Plotting ELT Hits

[jlehman]

I'm probably not the only person to do this, but I haven't seen it mentioned...

This past weekend we used the cell tower map feature to plot ELT hits. I prefer it over the line tool because you can quickly place the origin of the line with the "find" feature, then you can set the azimuth numerically without dragging things around. Just change the "angle" to 1, and you get a line. Very handy. I was able to plot them just as fast as somebody using MapTech. Of course, I may be late to the party, and you all have been doing this for a while...

JL

[Radishworks]

Cool!  What a good use for the cell tower features, I never thought of using it for ELTs.

Thanks for the post!

[tensai]

I've read through your message a number of times because it sounds intriguing but I can't figure out exactly what you're doing. Can you elaborate?

[Jeff Beckman]

The maps now have a draw object called "pie" which draws a pie shaped object on the map.  The idea is, a cell phone tower usually has some number of antennas covering fixed angular regions.  Pings from cell towers can be used to help bound the search area. 


When it comes to an emergency locator transmitter, you are doing the exact same thing, from a mapping perspective at least.  This time, your antenna has a much narrower angle to it, and rather than trying to figure out that angle, jlehman is just using 1 degree.  You can also move your antenna around in an ELT search, but you have to talk to it on the radio and feed it.