other compass work in scouts. The reqs want the scouts to be able to define UTM, then use it to: locate a point in a topo map using UTM and to be able to ID the UTM coordinates of any point shown on a map.

Since this was a scout activity and I was invited to participate, my main focus wasn't recruiting. I didn't get to spend much time on telling the CAP story. I did get a father/son combo that are very interested. Dad's prior AD AF and had heard of CAP from his time in. I did wear BDUs (with permission from my CC) and the other teachers wore their respective uniforms on the request of the organizers.

All in all, with some serious planning and prep work a high-speed ES unit could put together a good merit badge event for a group of scouts. I know there are some that do an aviation merit badge day and that seems to go well.

[sardak]

• The land nav section is an issue. The MB reqs use Universal Transverse Mercador  Mercator (UTM). None of our ES ratings (that I know of) deal with UTM, and neither does the orienteering merit badge and other compass work in scouts. The reqs want the scouts to be able to define UTM, then use it to: locate a point in a topo map using UTM and to be able to ID the UTM coordinates of any point shown on a map.

When CAP ES was revamped in the late 90's - early 2000's, one of the ground/UDF tasks was O-0208 "Locate a Point on a Map Using Universal Transverse Mercator." It was part of the original 2001 release of CAPR 60-3 and the GT/UDF Task Guide. However, when CAPR 60-3 was updated in 2004, this task was one of many that was dropped.

UTM is the basis for both the Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) and the US National Grid (USNG) systems. Those two systems substitute letters for numbers in the 1 million and 100 thousand digit positions of a UTM position. MGRS is based on the WGS 84 datum and USNG on the NAD 83 datum which unless you're a surveyor, are functionally equivalent. If one is reporting a position in UTM shorthand, the UTM, MGRS and USNG string of digits is identical. UTM has been the coordinate system of choice by most ground SAR teams for many, many years, except when working with aircraft when lat/lon is used. This is the basis for the Scouts using UTM, although they should still include lat/lon.

After the Katrina debacle, the National SAR Committee (NSARC, the federal agencies responsible for SAR) was tasked with coming up with a common position reporting system to be used in federally managed incidents. Much to its surprise, and just about everyone else's, US National Grid had been made the US Government civilian (as opposed to DoD, which requires MGRS) standard reporting system in 2001. Task done. NSARC published guidance on using USNG as the primary system for land responders. Lat/lon is the standard for aeronautical SAR. FEMA "requires" the use of USNG except when working with aircraft.
http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/cg534/nsarc/Georeferencing_info.asp
http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/cg534/nsarc/Land_SAR_Addendum/Published_Land%20SAR%20Addendum%20(1118111)%20-%20Bookmark.pdf

CAP absolutely should be teaching and using UTM and USNG in addition to lat/lon.

Mike

[Eclipse]

When CAP ES was revamped in the late 90's - early 2000's, one of the ground/UDF tasks was O-0208 "Locate a Point on a Map Using Universal Transverse Mercator." It was part of the original 2001 release of CAPR 60-3 and the GT/UDF Task Guide. However, when CAPR 60-3 was updated in 2004, this task was one of many that was dropped.

I knew I'd used it at some point in CAP...

[Walkman]

When CAP ES was revamped in the late 90's - early 2000's, one of the ground/UDF tasks was O-0208 "Locate a Point on a Map Using Universal Transverse Mercator." It was part of the original 2001 release of CAPR 60-3 and the GT/UDF Task Guide. However, when CAPR 60-3 was updated in 2004, this task was one of many that was dropped.

CAP absolutely should be teaching and using UTM and USNG in addition to lat/lon.

Mike

I came in to CAP after UTM was dropped. I agree it should be taught, especially in the interest of inter-agency operability.

One cool little thing is that we're mentioned a few time in the merit badge book. once in a nice colored sidebar that stands our prominently on the page.

[Spaceman3750]

UTM is still taught at NESA and it's LIGHT YEARS easier to use than lat/long.

[Walkman]

UTM is still taught at NESA and it's LIGHT YEARS easier to use than lat/long.

That's good to know.

It is easier in the end, but it took a little longer for it to click than it did for lat/lon. YMMV

[krnlpanick]

• The land nav section is an issue. The MB reqs use Universal Transverse Mercador  Mercator (UTM). None of our ES ratings (that I know of) deal with UTM, and neither does the orienteering merit badge and other compass work in scouts. The reqs want the scouts to be able to define UTM, then use it to: locate a point in a topo map using UTM and to be able to ID the UTM coordinates of any point shown on a map.

When CAP ES was revamped in the late 90's - early 2000's, one of the ground/UDF tasks was O-0208 "Locate a Point on a Map Using Universal Transverse Mercator." It was part of the original 2001 release of CAPR 60-3 and the GT/UDF Task Guide. However, when CAPR 60-3 was updated in 2004, this task was one of many that was dropped.

UTM is the basis for both the Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) and the US National Grid (USNG) systems. Those two systems substitute letters for numbers in the 1 million and 100 thousand digit positions of a UTM position. MGRS is based on the WGS 84 datum and USNG on the NAD 83 datum which unless you're a surveyor, are functionally equivalent. If one is reporting a position in UTM shorthand, the UTM, MGRS and USNG string of digits is identical. UTM has been the coordinate system of choice by most ground SAR teams for many, many years, except when working with aircraft when lat/lon is used. This is the basis for the Scouts using UTM, although they should still include lat/lon.

After the Katrina debacle, the National SAR Committee (NSARC, the federal agencies responsible for SAR) was tasked with coming up with a common position reporting system to be used in federally managed incidents. Much to its surprise, and just about everyone else's, US National Grid had been made the US Government civilian (as opposed to DoD, which requires MGRS) standard reporting system in 2001. Task done. NSARC published guidance on using USNG as the primary system for land responders. Lat/lon is the standard for aeronautical SAR. FEMA "requires" the use of USNG except when working with aircraft.
http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/cg534/nsarc/Georeferencing_info.asp
http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/cg534/nsarc/Land_SAR_Addendum/Published_Land%20SAR%20Addendum%20(1118111)%20-%20Bookmark.pdf

CAP absolutely should be teaching and using UTM and USNG in addition to lat/lon.

Mike

This sounds like something that should probably be brought up with NHQ/DOST -- has anyone done that?

[husker]

This sounds like something that should probably be brought up with NHQ/DOST -- has anyone done that?

We do still teach UTM at NESA to both AGSAR and GTL students, and yes, UTM will be coming back into the curriculum.

[starshippe]

   
   several random thoughts, in no particular order:

   in my formative years, we were using the old gridded sectional, and, if u were lucky or knew someone, jog charts for working with the gts. sectional charts were free and very easy to come by. i'm guessing that utm charts are a bit more difficult to obtain, and wonder if one's skill using that system might be hampered a bit by that difficulty. i think a graduated ruler of some sort would also be required, which to me is a disadvantage, especially in the field.

   i owe my own familiarity with utm to the delorme topo software, which offers several flavors of deg min sec formatting, as well as mgrs, utm, usng, and spcs. newer software might have yet more coordinate systems. its fairly simple to choose the system, and oolie the mouse around to find the position, or just draw a marker at a certain set of coordinates.

   we were introduced fairly recently to yet another system called gars, which defines a 5 by 5 minute plot. as it is supposed to be used for land based searches, it seems like a likely candidate for scout study. however, its reference is fairly clumsy and hardly intuitive, with a local grid defined, for example, as 197LC28. it would have been very easy to modify the standard lat/lon grid system with one of nine letters as the last digit, using e thru m so there could not be any confusion. the 197LC28 becomes 31 81 CBL. i believe many of u could find that with no further training at all. i created an excel spreadsheet for gars in georgia, heres the dropbox link. i tried to attach it, but its an excel file, and it did not survive the conversion to pdf very well. 

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/94343548/georgia_gars.xlsx

   heres the url for gars....   http://earth-info.nga.mil/GandG/coordsys/grids/gars.html

   constructive comments are most welcome,

bill

[sardak]

i'm guessing that utm charts are a bit more difficult to obtain, and wonder if one's skill using that system might be hampered a bit by that difficulty. i think a graduated ruler of some sort would also be required, which to me is a disadvantage, especially in the field.

UTM is a pinpoint coordinate system for ground use. 1000 meter UTM (USNG) gridlines and/or tic marks are printed on all USGS 7.5 minute topos which are the most common maps used in ground searches. Once familiar with the system (15 -30 minutes of training), a user (with the ability to find his/herself on the map), can estimate his/her position coordinates to within 100 meters or so in less than 30 seconds without drawing any lines or using an overlay or ruler. UTM grid overlays to 100 meter or better resolution are available for free from many sources online. 100 meter resolution is all that's really required, though. USGS prints UTM grids or tics on many of their other maps, too. Military maps and charts, including JOGs, also have UTM (MGRS) grids printed on them. Of course, as the map scale decreases (small scale = large number), the grids have less resolution (a 100 meter grid is pretty small on a 1:100,00 or smaller scale map). UTM grids are true grids with all lines parallel and east/west lines at 90° to north/south lines, unlike lines of longitude which converge. As a refresher, UTM = MGRS = USNG.

i owe my own familiarity with utm to the delorme topo software, which offers several flavors of deg min sec formatting, as well as mgrs, utm, usng, and spcs. newer software might have yet more coordinate systems. its fairly simple to choose the system, and oolie the mouse around to find the position, or just draw a marker at a certain set of coordinates.

We need to be able to find our location on a map or chart and provide the coordinates without a computer.

we were introduced fairly recently to yet another system called gars, which defines a 5 by 5 minute plot. as it is supposed to be used for land based searches, it seems like a likely candidate for scout study.

A 5 minute x 5 minute plot is an area of 20 to 25 square miles, completely useless for describing one's position on the ground. But it's better than a CAP quarter grid which is 7.5 by 7.5 minutes, or roughly 40 to 50 square miles.

The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), which developed GARS for the military, describes it as a battlespace area reference system. GARS grids are a suitable substitute for CAP grids, but not for pinpointing a location on the ground. In fact, several years ago the commander of AFRCC tried to implement GARS as the replacement for the CAP grid system. We all know how far that got. The National SAR Committee (NSARC) lists GARS as the "primary system for area organization and accountability," i.e. "situational awareness of Catastrophic Incident SAR operations." NSARC lists GARS as the tertiary system for aeronautical SAR and not applicable for land SAR, land-air SAR interface and air or land SAR incident command coordination.

A stand-alone GARS converter is available from NGA here: http://earth-info.nga.mil/GandG/coordsys/zip/GARS_converter.zip  Other NGA GARS downloads are here: http://earth-info.nga.mil/GandG/coordsys/grids/gars_dloads.html

GeoTrans is an NGA stand-alone program which converts between just about all coordinate systems and datums worldwide. GeoTrans is the internal program that many mapping software and GPS units use to do their conversions. It can be found here: http://earth-info.nga.mil/GandG/geotrans/index.html

Mike

[cpyahoo]

-Agreed-

UTM is still taught and referenced in NASAR material and Appalchian Search & Rescue Council stuff.  Not sure why it was dropped, but our SAR counterparts are still using it.  Never really had a need for the military 8-digit grid in CAP... unless, of course, you're calling in an air strike.  LOL

[RiverAux]

I'm sure that it was dropped because our aircraft are set up to use lat/long so there wasn't really a need for anyone to know UTMs.  So long as our ground teams are primarily used in conjunction with CAP aircraft they're probably going to keep using lat/long as their primary coordinate system. 

Now, if our aircraft used UTMs it would be a different story.  Are aircraft in general required to use lat/long when communicating? 

I agree that they are easier to use.