SAR COORDINATES
September
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
Don’t forget; the meetings this month are
September 9th
for the
Board
and
Sept 11th
for the General Meeting.
Commander’s Corner
Quad Raffle a Great Success!
We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to
Greg Reed for the outstanding job he did on our quad raffle this
year. The job of fundraiser is a big responsibility that requires
a lot of attention to details, a lot of work, and a lot of
coordination. Greg did it seemingly effortlessly. He had terrific
help from many members of the squad. Thanks to the hard work of
all, we completely sold out of tickets by noon of the last day of
ticket sales at the Pine Arts and Crafts festival. That is simply
incredible! Thanks to all who worked so hard over the last many
months on this effort.
Mission Summaries:
There have been several difficult missions
over the last couple of months while my foot has been recovering. A
special thanks to all of you who have dug in and provided that extra
effort during my absence. I hope to be back to 100% in the next
couple of months.
There have been many lessons learned during
these difficult missions – especially the ones at Box Canyon. Box
Canyon will always be a difficult rescue, and we try to learn from
each mission there how to improve our response and our methods for
future missions. Several of us on the rope team have reviewed every
aspect of both of the recent missions, and are working on
improvements. In both cases, the team worked very well and showed a
high level of professionalism and competence. We lost an anchor
during a critical phase during one of the rescues – and due to
proper equipment setup there was no detrimental effect on the system
whatsoever. The rescuers and the subject were completely safe, and
still under two points of attachment at all times.
Fossil Creek is closed – and we had our last
callout there the day before it closed. It was cancelled shortly
after the callout because the medical responders were able to reach
the subject. I expect our responses there will go down for the next
few months, though I hear rumors that folks are still finding their
way in there.
Thanks to all who have responded to missions.
You might want to think about adding some cool weather gear to your
packs, at least have it handy. We will soon reach a time where an
unexpected overnight at high elevation could be quite cool. This
Labor Day weekend storm was a very early fall-type of pattern.
Stay safe and stay prepared.
Bill Pitterle – Commander, #500
Don’t forget; the meetings this month are
September 9th
for the Board
and
Sept 11th
for the General Meeting.
Meet your Trail Partner
Ted
Lucas
Ted
and his wife Vicki moved to Payson 2 and a half years ago from
Kansas where he spent 20 years as President of a commercial bank in
a town of 7000 population, with several branches in surrounding
communities. They had driven through here 4 years ago and after 3
days in the area, bought their home and made plans to retire and
move here.
We are glad that he did as he has been a very
integral part of TRSAR since joining in January 2007. He met Hal and
Kathy Baas in the Payson Packers club and they convinced him that
this was the best volunteer organization in the area, bar none. He
has been tracking certified and loves to help out with rope rescues.
His passions include rescuing dogs of which
they have four beautiful specimens, volunteering at the Humane
Shelter where he assisted their Building Fund-raiser by personally
crushing 1,446,400 aluminum cans, (against his forehead, the rumor
has it), cycling and of course the Payson Packers.
He and Vicki have one daughter and 2
granddaughters, who happen to be the most gorgeous grandchildren
anyone ever saw.
When you see Ted, tell him how much we
appreciate his involvement and commitment to TRSAR. It is because of
people like him (of which we have over 60) that we can do the things
we do, namely saving lives and restoring families in the Rim
Country.
Thanks Ted, and Welcome Aboard.
Joe
Oravek
Joe
joined the Squad in October of 2007 but he is so quiet and reserved
that many of you may not have gotten to know him. He is a very
dedicated member and looks forward to being even more involved as he
finds his niche in the Squad. Tracking and Base Camp communications
are his favorite so far, but he has been seen on most missions doing
whatever is asked.
He was born in Johnstown PA on April 14, 1944,
attended school in Vintondale, PA and graduated from Nanty-Glo
Vintondale High in 1962. He then went into the Navy for four years
and from there went to work as a civilian employee for the Naval
Aviation Depot at North Island, San Diego. After 32 years there in
environmental and production manager positions, and obtaining a BA
degree in Business Management along the way, he retired to Pine 10
years ago, has a beautiful home in the Portals where he and his wife
Ginger plan to remain.
They have 5 children, 8 grandchildren and one
great-grandchild. Most of them reside in San Diego except for one
son who is in the Air Force.
If you want to start up a conversation with
Joe, just mention a four-letter word, like; hunt or fish. They are
his favorite pastimes except for the grandchildren, of course. He
will also chat with you about Alaska, the other spot in his heart.
Thanks Joe for sharing your time with TRSAR
and being willing to serve that others may live. You fit right into
our membership.
Welcome aboard!
September 2008 Training & Events
Schedule
20- Sept. (Sat) Rope Training – Time: 0700 –
Place: Pine Canyon Narrows – Roger Miotto and rope instructors In
charge
___________________________________________________________________________________
26-27 Sept. ( Fri.-Sat.) ATV- Overnight-Time:
0800- Place: Pumpkin City to Young to Payson-Instructor: DJ
Training Sessions
(Coming this Year)
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
Men in Eureka, Nevada, who have mustaches, are
forbidden to kiss woman.Drugstores in Providence, Rhode Island, may
sell toothbrushes on Sunday, but not toothpaste.
It is against the law to ride down the street
on an ugly horse in Wilbur, Washington.
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
Jack Quinn and Les Hulse
We
had a reader request to do an article on topographic mapping
software – so here it is.
There are
quite a few topographic map software products available if you want
to put one on your PC. Details on the different products can be
found on the manufacturer’s web sites as well as in review articles
published on the web. Look at
http://www.gpsnow.com/maptable.htm
for one example of a comparison table. I am not going into all the
gory details of what the different packages can do, but will
describe several packages I have on my PC and several key points.
Here are the 5
software products I have used or am still using with corresponding
company name, coverage, and list cost (you can find it cheaper):
1 – TOPO!
(National Geographic) – regional – $29.95 (currently sold as Weekend
Explorer)
2 – Arizona
TOPO (National Geographic) – state – $79.95 per state
3 – Backroads
Explorer (National Geographic) – national – $59.99 (latest version
has 3D – mine is 2D)
4 – Terrain
Navigator Pro (Maptech) – state – $299.95 per state (now at version
8.5 – I use version 7)
5 – TOPO USA (DeLorme)
– national – $99.95 (now at version 7 – I use version 6)
To make things
a bit easier, I will use the numbers 1-5 to refer to the software
packages in the following comments (less chance of a typing error
repeating the product names).
Tools:
All of these products can display coordinates and grids using UTM or
Latitude/Longitude, all have location finding tools, and all have
routing tools. All five products can print maps (more later) and
support adding user text and symbols to maps.
For home use,
any of these products would be acceptable, but for use within SAR,
there are some factors which must be taken into consideration. This
will be explained as we continue.
Coverage:
Products 3 and 5 cover the entire United States, products 2 and 4
just cover all of Arizona, and product 1 covers the central region
of Arizona – essentially bordered by Flagstaff, Prescott, Phoenix,
and SR 288 on the eastern side.
Note:
Product 1, although limited in area compared to the other 4
products, covers 95% of the area where our call-outs occur.
Viewing:
Products 1, 2, and 3 have five different map scales each with seven
magnification levels (zooming in and out); product 4 has two
different map scales (three scales if you use the aerial photographs
option) each with four magnification levels, and product 5 has 129
different map scales with no magnification levels.
Note:
Product 1 is different from the other products in that it uses a
forest map at the level 3 map scale.
Shading
(ground cover): All products
show ground cover shading (for example: forest land is green) but
only product 5 allows this to be totally turned off. Product 5 also
allows different ground cover colors to be displayed.
Shaded
Relief (contour lines):
Product 1 has no shaded relief unless add-on software is purchased.
Products 2, 3, and 5 allow shaded relief to be on or off. Products 2
and 3 both allow light/medium/dark levels of shading. Product 4 only
shows shaded relief in 3D mode – not 2D.
Note:
So why is all this shading stuff important? When we use PCs in the
field, we do not attach fancy color printers to the PC – we use a
portable black-and-white printer to generate maps for searchers to
use. Software that does not allow shading to be turned off or turned
down will most likely produce a printed map that is hard (if not
impossible) to read when printed in black and white. The shading
produces hard to read blurred areas.
Also, when the
printed map is also copied using a copier, the blurring just gets
worse.
2D
/ 3D: Products 1 and 2 are 2D
only. My version of product 3 is 2D only, but the package is now
only sold as the 3D version. Products 4 and 5 allow both 2D and 3D
displays.
Note:
Product 4 is used extensively in our map and compass trainings since
it is very easy to explain contour map features using its 3D display
capabilities.
Printing:
All of the products allow displayed maps to be printed. The printing
tool in products 1, 2, and 3 allow maps to be printed as a
percentage of the display are. For training purposes, these products
allow us to create printed maps with UTM grids that exactly match
the plastic overlays that we use on our Geological Survey quadrangle
maps.
GPS: Products 2, 3, 4, and 5
have GPS import/export options built in to the software. Product 1
requires a piece of add-on software (free) for this capability.
Since there are several makers and models of GPS units, the GPS
devices that can be used with each software package are constantly
changing. You will have to check the software manufacturer
information to see if your device is supported.
In closing,
all of the products use the same starting point – the geological
survey quadrangle maps. Since these maps were printed quite a while
ago, updated information is at the discretion of the manufacturer.
Although the major topographic features do not change - roads,
buildings, town borders, etc. are constantly changing. Thus, every
piece of software is a little out of date.
Products 3 and
5 have the most up-to-date road information. However there are some
things to consider.
Product 3
updating uses overlays to superimpose current roads on base maps.
However, since this product went to the 3D version, user reviews
have worsened. I do not expect new overlays for the 2D version to
continue any longer.
Product 5 is
updated yearly. But you have to pay about $50 each year to get all
the new roads and structures. Since this product covers 50 states,
central Arizona is not high on the list of updates (compared to
metropolitan areas around the country). I only update this software
every 3-4 years.
The following
5 examples will show you how each product would look on your PC.
Each one displayed the default installation setup with one addition:
I added the UTM grid. Each example shows a 6x4 UTM grid area around
Pine.
Click images for larger versions.
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
"Hey Vern!"...
check out the
NEW EMERGENCY
SERVICES & PUBLIC SAFETY WEBSITE
!
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- Please feel
free to pass this on to any friends or colleagues who may be
interested.-
OFFICIAL LAUNCH
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What is "VERN" you
ask?...
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INTERNET WEB-BASED, INFORMATIONAL RESOURCE ‘HUB’ AND ONLINE TOOL:
* A comprehensive
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radar
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Note that sign-ups, suggestions and feedback are always welcome!
"For Safer and Better Prepared Communities!"
In fact, "Vern
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For more
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do not hesitate to contact:
Tom LaPorte
Star Information Services -
EMSS
Emergency Management Support Services
The 'Volunteer
Emergency Response Network'
Humor me
A pastor's wife was expecting a baby, so he stood before the
congregation and asked for a raise. After much discussion, they
passed a rule that whenever the preacher's family expanded, so
would his paycheck. After 6 children, this started to get
expensive and the congregation decided to hold another meeting
to discuss the preacher's expanding salary. A great deal of
yelling and inner bickering ensued, as to how much the
clergyman's additional children were costing the church, and how
much more it could potentially cost.
After listening to them for about an hour, the pastor rose from
his chair and spoke, "Children are a gift from God, and we will
take as many gifts as He gives us”.
Silence fell on the congregation. In the back pew, a little old
lady struggled to stand, and finally said in her frail voice,
"Rain is also a gift from God, but when we get too much of it,
we wear rubbers."
The entire congregation said, "Amen."
Thanks to those who contributed to this issue
of the newsletter.
Mike 502
miket@trsar.org
