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danornan

What to carry with you on a skydive

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I suggest a cell phone with the local DZ's manefest number and a good map/diagram of the surrounding area with landmarks highlited.

I was the first one on the scene of an accident last week and because I had my cell phone with me, I was able to call manefest. We landed out of the normal LZ and I did not know exactly where we were in relations to the DZ nor was a able to know the best way for EMS to get to us.

This is a suggestion to skydivers who are new to a DZ and maybe for organizers of big ways for all participants to emphasize..

Don't wait for another remote accident.
Dano

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Cell phone with GPS MIGHT be helpful.... To point.

My iPhone can show me where I am on the map, and my coordinates.... But doesn't really help me tell emergency services or manifest how to find me if I am unfamiliar with the area. If I tell manifest that I am 200m northwest of the intersection of Farm to Market road 1234 and county road 5678... They won't find that as helpful as you might think. To the best of my knowledge, if I call emergency services (911), and give my latitude and longitude.... I expect a reply from them of "Huh? Where are you?".

Knowing the landmarks IS important!
The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

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provided these emergency people have as computer or a GPS, they can enter coordinates and find out where that is....
In my country if you need medical help, it will be very easily done by helicopter. If a heli pilot can't find you with GPS coordinates, well you're really unlucky :D

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

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Cell phone with GPS MIGHT be helpful.... To point.

My iPhone can show me where I am on the map, and my coordinates.... But doesn't really help me tell emergency services or manifest how to find me if I am unfamiliar with the area. If I tell manifest that I am 200m northwest of the intersection of Farm to Market road 1234 and county road 5678... They won't find that as helpful as you might think. To the best of my knowledge, if I call emergency services (911), and give my latitude and longitude.... I expect a reply from them of "Huh? Where are you?".

Knowing the landmarks IS important!



E911 Services now can use your GPS information to determine your location without you having to tell them anything. Welcome to 1984 ;)
Remster

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In my country if you need medical help, it will be very easily done by helicopter.



True, but largely irrelevant here. It is very uncommon for helicopters to be launched based on a citizen's phone report. Due to the unreliability of citzen reports, and the cost of helicopter service, the general rule is that ground first responders are sent to evaluate the situation and decided if a helicopter is warranted. Yes, the DZ might have pre-negotiated authority to request helicopter service, but a random citizen's call is unlikely to launch a helicopter. Thus, being able to direct ground responders to the scene is important.
The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

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you say it's irrelevant, maybe in your neck of the woods. In mine it's VERY different.
Now there is also a difference between someone calling to say they have seen some jumper falling to death in the distance, or someone calling to say he is actually with an injured jumper
scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

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All good suggestions. My point is to jump with communications and know where you are so that you can assist or direct EMS. I was there and know of the difficulties. It's not necessary to make it complicated.

Just have a simple one page map/diagram of the DZ and surrounding area in a jump suit pocket. Landmarks are helpful, cell phone with the necessary numbers.

In an emergency, time is of the essence. If I had to leave the injured and look for a phone or manifest. a lot of time would have been wasted.
Dano

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E911 Services now can use your GPS information to determine your location without you having to tell them anything. Welcome to 1984 ;)



It is required on every phone but you can turn it off.
"Do you really want to take advice from the guy we call Tarmac?"

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E911 Services now can use your GPS information to determine your location without you having to tell them anything. Welcome to 1984 ;)



It is required on every phone but you can turn it off.


gps is not required nor needed to trace a mobile device. police and ambulance in some European countries are using this from the very introduction of the cell phone. The ordinary mobile phone can be very well traced without GPS. If a device is switched on and within the mobile network range it´s tracable. And with a proper mobile equipment on the scene, you can trace it to the point.

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E911 Services now can use your GPS information to determine your location without you having to tell them anything. Welcome to 1984 ;)



It is required on every phone but you can turn it off.


You can't on most. You can turn off GPS features on the phone, but most of the time E911 GPS cannot be disabled (yes, I know, if you hack your phone, you probably can turn it off, along with making your phone dance like a dead chicken, but, you know...)
Remster

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E911 Services now can use your GPS information to determine your location without you having to tell them anything. Welcome to 1984 ;)



It is required on every phone but you can turn it off.


most of the time E911 GPS cannot be disabled


to my humble knowledge, there is no such thing as `e911 gps`. Even more, gps has very low signal straight - indoor it almost never works.

if you turn gps off on your phone there is no `back door` for the police to turn it on, nor (as I said previously) they need it in order to pinpoint your current location.

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E911 Services now can use your GPS information to determine your location without you having to tell them anything. Welcome to 1984 ;)



It is required on every phone but you can turn it off.


most of the time E911 GPS cannot be disabled


to my humble knowledge, there is no such thing as `e911 gps`. Even more, gps has very low signal straight - indoor it almost never works.

if you turn gps off on your phone there is no `back door` for the police to turn it on, nor (as I said previously) they need it in order to pinpoint your current location.

Come on! You should have seen on CSI how is that done in real life. ;)

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Phase II E911 rules require wireless service providers to provide more precise location information to PSAPs; specifically, the latitude and longitude of the caller. This information must be accurate to within 50 to 300 meters depending upon the type of location technology used.


http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/wireless911srvc.html
Remster

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E911 Services now can use your GPS information to determine your location without you having to tell them anything. Welcome to 1984 ;)



It is required on every phone but you can turn it off.


most of the time E911 GPS cannot be disabled


if you turn gps off on your phone there is no `back door` for the police to turn it on, nor (as I said previously) they need it in order to pinpoint your current location.


On my phone there is.
I can turn on and off the GPS trough interenet, trace it on a map, call it (even if there is no sim-card in it), and lock it from use.
I was very suprised when i managed to call the phone when there was no sim-card in the phone.
But it works. :)

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Phase II E911 rules require wireless service providers to provide more precise location information to PSAPs; specifically, the latitude and longitude of the caller. This information must be accurate to within 50 to 300 meters depending upon the type of location technology used.


http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/wireless911srvc.html



Remster, thanks for the link. As you can read, there is no GPS mentioned in the requirements. Up to 300 meters positioning accuracy you can reach almost effortlessly from the very introduction of the cell phone (without GPS thus). And, as I said, GPS signal is indoors almost never available. In some bigger cars with a thick roof and in busses GPS signal is also very often unavailable. Even more, if your GPS is always ON it consumes such large amount of energy that your battery will not last long.

Hellis, yes indeed YOU can switch it on or off using some applications. But there is no law inforcement procedure (nor application) allowing police to switch your GPS on. If they really need it they would certainly make such law. They can find you very fast without any GPS signal it's enough that your phone is ON and within the network range. To my knowledge this kind of "services" are used only for tracing the criminals when they need to be arrested and during some emergency calls.

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if I call emergency services (911), and give my latitude and longitude.... I expect a reply from them of "Huh? Where are you?".



Incorrect. If you can give your (accurate) lat/long - 911 CAN handle it (and will) dispatch right to you. ...And it does not take a Helicopter dispatch (as you continue with in a later post as well) to accomplish it either. - FWIW.
coitus non circum - Moab Stone

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