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over 2.5 man years in search time. If a lost person is injured, getting to them quickly is very important. SARLOC drastically cuts the time required to locate a casualty.
In many activations of SARLOC, the team has not had to send any team members out. They have simply directed the lost person to the nearest path (where it is safe to do so).
What are the advantages of the SARLOC system?
SARLOC is free. It has been provided to many different rescue agencies world-wide absolutely free of charge.
SARLOC works without the need to install any application on the lost persons phone. Other similar location systems require an app to be pre-loaded onto the mobile phone.
Does SARLOC work on any smartphone?
SARLOC works on most smartphones, however Blackberry phones cause problems as they use a different API to obtain location.
Are there any configuration settings that are required for SARLOC to work?
The most important point is that location services on the smartphone must be set to On. If they are not set to On, SARLOC will respond with an error message that explains to the user how to enable their location services.
How many UK rescues has SARLOC assisted?
Currently SARLOC has been used on over 300 callouts in the UK.
To date, SARLOC has been activated operationally on 478 live call outs. Where suitable the team will ask the lost person to activate SARLOC a number of times as they walk off the hill allowing the team to track their progress.
How many rescues in rest of world has SARLOC assisted and in which countries?
SARLOC has been tested around the world but it is difficult for me to know if it was on a real callout or just somebody testing it. The Norwegian JRCC has a version of SARLOC for north and south control centers which has been activated over 200 times. The first use in Norway is documented here: http://www.go4awalk.com/ the-bunkhouse/walking-news-and-discussions/walking-news- and-discussions.php?news=710222
The new system, called SARLOC, was tried out several times over the holiday weekend. “But this incident in Nordland was the first time it has saved a life”, said the regional boss in Hordaland Red Cross, Jahn Petter Berentsen. “People don’t have to read coordinates - they only click ‘OK’ and a link. We don’t have to do a search, we can go straight into a rescue.
SARLOC Testing
So, once I had found out all about SARLOC, it was time to put the system to the test and see how it performed in a live situation. On the 24th Jan ‘15, I travelled to North Wales for a weekend of winter mountaineering. The weather was typical for January, it was cold and the cloud base was fairly low, perfect conditions for getting lost!
Lyndsay and I chose to start in Ogwen valley, head up to Pen yr Ole Wen, Carnedd Dafydd and Carnedd Llewelyn. Throughout the day I tested SARLOC by clicking on the web link provided by Russ, which provided my location back to the SARLOC system. I was able to check the result by browsing to a web page provided by Russ.
Results
Coverage
The first thing that I noticed was that I actually had 3G coverage throughout most of the day (EE is my service provider). Therefore there was no issue in receiving the text and responding by clicking
on the web link. On the few occasions that my coverage was reduced to GPRS, SARLOC performed just as well, albeit slower due the reduced bandwidth available.
Accuracy
Throughout the day I performed numerous tests at various locations. I compared the SARLOC result with my GPS and found the results to be very accurate. When SARLOC successfully interrogates the location of a phone it provides the user feedback which instils confidence in the system. The picture right shows the feedback
I received when using SARLOC on the summit of Carnedd Llewelyn.
The picture below shows my location on the SARLOC system which would have been displayed in the MRT HQ.
Summary
SARLOC has revolutionised how MRT conduct rescue operations. If a lost person has a smart phone and coverage, they can be located in a matter of seconds. This saves crucial effort and time that would otherwise be required to locate someone before they can be rescued.
The advantage to SARLOC is that there is no requirement to pre-install any application or register your phone beforehand.
Not so long ago, general advice provided from numerous sources was to never rely on mobile phones. Whilst that advice is still sound, coverage and smart phone use has increased exponen- tially. SARLOC makes best use of this fact and does it remarkably well. On behalf of the AMA I would like to personally thank Russ for his time and effort that has greatly assisted me in writing this article.
If you want more information you can contact Russ at sarloc@ russ-hore.co.uk or join the SARLOC Rescue group on Facebook.
ARMY MOUNTAINEER 11