SAR Coordinates-March 2007

SAR COORDINATES

March 2007
TONTO RIM SEARCH AND RESCUE SQUAD, Inc.
P.O. BOX 357
STRAWBERRY AZ 85544

A self-supporting, not-for-profit group of volunteer citizens dedicated to improving safety in the Arizona wilderness.

Operating under the authority of the Gila County Sheriff's Office

John Armer; Sheriff

TRSAR Squad meets monthly

General Public Welcome
2nd Thursday @ 7:00 - 9:00 PM
Payson Public Library Meeting Room
328 N. McLane Road - Payson, Arizona

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Comments From the Board

Don’t forget; the meetings this month are March 6th for the Board March 8th for the General Meeting.

Guest Article

The Little Search

We were called out to search for a man that was hiking from Tonto Natural Bridge to Doll Baby ranch and was over due. Doug and I were sent out to a point that is off Crackerjack Rd., down to Big Tank and about two miles passed that... It was getting late in the day so Doug and I packed our ATV with food and gear for a possible over night. We headed out from the SO to Doll Baby and FR67 to unload our ATVs at this time we estimated about 3 hours of daylight left.

We made good time getting out to our destination point, which turned into a very rough trail. The point was south of the Natural Bridge and east of Pine Creek looking over the canyon. The moment we turned off our ATVs I could hear and see Ranger going to their LZ about one mile across Pine creek from us. At their LZ I could see something moving below them on the side of the mountain. I grabbed my binocular to get a better look. I zoomed in on the helicopter and can see other searchers getting off. From there I scanned down to where I saw something moving.

What I saw was this guy running or should I say trying to run up this steep side of the mountain to where the Ranger had landed. Now seeing this got my adrenalin pumping and I grabbed Doug’s hand-held radio to call Ranger and tell him that there is a person coming up to them and for them to stay put.

To my surprise the radio could receive but it wouldn’t send. I can’t tell you the frenzy I had trying to get someone’s attention when they’re miles away from you. It was by luck that he made it up the mountain before Ranger took off and yes, he was the person that we were searching for.

Now let me take you back before the search started; we were all at the S.O. getting ready to go out. There were two people that were to start their search at LF Ranch and go north up Pine creek.

Well it turned out that these two people didn’t have a radio with them. You probably know where I’m going with this; well I’m going to tell you anyway. Yes I gave my radio to them to use because I knew Doug had one.

The moral of this story, don’t give up your gear to someone who is not going to be with your group.

P.S. The name of the man that we were searching for is Little I don’t remember his first name.

DJ Johnson 542

Sat - Apr 14 - Chamber of Commerce Business Showcase

9:00 am - 3:00 pm - Mazatzal Casino

This year Tonto Rim Search and Rescue is going to raffle two major items at the Business Showcase. We will sell tickets at the Showcase; the drawing will be on Labor Day weekend. One is going to be a Travel Voucher for the amount of $1500 dollars that can be applied towards a cruise of choice. The Second Item is going to be a Cabela’s Gift Certificate in the amount of $1000 dollars. There may be some other prizes added to the drawing like a Golf package to a local course. Raffle tickets will be 5 dollars. The Squad will be doing mail out donation request letters for fundraising this year also.

It will be April 13-14 and the theme is 50's sock hop.. Probably most won’t recognize the music. We should have a choice booth and need a cause. Maybe have our truck and do recruiting.

We need ideas. Been out to long to know our needs. Booth should be provided by one of the main sponsors, Payson Roundup. Please help me with ideas and support.

Thanks,,,,

March 2007 Training & Events Schedule

10-Mar (Sat) Shelter Building – Time: 1000 – Place: FR198 – Les Hulse in charge.

March 17th (Sat) Rope Training – Time: 0900 – Place: Flowing Springs – Roger Miotto and rope instructors in charge

Planned Training Sessions ( Coming this Year)

Apr 14-15 (Sat-Sun) SAR Academy – This is a mandatory class for the ones who haven’t taken it – any member can also take it again – Place: Squad building – Time: 0800-1600

Planned Navigation Training – Compass and GPS

Planned CPR : April 25, June 20 and August 15, First Aid: May 16, First Responder: July 18

Requested Training Sessions

If you would like to volunteer to run a training session, or if you have a training session request contact any Board Member or Don Johnson

Italics = Sign-up required to attend this training;

* See following notes:

To reserve use of squad ATV, contact Don Johnson at 928-474-5335. Jacket, gloves, boots, helmet, and eye protection required to operate Squad ATV

Question for the Month

Can you Change from UTM to Lat and Lon on your GPS ?. If not you NEED to LEARN.

Computer Tips, Techniques, Rants, Raves, and Netiquette
submitted by Jack Quinn and Les Hulse

Is Your Computer Running? Then Go Catch It!

A few questions:

Do you turn your computer on and off several times during the day?
Do you leave it on all the time - even at night?

There are 2 sides to this topic and I will give you the arguments from both sides.

Leave it on:

The electronic components within the computer tend to last longer if they aren't constantly cooling off and warming back up. Additionally, you don't get any kind of initial "spike" in power when your machine is first turned on. Finally, it's much more convenient to just plop down in front of your computer and start working than to sit through a lengthy boot-up.

Turn it off:

Your hard drive may last longer, especially if your computer doesn't put the drive on "standby" after a certain amount of idle time. The constant spinning of your hard drive motor can wear out the internal bearings. I personally don't think this a big deal. Newer hard drives will probably be in good service longer than the computer they live in (note: I purchase used PCs at yard sales just to strip out the hard drives for use on other PCs).

Another "turn it off" argument is that you'll save on your electric bill. Depending on your machine, it uses the same power as one or more 100 watt light bulbs.

Finally, the cooling fans are going to pull more dust into your computer if it's running all the time. More dust = more heat. More heat = short lived computers, unless you clean it out regularly.

An aside: If you have your computer on the floor near your work area, it will pull even more dust into the box. Just think about how many times you move your feet and stir up the dust! (I cleaned out one PC for a friend that had about ¼ inch of dust covering everything inside the box.)

Those are the main reasons both ways. My opinion? I let it run during the day when I'm using it and shut it off at night.

I don't think it's good for the computer to have the power switch constantly being poked. If you're going to use it in the morning and then again in the afternoon, leave it run till you're finished for the day.

Any chip faster than 133Mhz (almost every computer made today is faster than this speed) needs a cooling fan to keep it from burning itself into a silicon cinder. All cooling fans in computers are not totally reliable.

If I'm using the computer and am getting signs that I have a CPU that's overheating (your computer will act really strange - some will play a little tune through the internal speaker), I can shut things down and get it fixed. If it happens in the middle of the night, I'll have a roasted CPU in the morning.

Another reason for shutting down at night is that power supplies can go bad and try to catch themselves (and anything nearby) on fire. Again, not something I want to have happen at 2:00 AM when I'm asleep.

Jack adds that when someone leaves their computer unattended for a period of time especially during monsoon and even with a battery backup, it could be disaster for them. Most cheaper UPS don't have very long until the're out of power. Some have a 10 minute reserve.

So, my advice is to run it when you need it, and when you're done for the day, shut it down.

Question: Do any of you find this section useful?

We can rant and rave about many topics, but do not know if it is appreciated. Also, we will most likely choose topics that “tick us off” and ignore the ones that you may be interested in. We can give you our opinion on just about anything (opinions are cheap).

So let us know if this section is useful, and if you would like us to tear into some topic, just tell us.

Send any comments and/or suggestions to the editor; Mike – address at bottom of newsletter.

Website

Tonto Rim SAR Members can now have your very own email address through our site. Just contact our Webmaster at jack@jackswebs.com to arrange for it, no cost to you or us.

We are promoted and you’ll also find our newsletter on the Rim Country Volunteer site;

http://www.inpayson.com/TRSAR-Payson-Rim-Country-Area.htm

Related SAR info

Trekking Poles Reduce Risk of Strain and Injury in Hikers

New research has found that using trekking poles while hiking downhill reduces force and strain on knees and ankles when hiking with or without a backpack. This is good news—and offers a practical tip—for hikers and backpackers as well as for those involved in search and rescue who often carry loads during the search mission.

http://www.isb2005.org/proceedings/abstracts/0970.pdf

Airplane Parachute Deployment Follow Up

In the January issue of SARNews, we ran an article about the risks of doing a rescue around an aircraft with a rocket-powered parachute. Capt. Chris Storey of the Civil Air Patrol contacted SARNews and directed us to an article on this topic from the Fall 2006 issue of Eagle Call magazine. The article describes in detail 1) how these rocket-propelled parachutes work, 2) what other models of aircraft besides Cirrus might have such parachutes, 3) how to recognize parts of an unfired rocket at a crash site, 4) where the parachutes may be installed, and 5) how to implement safety procedures for rescue personnel. The link below will take you to the Fall 2006 issue, then look for the article entitled “Airplanes Go Ballistic.” We thank Capt. Storey for his feedback, enabling us to provide this important, potentially life-saving information to our readers.

http://cawg.cap.gov/ec/Eagle%20Call%20Fall%202006.pdf

Free Directory Assistance (aka 411) Phone Number

We’ve all been in situations where we needed a phone number and the easiest or only option was to call 411. Often we are charged $1.00 or more per call. Now there is a new toll free number—almost as easy to remember: 1 (800) FREE 411, or 1 (800) 373-3411 —that incurs no cost at all. We checked the urban legends reference pages on the web, which gives the claim “true” status. Find out more about how it works at the link below.

http://www.snopes/com/inboxer/nothing/free411.asp

Thanks to those who contributed to this issue of the newsletter.

Mike 502 editor@trsar.org