Fire Department - forest rescue - what GPS to buy?

[+Artsifrtsy]

Rino 530 HCx - radio and a super rugged GPS.

[+Red90]

Yes, makes sense and you can track where other people are located within the radio distance.

[+philthebottle]

My search and rescue team uses the monochrome version of the Garmin Etrex Legend. They're rugged and relatively inexpensive. We've dropped them on rocks, in the water, on the road, everywhere you can think of and haven't had a failure among the couple dozen units over the three years I've been part of the team. I've had my personal unit for about four years and have had no problems other than the thumbstick not wanting to work to the left and up occcasionally. Garmin offered to fix it, but I never got around to sending it in.

 

They have an internal patch antenna, that although might not be as sensitive as an external antenna, the sleek shape doesn't snag on your gear while you're busy tending to more important duties. Also the screen is a little smaller than on the color version, but I'd think that that would make it a little more durable.

[+embra]

I've seen several S&R people plug the Delorme PN-20. The maps are the best available on GPS. The only rule-out I would stipulate is if you want the GPS to route you to an address--Garmins will do that better; the PN-20 can be slow to calculate the route.

 

You can solicit Fire/S&R direct comments at the Delorme PN-20 forum.

[+Insane Kangaroo]

For emergency rescue, esp for a job like a fire department, strategically the two radios below would lead to better efficiency.

 

Rino 520HCx

 

Rino 530HCx

 

Both the radios above have a 5 watt power output compared to the others. I must also add garmin might have the capability of adjusting the frequency to a licensed frequency. however there are disadvantages to using a frequency not available as a lost person/victim might have a GMRS/FRS radio.

 

If I were in charge of purchasing for the any department dealing with rescue work, I'd want the one of the two units above as the GPS location reporting for multiple radio communication and path tracking would be an excellent feature to plot out what ground has already been covered. What I'm curious about is how many radios can communicate with each other at the same time, there could be limits. As far as range limits go, repeaters can be set up to relay a GMRS/FRS signal, these are already set up in major cities. I know there are mobile relay stations in pittsburgh, unfortunately kids and stuff buy GMRS and illegally use them. 1) they dont' get licensed, and 2) they break just about every rule in legal broadcasting.... Though I don't think this would happen in forest rescue work.

[+Jeff in Pa]

What I'm curious about is how many radios can communicate with each other at the same time, there could be limits.

 

 

The new Rino's can store 50 "contacts" meaning 50 people can see where the other 49 are.

[wurthless]

my department has gone with the 60csx. The use of unauthorized radio bands is strickly forbidden on the fire grounds. Is is considered a safety issue to have people using a radio freq that is not , or MAY not be accessable to all people on the incident. The thought is that someone might not get the word if people are using thier own radios instead of the authorized bands. Departments spend alot of money to be on the same freq and we whould think twice about messing that up,,,,,

Edited June 13, 2008 by wurthless

[+storm180]

I guess it depends it would be a toss up between the 60 and 76 series. 76 series will float, so if you do water rescues this might be a handy feature. I have a 60CSx and it has proved to be very durable.

[Graysailor]

my department has gone with the 60csx. The use of unauthorized radio bands is strickly forbidden on the fire grounds. Is is considered a safety issue to have people using a radio freq that is not , or MAY not be accessable to all people on the incident. The thought is that someone might not get the word if people are using thier own radios instead of the authorized bands. Departments spend alot of money to be on the same freq and we whould think twice about messing that up,,,,,

 

We all have rugged handheld's preprogrammed with the key frequencies for medflight, central, sheriff, automatic and mutal aid departments, etc. Who makes the 60csx? Again - all we want is the largest screen, topo maps, and being able to input a coordinate and have it point the way. Thanks for your response!

[+Insane Kangaroo]

my department has gone with the 60csx. The use of unauthorized radio bands is strickly forbidden on the fire grounds. Is is considered a safety issue to have people using a radio freq that is not , or MAY not be accessable to all people on the incident. The thought is that someone might not get the word if people are using thier own radios instead of the authorized bands. Departments spend alot of money to be on the same freq and we whould think twice about messing that up,,,,,

 

We all have rugged handheld's preprogrammed with the key frequencies for medflight, central, sheriff, automatic and mutal aid departments, etc. Who makes the 60csx? Again - all we want is the largest screen, topo maps, and being able to input a coordinate and have it point the way. Thanks for your response!

 

Oh, then I'd just go with the 76CSx since they float. I think if it were accidently dropped while doing a rescue in a lake it would be nice to not have it sink or only have the antenna visible(60CSx). Both units are IPX7 which can keep water out for at least 30 minutes.

 

I still recommend the Rino units just because you can track people and actually see what ground has been covered, I think that feature would be the most useful.

[yogazoo]

Garmin 60CSX. It's what your looking for!

[wurthless]

I can't argue that the added feathures of the rihino are not a plus. In fact I hope they can be adopted by our dept soon,,,or at least the auto plotting feature,,that is sweet BUT

I'm talking about keeping ALL agencies in the STATE on the same freq so it would take the whole state of California to program and use the rhino freaq, and because they run on a family channel I just don't think it's going to happen. If you get used to having a private tactical conversations on your rihino and then forget to re-transmit critical info on the assignened tac channel you put people at risk,,,

as far as the 76 verse the 60,,,,the 60 you could kick like a football and still have a gps (IMHO) but the 76 is a little more fragile I think. You could always attach a float to it to keep it from sinking like you do your boat keys,,,,again this is just my 2 cents worth

[+Insane Kangaroo]

I can't argue that the added feathures of the rihino are not a plus. In fact I hope they can be adopted by our dept soon,,,or at least the auto plotting feature,,that is sweet BUT

I'm talking about keeping ALL agencies in the STATE on the same freq so it would take the whole state of California to program and use the rhino freaq, and because they run on a family channel I just don't think it's going to happen. If you get used to having a private tactical conversations on your rihino and then forget to re-transmit critical info on the assignened tac channel you put people at risk,,,

as far as the 76 verse the 60,,,,the 60 you could kick like a football and still have a gps (IMHO) but the 76 is a little more fragile I think. You could always attach a float to it to keep it from sinking like you do your boat keys,,,,again this is just my 2 cents worth

 

I'd speak to garmin and see if they could make modifications to the radios far as frequency goes, this would be something to be handled by them. Various companies which make wireless and radio hardware are known to make customizations for various hardware.

[rhitchco]

I belong to a wilderness SAR team in upstate NY, work for the Forest Rangers and State Police. Many of us use the Garmin GPSMAP60CSx and they work quite well. The radio feature of the Rino seems nice but is rather moot since we have to carry powerful handheld VHF radios anyway (programmed with 250+ public safety frequencies...the freq we use on a SAR mission is dependent on location and Ranger selection) and team leaders also usually carry GMRS radios (cheapies) for low-level communications within a team...when the info is not important for the system or the other teams. Only very rarely would one person work alone anyway.

 

The location sensing feature of the Rino is neat, but realistically we just simply relay the coords to locate ourselves relative to other teams/people. The search base has a computer that can plot this on a very detailed topo map easily and almost instantly, and then they supply a bearing if they want us to join up or proceed to a specific point. And of course you can also plug in the coords in the GPS and make it a waypoint and do all the same thing....just a little more tedious; we just let the guys sitting in the A/C or heated command post do this!

 

The Garmin Topo maps for the handheld GPS aren't the greatest (we use Maptech at search base...VERY detailed) but they suffice for the field.

 

Don't forget to attach a secure tether to the GPS to prevent dropping it or loss. Small paracord works well.