SAR COORDINATES

November 2008

TONTO RIM SEARCH AND RESCUE SQUAD, Inc.

P.O. BOX 357
STRAWBERRY AZ 85544

www.trsar.org

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

Planned Navigation Training – Compass and GPS
 

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
 

 Active: Members wishing to remain on active status must attend at least three official Squad functions per quarter of the calendar year, as well as two training exercises per six months of the calendar year.

 Reserve: Members who wish to remain on reserve status must attend at least one official Squad function per quarter of the calendar year as well as one training exercise per six months of the calendar year.

  Laws that are still on the books

It is illegal in Arizona to shoot or hunt camels.
Hens in Norfolk, Virginia, cannot lay eggs before 8 am or after 4 pm.
In Bayonne, New Jersey, it is against the law for a pigeon to fly overhead without a license.
 

Business Cards for Active Members

All active members are permitted to have business cards with your SAR info on them. If you do not have them yet, or if you have used up the ones you had, contact Mike Taylor to place your order. They are nice to have when you are doing any Squad activities, and the best part is they are free. A common use for them is to hand out to family members of the search/rescue subject.

Email miket@trsar.org  or call 978-8009.
 

Computer Tips, Techniques, Rants, Raves, and Netiquette
Submitted by Les Hulse

This month we investigate file deletion and recovery on a PC.

I am writing this column for two reasons: 1 - some people have asked me how to “really” delete business files from their PC, and 2 - I have purchased used PCs from garage sales simply to get the hard drives to use for my current PC backup disks. The people selling the PCs “deleted” all of their files, so they thought the PC was OK to sell. Actually, quite a bit of their information was still on the hard drive and easily extracted.

So first, let’s take a look at how to really delete information from your PC.

Do you know what happens when you delete a file on your PC? In normal situations, the deleted file ends up in the Recycle Bin – and is still available for recovery. If you empty the Recycle Bin, the file is now really gone – yes or no?

Actually, the answer is “no”. The file still exists on your PC, but the storage space it occupies has just been marked as “available for re-use”. The file will remain on the PC until something overwrites it.

Think of a library with a card catalog and shelves of books. If you look up a book title in the card catalog, it will tell you which shelf to go to if you want to get the book. Now suppose “somebody” removes the card from the card catalog – has the book been removed too? No – only the reference to its location has been removed, but the book is still on the shelf. This is how the PC works when you delete a file – the file is still there, but the instructions on where to find it have been removed.

Now suppose that the file you deleted on your PC contained all of your personal information and bank account numbers. If you think the file has been deleted, and then sell the PC at a yard sale or donate it to some charity, what are your chances of identity theft?

Actually, the chances are pretty high. There are many programs available that attempt to recover deleted files and are available on the web for a few dollars (or free). There are also some very technical programs and procedures available that can analyze hard drives and can recover pieces of information from files that have even been overwritten several times! I am not going to describe how this works, but the majority of PC users cannot use these tools – but you should know that they do exist.

OK – so you may be wondering how you can really delete that file and keep it from being recovered by anyone, including yourself, right? If you don’t care, just stop reading now.

You can find many different programs available on the Internet that can perform a “secure delete” of a file on your PC. You can spend money if you want, but a very good program is available for the right price (free) called “Eraser”. If you are interested in this program, you can read about it and download it from “www.heidi.ie/node/6”.

This program allows you to overwrite a file 1, 3, 7, or 35 times with random data when you delete it. In the case of 35 overwrites, it uses a series of patterns that exceeds the DOD (Department of Defense) standards for security (the DOD uses a 3 or 7 times overwrite standard). Please note that it takes time to overwrite a file several times before marking it for deletion, and the larger the file size, the more time it takes.

If you use this program to delete sensitive files, you can be assured that the casual hacker will not be able to recover any data. In fact, you will not be able to recover it from your PC yourself. So use it with care. I only use this program when I am sure I do not want the file anymore or when I am preparing a PC for re-sale or donation.

For the flip-side of this article, let’s take a look at how to recover a file on your PC – provided you did not use the Eraser program.

Like Eraser, there are also programs available that attempt to recover deleted files and are available on the web for a few dollars (or free). Again, you can spend money if you want, but a very good program is available for the right price (free) called “Recover Files”. If you are interested in this program, you can read about it and download it from “www.undeleteunerase.com”.

The key to using this program is to have it installed on your PC and ready to go before you have to use it. Remember that your file still exists on your PC after you delete it – but only until it is overwritten. If you install the “Recover Files” program after you need to recover a file, the installation routine itself might overwrite the file you want to recover.

Anyway, running this program will result in a listing of all files that have been deleted. Recoverability of each of the deleted files will be classified as: Very Good – Good – Middle – Overwritten (from best to worst). I have been able to recover all or almost everything in a deleted file classified as “Very Good”. The “Good” classification means that you may get up to 75% of the file returned. The remaining 2 classifications mean that recovery of the file is terrible to impossible. For photographs, only the “very good” classification will be successful.

So if you have this program installed on your PC – and then you delete a file – you will be able to totally recover this file using this program provided you don’t do anything else before attempting recovery.

In summary, I hope you have a better understanding of what happens when you delete a file on your PC. Hopefully you may find that the 2 programs mentioned will be useful.
 

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.

Related SAR news

(This tragic article from the news has been added to our news letter in the hopes that we will all be cautious whenever performing our duties around helicopters or other equipment.)

At about 3:18 p.m. Monday afternoon,October 13,2008, an Arizona Department of Public Safety Officer/Air Rescue Paramedic Bruce W. Harrolle was killed while performing a rescue of two stranded hikers 1.5 miles northwest of Doe Mountain and 1.5 miles southeast of Bear Mountain west of Sedona.

The incident occurred after the DPS Ranger helicopter based in Flagstaff responded to a request from the Sedona Fire Department and the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office to assist with a search and rescue of two stranded and dehydrated hikers.

Harrolle and a pilot were aboard the helicopter.

"While they were performing the rescue, they were able to get the male subject into the helicopter," according to DPS Lt. James Warriner. "While trying to put the female patient into the helicopter, something happened that caused the paramedic to get struck by a rotor blade, resulting in his death."

Warriner said the pilot was able to go ahead with the rescue and get the stranded hikers off the mountain.

Mountain rescues are very dangerous, Warriner said, "because typically they're working off one skid or both skids or just barely on the rocks or wherever they decide to move."

The DPS Special Investigations Unit is investigating the aviation accident. The National Traffic Safety Board (NTSB) will conduct their investigation as well.

Officer Harrolle, 36, was a nine-year veteran of DPS and is survived by his wife, two young children and his parents.

Prior to the Sedona incident, DPS had not lost an officer in the line of duty since March of 2000.
 

Thanks to those who contributed to this issue of the newsletter.  
Mike 502  miket@trsar.org