[OZAPRS] APRS at Burning Man
Paul Mullins
pmullins at vk5vco.dyndns.org
Wed Sep 17 11:36:01 EST 2014
Now that is a great story for the use of APRS, and the use of messaging
on top of the presence data is a great idea, well it is all AX25 in the
end, great story and keep up the great work.
Cheers
Paul
On 16/09/2014 7:40 AM, Darryl Smith wrote:
> Hi all
>
> Now that I am back from the ARRL/TAPR Digital Communications
> Conference in Austin, Texas I can now catch up on my emails. The
> following was from the APRS Mailing List at TAPR. Enjoy
>
> Darryl
> ........
>
>
> Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 14:09:43 -0400
> From: Allan Sadowski <polymath99 at gmail.com <mailto:polymath99 at gmail.com>>
> To: "aprssig at tapr.org <mailto:aprssig at tapr.org>" <aprssig at tapr.org
> <mailto:aprssig at tapr.org>>
> Subject: [aprssig] Fwd: Burning Man Trackers and Display Software
> Message-ID: <B68BD529-6164-46D7-8011-13B31C25302D at gmail.com
> <mailto:B68BD529-6164-46D7-8011-13B31C25302D at gmail.com>>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
>
> OK... I'm finally digging out from the nearly 3000 mile drive to come
> back from the Burning Man Event.... catching up on email....
>
>> I can respond to some of the outstanding work that Scott Miller did
>> for my Burning Man "Practical" Art Project..... if somebody wants to
>> see pictures of equipment or the display... or installation... I
>> guess we can figure out how / where to place the pictures for general
>> viewing....
>>
>> First... OUTSTANDING gear Scott.... I bought 10 trackers from Scott
>> to trial ambulance tracking for this event....
>> low power... SUPURB power management
>> 9600 bps... time slotting...
>> robust... works in HEAT... works in DUST... works in vibration
>> environment... just plain WORKS...
>>
>> I'm thinking a few more - (improved from lessons learned) trackers
>> for the future if Scott can put up with me for another round....
>>
>> As Scott related... we tracked almost 20 vehicles .... and they were
>> running around the clock.... UHF.... I figure less than half a watt
>> at the antenna... and yet we had great tracks to 10 miles as the crow
>> flies (town of Empire).... from a 24 ft magnesium mast .... with a
>> Hustler G6-440 antenna. 30 ft of VERY LOW LOSS Wilson LMR 400 coax
>> from antenna to lightning arrestor.... arrestor bolted to copper
>> ground rod... and then another 30 Ft of LMR 400 to my old Kenwood
>> D700 receiver. That in turn (via serial to USB converter) to a
>> refurb Dell laptop... running the Depiction software. Oh by the
>> way... lightning hit within a few hundred yards during the event...
>> when power was restored it continued to operate for 7 more days till
>> we demob'd. Oh... winds were near Hurricane strength a couple of
>> times.... did I mention the salty talcum powder like dust :)
>>
>> Why Depiction....
>>
>> I asked a few authors about how to take a pdf file of the city map...
>> (10k by 10k when converted to TIFF format and the map pdf not
>> available till a few weeks before event)... oh by the way, that pdf
>> was NOT north up... and make a decent quality map for display (zoom)
>> - usable WITHOUT the internet.... and it appeared that there wasn't
>> an easy way for this dummy (me) to get a decent map georegistered and
>> working with most software out there...
>>
>> I'm sure some folks here on the SIG could have done it with some
>> other software.... just I'm not that capable/good with most APRS
>> software... I did it my way.... and I'd love to learn a better way -
>> especially if it is anywhere near as easy as it ended up being with
>> Depiction.
>>
>> FYI.... the event map changes every year, the location shifts a
>> little bit every year... the city is about five square miles and
>> probably over 60 miles of streets.... coordinates and pdf map come
>> out less than 10 weeks prior to event. I am not a GIS specialist...
>> but with the 30 day trial Depiction allows... and the videos
>> Depiction has on line... and Depiction has a module upgrade that does
>> live APRS data - I could do what I need to get a georegistered map at
>> the last minute (without internet)...
>>
>> Depiction worked... and if we can find a way to post some images...
>> you can see just how well the tracks followed the city streets....
>> outstanding results from Depiction and I can say enough good about
>> Scott (Argent Data)....
>>
>> Andrew... I was the one who approached you... and in NO WAY do I want
>> any poor reflection to be upon you... it was the last minute when I
>> reached out to you... and I dearly wished I could have used your
>> software.... and some of the other authors software too... and I'd
>> love to compare and see what we can do in the future - lets work
>> together and shame on me for not working with you sooner. Depictions
>> ability to rotate, translate, and scale an image file derived from a
>> converted pdf... to georegister it with a few surveyed coordinates
>> (only available at the last minute)... made Depiction a pivotal part
>> of the success of tracking medical vehicles.
>>
>> This is not a benign environment.... but the system worked for
>> DAYS....with updates at 6 second temporal resolution... WITHOUT being
>> tied to vehicle power.... all in a size smaller than a paperback
>> book.... mag mount to vehicle roofs where we had to place a metal
>> plate.... I cannot say enough.... simply outstanding results from
>> Scott and the Depiction product.
>>
>> Problems I'd like to address for future use - and I hope Scott will
>> decide not to ignore me in the future for all my failings......
>>
>> 1. I don't need to display a breadcrumb trail that lasts forever....
>> it'd be better to have three choices...
>> forever... like now
>> never (just current positions)...
>> user selected time (5, 20, 60 minutes)
>> 2. Ability to select (and display) just one selected vehicle and its
>> track
>> Similarly to highlight one track so it is different from all
>> the other tracks
>> 3. Log of all vehicle tracks and playback of the same - post event.
>> - even better to pick the time range and vehicle out from the logs....
>> 4. Ability to change unit ID on screen. When a vehicle role changes
>> during the event I'd like to be able to change it there... not have
>> to go reprogram it in the tracker
>> Example - the Airway team moves from Ambulance 5 to Ambulance
>> 7..... I'd like to hook the new unit and modify its attributes
>> immediately...
>> without changing callsign or having to reprogram tracker.
>> 5. Want to be able to dynamically change beacon rate.... universally
>> (all devices at a minimum)
>> Individually even better... from the base station.... even if
>> I can only do so when the vehicles are within 100 ft of the base station
>> 6. Need the tracker to adjust it's position rate due to power
>> available... as well as report it's current power status.
>> 7. Though Scotts devices exceeded my design specs...I learned (my
>> fault) we need trackers that work 3x as long a period (two weeks at
>> the incredible rate of 20 of 24 hours a day and NOT tied to vehicle
>> power) .... OK Scott... I know the device will be twice the size...
>> I'm ok with that....
>> 8. Need to be able to take tracker feeds coming in on multiple
>> frequencies simultaneously.... Ambulances on one freq, logistics
>> vehicles on another freq, fire on another freq, security vehicles on
>> yet a fourth freq. At four vehicles reporting every second (TDMA)
>> and six second update interval.... that's 24 vehicles per freq.... no
>> digipeater involved. To get all the other vehicles displayed....
>> need to accept that multiple freqs are in use. Using multiple freqs
>> is NOT AN ISSUE IN REMOTE AREAS FOLKS.... plenty of freqs... I have
>> no desire to feed this to the internet... it's not for internet
>> consumption.... in any case, this is LOW POWER.... If you have
>> different needs... then do it the way you want to in your sandbox....
>> this event has 70,000 people in 5 square miles.... no town within 12
>> miles and the next town is about 15 miles... their combined
>> population is 750 people... and no city within 100+ miles....
>> 9. Need to have trackers shut themselves off when they go outside
>> geofence.... (patients being transported 120 miles away to regular
>> hospital)
>> 10. Need to have the map display at 10 to 20
>> <x-apple-data-detectors://9> others locations all on a LAN... but do
>> not need ten to twenty base stations (antennas, receivers, power
>> supplies, etc).... screen capture at six second rate and display at
>> multiple displays elsewhere (I'm thinking screen captures and dumps
>> to web server application every six seconds... then use Raspberry Pi
>> at the other 10 locations ... using Pi browser.... gotta check
>> license issue).... yeah... other 10 locations do not get to
>> manipulate screen or data like at the master station.... but most of
>> them don't need to.... but it's clear that everybody needs to see
>> this location info... and make decisions with common picture of
>> locations. A picture is worth 10,000 words.... an advanced life
>> support supervisor turned to me during one point in the event and
>> said - why is that vehicle over there... that Nurse didn't realize
>> how that one comment was priceless to me.... I had no clue why...
>> .but that individual was making decisions about patien
> t care with the additional info we were providing... that was
> priceless and made my anxiety/funding/contribution worth it to me...
> exactly why I took on the project... and to be fair... Scott had more
> skin in this game than me.... THANK YOU SCOTT.....
>> 11... quick attach and detach to UTV's... where no metal to mag mount
>> on roof....
>> 12. I have been requested for man portable device... .needs to be
>> real small.... also a distance and direction like Yaesu does....
>> events in cities where walking (running) responders can get to the
>> scene where huge crowds are at and no addresses are known
>> 13... OK Scott... 10 second updates would probably have worked :)
>>
>> I gave Scott lots of freedom (not that I had a choice:) for this
>> "Practical" Art Project.... I did not worry about backwards
>> compatibility.... I had a set of Specs and gave the Engineer (Scott)
>> his reigns to make a go of it.... I did not nag him (well... no more
>> than once every three weeks)... nor have scope creep. I trusted him
>> and did not question his pricing ... yeah... I was getting anxious at
>> some project schedule issues.... but I tried to stay low key...
>> blew some operational test, integration, and training schedule
>> dates... but Man oh man... did Scott come through with outstanding
>> results.
>>
>> Folks, 9600 is here today at a reasonable price point with the UHF
>> device Scott did for me... .and we received the data on my D700 in
>> 9600 mode.... and if I could do OpenTrac instead of APRS as the
>> protocol I would have... just on principal....
>>
>> We did NOT need all the backwards compatibility baggage of APRS...
>> BTW 18 plus years of baggage.... we didn't need to be everything to
>> everybody. Oh.... there were APRS packets on at least three freqs at
>> event...... we were only one on UHF that I found... .
>>
>> As to other issues.... yeah.... digipeating is needed in the future
>> to accommodate terrain masking... but as far as my needs go... .it
>> too can be to a separate freq... just set up yet another receiver at
>> the command node... .
>>
>> I guess I could work with display folks to take multiple concurrent
>> feeds on separate serial ports... but it seems it'd be more flexible
>> to have a SoC or SBC that merges multiple serial feeds onto one
>> feed... .I'd love to take ACARS and AIS and have the option of
>> converting to same format.. .interleave them into the serial stream
>> and have that too.... we had one of the busiest airports in Nevada
>> for a week.... some other place might be a lake or harbor so tracking
>> those with existing aviation and vessel tracking would be useful.
>>
>> Some additional (thinking as I type thoughts).... I worked on an
>> system 18 years ago that had two speed (1200 and 9600) digis to
>> accommodate trackers and digi relay on one freq... when you go back,
>> I believe this was the first time - time slot APRS happened... using
>> PACCOMM TNCs... those of you who've been around for 18 plus years on
>> APRS (like me) possibly recall the effort I'm talking about...you can
>> have the pain of two speeds on same freq.... same system tried to do
>> ROSE network to control movement of data back to command center... no
>> way I'll go that route any time soon.... the world has changed in 18
>> years. But we continue to saddle APRS with backwards compatibility...
>> I don't need the baggage.... messaging... don't need it.... auto
>> QSY... don't need it... bulletins... don't need.... this is about
>> TRACKERS.... for tracking acute care patient transport and maybe
>> other critical asset tracking... where no cellular exists.... or
>> where crowd density precludes cellular being reliab
> le. Ambulance drivers don't need to message some of the odd vanity
> ego stuff that I see with some APRS users.... I did AVL that
> predates APRS - APRS wasn't the first GPS tracking approach over RF
> by a long shot....but I give Bob credit...his baby has moved some of
> the common use forward at a low cost.... I just don't need everything
> and the kitchen sink.....
>>
>> Oh... it's my hope the other 50 weeks a year... some of that time
>> it'll be used to track racing dinghy's at local regattas :)
>>
>> Armor on ... shields up.... back into the hole.... and obviously ---
>> you do what you want to do for your event....
>>
>> I'll tell you something.... ... anything Scott or Bill V. and a
>> couple of others that contribute here say to me... I'll take that to
>> the bank by golly....
>>
>> Parting thoughts.... Thinking about having some weather instruments
>> out there.... like what the wind speed and direction are at the
>> primary, alternate, contingency, and emergency LZ's.... Hey... a
>> vehicle counter would be REAL useful.... counting vehicles at ingress
>> and egress points.... oh.... some emergency call boxes -
>> strategically placed.... could be very useful.... ever tried to call
>> for help when no cell service is available? Hmmm... seems like this
>> might be just another other kind of telemetry....
>>
>> Aloha
>> AH6LS
>>
>> ---------------------------------
>>
>> From: Scott
>> I didn't do the map setup, so I can't speak to that. Station display
>> was pretty good, better than what I remember on ArcGIS anyway.
>> Couldn't seem to limit trail length, and that was the biggest
>> limitation. It was easy to bring in other data sources, though most
>> of those required network access. Which we *had* most of the time,
>> but we can't count on it out there.
>>
>> Scott
>> N1VG
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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