General's Aide

[stevebski]

I'm creating a position on the team for events. This position is a General's go-to guy. We outfit one person with a FRS base unit, a large dry erase board or multiple small ones, a large laminated gridded map of the field, and a few other items. This person is not a player. They will not be paying to play, so if you're broke, this is a great spot to be. This person will be provided to the General of our side by our team to aide the General in commanding. Your job is to hold accountability by keeping track of all the friendly teams' locations and progress, talk on the radio, take notes and mecrob. This can be a multiple person job, but one should be able to handle it if they're working well with the General. We're hoping in the future with the acquisition of a UAV for the team that we can also outfit this person with a wireless internet capable laptop for live streaming of intel as well as blue force tracking once we get the logistics worked out with it.

Here's where we need to discuss this position and who will take interest in this. I have heard "I can't afford to play" so many times I had to come up with something to do at the game that you won't have to pay for. Here's one of those activities.

[stevebski]

I have purchased a GPS unit that I can plot the field with. Along with the software provided by a resource I have found, we can map out the field with +/- 2 ft accuracy. We can take that and make large prints of the field map or we can grab a cheap laptop to use. We're one step closer to having a decked out logistical solution for our Generals.

[Bazar]

darn… combine that with the UAV and both sides will be wantin KISM to come out and team up

[stevebski]

the coolest part about this mapping program is it's ability to connect to the internet and update it every three seconds. this was done with the intention that people would have smart phones on them somewhere that have a downloadable program provided by the map maker. it sends a GPS "ping" every three seconds. this registers on the map and shows the players location and updates it every three seconds. only downfall is not everyone on the field is carrying a smart phone, nor would they want to if they're gonna crawl through some nasty mecrob. but it's not a bad idea for tanks, anti-tank crews, engineers, medics and other special players so we know where our specific assets are. This guy even has a web-based page/program that he put together that allows multiple cameras to be streamed at once. This was intended for helmet cams. he even went out and found the cameras. Not only could you track them on the field, but if they carry the heavy camera set-ups you can see what they're seeing.

[Bazar]

that is kick bum… dude… let me know if you need me to do anything… I can get into this and the UAV lol… if, no one else wants to, I don't want to take someones job

[stevebski]

our newest member joined with the intent to provide an RC helicopter to utilize wireless cameras. I still don't know about the choppers though. That's an expensive investment for him if it gets broke running our recon missions, but would be pretty kick bum. He's a good 4-6 months away from being confident enough with this larger chopper to fly it based off what he would be seeing by camera. and of course we'd have a camera pointed straight down. I'm still convinced that we should have an RC blimp. The loiter time is where we want it, if the bladder fails it doesn't just drop from the sky like a chopper would. but we're looking at all options. without building the blimp ourselves it's lots of money to buy one that will work outdoors. Like I said though, I'm gonna take the trip out to OACC and the other fields in the area that run scenarios and plot them out with my GPS to put on the map. So at least we have an accurate map of the fields we play. I'll have to wing it when we go to NJ Nam and wander the field boundaries the day before and try to upload to a laptop then. We'll have a kick bum map not this nam, but maybe this year's russian front for that field. I foresee us playing OACC more often than not though.