GPS Values for Difficult situations

Our recent bushfires have thrown up some unpleasant facts
about our preparedness and as I background to this post
you may like to read the linked story, its a bit rough
and its a tale of confusion and luck.

http://69.4.229.229/~spirlei0/leishman/blogb/?p=423


Some details have had to be left out of this account, but I can add that when the time came to go to survival mode the crew of the tanker held there nerve and waited till their fire suits actually began to smoulder before turning on the water spray systems.

After our own recent need to 4wd and navigate in poor conditions (post 65905) I found it difficult to accept that many of our crews are so under equipped in some areas, as per a reply below from the driver in the above story.

When our 4wding conditions are good GPS specs don't matter that much and your $300 Tom Tom can do the job , but when your visibility is gone due to fire, fog or even night-time
you really do need equipment that does better.

I have long used a GPS 276C (still available), but its not the brand but the specs that count and I believe the following are fundamental 4wding requirements.

1/ Ability to have an external aerial which improves accuracy
(Window film & the radiant heatshields in tankers reduce GPS performance)

2/ Gps must be settable to show maps with north up.

3/ Gps must be able to include contour maps.

4/ Gps must be able to log a track of its path

5/ Must be able to allow user to roughly estimate distances
(UTM co-ordinates facilitate this - as they are in meters)

6/ Easy to enter mark a spot in an emergency).

7/ Be easily removed from car and used as a portable.

8/ Above average sensitivity as trees, fog can effect.
In the case of smoke/fire ,ionization of the air is what
reduces sensitivity.


Robin Miller






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Drivers reply to my questions

GPS units are not part of the specification on most CFA tankers
(I am not sure if this is the case with the newest 3.4C appliances), this means that the individual brigades need to purchase/install/maintain the units.
With all the costs associated with running a brigade, esspecially for those where the community funds additional fire fighting appliances beyond what is supplied by the CFA, there is rarely enough slack in the budget to consider these things.
That said, the last 5 years have seen significant changes in the cost/value equation for GPS units so I would expect to see more and more appliances with GPS units installed.
As it happened though we did not have GPS on the truck.

I know I will be putting GPS forward as an item for consideration by the brigade for our trucks again at my earliest opportunity.
Robin Miller

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