Features

SARTrack manages the whole Operation: where everyone is, what they are doing, and everything that was said and decided. Built for the field, where the internet is often not there.

Below: Search and Rescue. For emergency communications and Emergency Operations, see EMCOMM and Emergency Management.

Works in the field, without internet

• A local Database Server on the field WiFi: every laptop connects to it by itself, no network set-up.
• All laptops stay in sync: a map on one, the Operations Log on another, the Time Line on a third.
• With internet, the local Server also syncs with the Internet Server: the Operation is then on the web site and in the App too.
• Every window can go on its own screen, or a projector.
• Maps are stored on the laptop and work offline.

Maps

• OpenStreetMap-based topographic and satellite maps, and the New Zealand LINZ maps.
• Download whole areas beforehand, for use without internet.
• A 3D map with the terrain, the Teams and their tracks.
• Search areas, lines and Objects drawn on the map show on every connected screen.
• Weather overlays.

Every tracker on one map

• APRS, by radio (TNC) or over the internet.
• Commercial radios with a built-in GPS: Tait, Icom, Kenwood FleetSync, Motorola and Hytera.
• Satellite trackers, AIS for vessels, and aircraft.
• The SARTrack App on the phones of the Teams.
• GPS tracks imported from hand-held GPS devices (GPX, KML).
• Each with its Tactical name and its own track colour, live on every screen.

Screenshot coming: trackers and tracks on the mapimages/shot-tracking.png

The Operations Log

• The heart of SARTrack: every action of the Operation on one Log.
• A quick entry screen for the radio operator, between the Teams in the field and the management.
• Entries are marked as actioned when dealt with; priority entries stand out.
• Messages and many other events are logged automatically.
• The Time Line, Clues and Sitreps windows show the Log in their own way.
• A full Operation Log for the debrief, the evaluation, and Police or coroner inquiries.

Teams and Tasks

• Team Setup: the people, equipment and Task of every Team.
• Team status at a glance: at base, travelling out, in the field, returning, overdue.
• Tasks with their search area on the map and attachments.
• The Dashboard: the whole Operation in one window, also for a wall screen.

Personnel and Equipment

• Your people with their contact details, qualifications and availability.
• Arrival and status of everyone on the Operation.
• Equipment handed out by barcode scanning, which can link a radio tracker to its Team at once.
• Operation Periods: the managers of each period, and the handover in multi-day Operations.

Missing Person and Search Urgency

• Missing Person forms with all the details, photos, the Last Known Position and the Point Last Seen.
• The international Search Urgency calculation.
• Statistical rings and dispersion angles, based on the International Search & Rescue Incident Database (ISRID) and Lost Person Behavior by Robert Koester, and a travel circle from the time last seen.

Messages and e-mail

• Messages between stations and Teams, and to everyone in the organisation, in chat windows.
• Messages to radio and satellite trackers.
• The organisation's e-mail in the Operations Log.

The web site

• The Operation in a browser on any PC: the map, the Log, Teams, Tasks, Personnel and Messages.
• Live: changes appear at once.
• Supervisors log in with a password and a code from the SARTrack App.
• Share the map and the Sitreps of an Operation with someone outside, by a link.

The Android App

• Sends the position of the Team, using little battery.
• Clues with photos, Messages, Tasks and the Log, in the field.
• Keeps everything while out of coverage, and sends it when back in range.
• Finds the local Server on the field WiFi by itself.

About the App

Secure

• Every connection between the programs is encrypted.
• Each organisation sees only its own data.
• Logins with access levels, from read-only to Supervisor.