APRS: Automatic Position Reporting System

APRS at the 2009 IN-KY SAR Conference INKY Pictures
The 2009 Indiana-Kentucky SAR Conference was held November 6-8 2009 at Lincoln State Park in Indiana. Several teams at the conference had APRS capabilities, and APRS tracking was used successfully during the night search exercise.

The following is a link to a YouTube video (screen capture) of the APRS tracking from the exercise (runtime 8 minutes):

2009-11-07 APRS tracking video

The computer running the APRS display was located in the Ohio Valley Search and Rescue (OVSAR) operations truck, and was running UI-View32 with a Google Earth underlay map.

The APRS trackers used tactical callsigns, with the amateur radio operator callsigns in the comment field.

The APRS trackers with the field teams were mostly Byonics MT-AIO all-in-one units, provided by these teams:

Ohio Valley Search and Rescue
Jefferson County Search Dog Association
Spencer County EMA
Southwestern Ohio K-9 Search and Rescue

Overall the APRS was considered a great success and contributed to the safety of the exercise participants and provided increased situational awareness to the Incident Command Post.

Posted by kevin@sargeek.net