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msar-riders - Re: [MSAR] Incident Mapping

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Subject: Mounted search and rescue

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  • From: "Irvin Lichtenstein " <ilichten1@verizon.net>
  • To: "'Mounted search and rescue'" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [MSAR] Incident Mapping
  • Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:38:30 -0400

Besides reliability the cost effectiveness of paper maps versus computer
maps is obvious. USGS 7.5 minute topos operate wherever there is a table.
No need for TCP/IP, broadband connections, printers and save buttons. The
paper map may not be as current as aerial photography but it is consistent,
copiable, and lives beyond a dead battery.

Our former practice was to have all the topos for the response area rolled
up in a piece of PVC pipe and 2 sheets of clear Plexiglas or other
polycarbonate, about 3 feet square. You sandwich the map, use china markers
and keep a bottle of ammonia based window cleaner handy. Another stunt was
to take the map to a copier and blow it up 200% for handouts. This gave a
fairly detailed view of the search area but we often had to give up color.

Before electronic whiteboards we just took 35MM pictures of the map every
shift change (and anything else of record on the boards).

The new FieldCom unit has a broadband link back to the EOC and the servers
so we can use Arc View, Pictrometry, Google, or whatever and feed it to
large monitors, printers, and projectors. It is a lot easier to brief in
front of a map projection than off the paper map but the technology has to
get there and somebody has to pay for it.

I remember some teams that had really great computer setups for their CP but
had no voice radios. Oops.

Irv Lichtenstein

-----Original Message-----
From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Una Smith
Sent: Monday, July 12, 2010 7:12 PM
To: Mounted search and rescue
Subject: Re: [MSAR] Incident Mapping Software





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