Starlink for SAR

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Starlink has revolutionized SAR for those of us in Northern New Mexico (D1 & D7). Local Los Alamos Field Coordinators have been using a Starlink system since 2022. One of our FCs purchased it with personal funds (~$1200) and continues to pay the $1800 yearly subscription with personal money. He generously makes it available for us other FCs to borrow when we run missions.

Before we dive in, a bit of an advert: at the moment of writing this, we are the only ones using Starlink in the entire state. No one else can afford it. Part of this is because there is no public source of funding to support it. It’s just too much $$ to expect an individual field coordinator to purchase (and continue to pay for) out of their pocket, and it’s beyond the scope of any individual field team to purchase a Starlink that gets used at Incident Base rather than in the field. DPS has not been able to sort out a system to pay for Starlink for us volunteers, with the ongoing subscription costs. One of the goals of Los Alamos Search and Rescue is to help purchase and pay for Starlink for other districts in New Mexico. It is an obvious, immediate way to dramatically improve the SAR capabilities state-wide, with relatively little investment. It makes a huge positive difference towards the success of a SAR mission. If you can support this, please donate through our donation portal so we can make this happen.

Without exaggeration, Starlink has completely changed IMT. Typically, SAR occurs in areas without cell service. It is correlative: sometimes the mission occurs because there isn’t cell service. Regardless, the consequence is that the location for Incident Base typically lacks service as well. This is anticipated, and missions have been successfully managed without connectivity since the beginning of SAR. Incident Base without service remains standard SOP for everyone else in the state. No longer for D1/D7.

With Starlink, we get high-speed internet and cell service at Incident Base anywhere, for the IMT and for all responders. The benefit of connectivity at Incident Base is enormous. Here are some of the advantages:

  • The IMT will have cell phone service, via the wifi calling feature of all smartphones.
    • Data drives the search plan. Information, obtained through investigation.
      • What size shoe does the subject wear? We just got a phone number for the subject’s roomate, let’s call them and ask. They have a spare identical pair of the subject’s shoes? Text us a photo of the tread so we can pass it to the team that just found some footprints which might be the subject’s.
      • Did the subject have a green water bottle? We just found one and want to check, let’s call the RP.
      • Just found out new info from the friend on scene that the subject takes meds? Let’s call the family and find out what kind. Then let’s call the medical director and find out what the medication means for the search.
  • All of the maps you might need or want can be downloaded in the field, over the internet, including google earth high resolution satellite imagery.
    • There is no SAR without maps. Everything is based off the maps. Before starlink, the only maps available at Incident Base were the ones you downloaded ahead of time (always lower resolution, and often incomplete), or even—shudder to think—paper maps decades old with barely useful resolution (yes, we use to do SAR that way, and did the best we could with the tools available to us at the time; no, we do not and should not still be doing SAR with paper maps).
  • Navigational data and search areas can be uploaded directly to the teams.
    • Teams connect their phones to the Starlink wifi at IB.
    • At IB, before departing on the search (and after returning from the search), teams access the live SARtopo map that is being continuously updated
    • Search areas and coordinates can be defined on-the-fly at IB and immediately uploaded to team’s maps, to be taken with them into the field. Gone are the days of printing out low res maps on black & white 8.5×11 sheets of paper and using a yellow highlighter to mark the team’s mission (good riddance!).
  • IC can stay in touch with AC, particularly regarding the need or status of critical resources, such as:
    • Requesting a helicopter, providing coordinates and search areas to the helo team, and receiving status on timing
    • Requesting and receiving results of cell phone forensics
  • The live map is continuously updated to the internet and thus available for the AC (back in the real world) to view in real time. This allows the AC to provide valuable updated information to the helicopter crew before they take off, including a copy of the map.
  • The IMT can continuously monitor incoming weather, including the location of lightning strikes and the location of rain storms in flash flood areas. I have encountered both of these situations at Incident Base in the past few years. This information is important for us to keep teams safe.
  • The team search tracks download directly to the mission map
    • If team’s use the live tracking feature on their SARtopo app, their live track will be uploaded to the common map whenever they either a) get a bit of cell phone service (e.g. up high on the mountain) or b) return to incident base and reconnect to wifi
    • With large numbers of responders, this is the only practical system for extracting every individual’s track to the mission map on the spot
  • All responders get cell service at IB for coordinating with other en-route team members or friends/family
  • The ability for the IMT to track incoming resources. An updatable SARtopo map link is provided to the teams before they even depart their homes. A majority of responders have started live-tracking their drive from home to IB. This allows the IMT to track the location of teams along the route towards IB, allowing them to estimate arrival times and organize resource allocations before teams even arrive at IB.
  • IMT can leverage resources to assist with mapping and investigation that aren’t even in the field. The AC or other mapping assistants can collaborate from home on the live map, providing valuable information to the IMT which is undoubtedly busy in the field. The assistant can, for example, identify and add to the map structures that may need to be cleared, trails that are not shown on the standard map, cliffs extracted from trip reports off social media. The ability to make use of willing helpers at their computers back home to add relevant information directly into the mission map is extremely powerful.
  • When the subject has cell phone service (high on a mountain, for example), we can add an SMS locator to the SARtopo map which permits us to continuously track the exact position of the subject.

The system

  • Starlink. The following parts come with the starlink purchase:
    • A stand
    • The antenna that mounts in the stand
    • A cable; connecting the antenna to the wifi brain
    • The wifi brain
    • A cable; connecting the wifi brain to 120 V power
  • A robust carrying case. The above items are unwieldy and you don’t want them bouncing around the back of your car. We have the official starlink travel case which is light and excellent, but also requires careful Tetris action to get everything back in, and is not cheap. There are other third-party options.
  • The starlink app on your phone
    • The antenna moves. The antenna only fits into the case in one position. You need to use the app to tell the starlink to “stow” itself before you unplug it, so that you can fit it back in the case. It would be excellent if there were a button on the device itself to accomplish this. Alas.
  • A 120 V backup battery to power it.
    • This isn’t really backup, it’s actually the best way to power it always. With the Ecoflow River2 Pro that we use (768 Wh), we get around 6 hours of power for the Starlink and a laptop. You set the system up immediately using this battery to power it, then a few hours later when you have more time you can set up the generator. At that point, you just plug the battery into the generator, so there’s no interruption of service. At the end of the mission, you can break down the generator and put it away, leaving the starlink to continue to run on the battery until the last minute. (You will find that everyone wants to use the cell service to text family/friends before they depart IB.)
  • The charging cord to connect the battery to the generator power (this comes with the battery; just don’t forget it).
  • The wifi details for the starlink.
    • After the initial starlink setup, write the WIFI ssid and password directly onto the wifi brain.
    • Use an online QR code generator, with your ssid and password, and print out a QR code so that everyone else can jump on the wifi more easily. For extra credit, laminate it and put a copy with the 211 sign-ins, so it’s even easier to direct people to it when needed.
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