A SAR related question

[Larry]

I wonder if one of the SAR people on this forum might update me on the current state of adapting standard SAR and/or Forest Service radios to transmit a gps lat-lon at intervals so that personnel could be tracked using TF.

Thanks in advance,

Larry

[ScottMorris]

I would love to hear more here too.  I have looked into the APRS protocol, but found it unnecessarily complicated.  I didn't get the sense that there was enough interest to justify delving deeply into it.

Do SAR folks use anything else?  (Besides the Garmin Rhino for dog tracking, which has a bit of specialized support in TF).

[Vegas Runner]

Most of the SAR teams are using APRS. A full APRS implementation is not neccessary to start. Scott Miller at Argent Data systems might be able to help you get started. He makes APRS hardware.

http://www.argentdata.com/

[Larry]

Thanks for this.

I gather then that at present, there is no easy way to adapt a standard Forest Service King radio (for example) so that it will transmit a gps location at intervals. Do you think that the manufacturers of such radios will incorporate this feature soon, or have they done so already?

Larry

[Larry]

I would love to hear more here too.  I have looked into the APRS protocol, but found it unnecessarily complicated.

Scott, I did a bit of looking around for my FS friends, and found that Bendix King is listing gps as a future option. For example:

http://www.kingradios.net/kngp400.html

I'm not sure how widely King radios are used outside the FS, but I suspect the agencies that do use them would be very interested in the gps option (if they can afford new radios). When the gps option does come out, I hope you can figure out how to support it. Hey, maybe you could make it rich with a contract for the military.

L