TRIP DATA PACKAGES

Preparing for the Unexpected

The information you’d want in an emergency, gathered before you leave.

When something goes wrong on a trip, a car breakdown on a mountain pass, a medical problem in an unfamiliar town, wildfire smoke or a storm, the hard part is often knowing where things are and who to call. And it’s usually when your phone has no signal that you need it most.

A Trip Data Package puts that information together for your exact trip, before you leave. It works offline: on your phone or tablet in ATAK, in a dashboard that needs no connection, and in a report you can print and keep in the glovebox.

The offline dashboard for a sample trip, Portland to Hood River, Oregon.

What’s in a Package

1. Map layers for ATAK

Ready-to-import data packages for ATAK. Each kind of place is its own layer you can switch on and off, and every marker carries its address, phone number and source.

Emergency services: hospitals with emergency departments, urgent care, pharmacies, police and sheriff, fire stations, ranger stations.
Supplies and help: fuel, grocery, hardware, auto parts and repair, sporting goods, restaurants and cafes.
Radio: ham and GMRS repeaters (analog FM, P25, DMR and System Fusion), NOAA Weather Radio transmitters, and public-safety transmitter sites from FCC license records.
Cameras: live road and wildfire camera links, where the state publishes them.
Crime data: published police data by block, and incidents reported in the news.
Public events: demonstrations, rallies and other public gatherings listed for your dates, so a big crowd or closed street doesn’t take you by surprise.
Airports (flying trips): terminals, your gates, walking routes to them, first aid and AEDs, car rental and taxis.

2. Radio workbook

A spreadsheet of the repeaters at your destination and, for road trips, in order along your route. It also lists the public-safety licenses in the area, the national interoperability channels, NOAA Weather Radio stations with the county code for weather-alert radios, AM/FM stations and the GMRS channel plan. Name your channels and fill in your PACE plan and radio zones, send the workbook back before you leave, and we’ll rebuild your package with your names on the map markers, free.

Repeaters for the destination and the route.

3. Trip data report

A printable report (PDF and Word) for the glovebox. It includes:

Every hospital, police station and fire station: address, phone, a map, and turn-by-turn directions from the nearest major highway.
Weather for your dates: the National Weather Service forecast and alerts, the longer outlook, normal temperatures for the month, sunrise, sunset and moonlight.
Crime figures: FBI rates for the local agencies next to the state and national rates, plus recent reported incidents.
Public event listings and radio tables.
A source for everything.

A hospital page: details, map and directions from the highway.

4. Offline dashboard

A single file that opens in any web browser on a phone, tablet or laptop, with no internet needed: emergency services nearest first, radio, weather and daylight, crime data, events and camera links, plus the full report. Night-friendly color modes keep your eyes adjusted in the dark.

How to Use It

Delivery: you get a Google Drive folder with everything in it. Download the files to your phone or laptop; there’s nothing to unzip.
Before you leave: import the ATAK packages (Import Manager, then the files), open the dashboard once to check it works, and print the report.
Program your radios with the repeaters and weather radio channels from the workbook. We can do this for you: see Programming Services.
On the road: the map layers and dashboard work without a signal. Turn layers on as you need them.
During the trip: order an update for a fresh forecast, weather alerts, crime data and event listings.
Share it with your group: everyone traveling on the trip (family, or a group of up to 10) can have a copy, so each person has it if they need it.

What It Is, and What It Isn’t

A Trip Data Package is compiled public data: everything in it comes from public sources, and each item names its source and date. It is not a safety assessment. It doesn’t rate areas, mark no-go zones or tell you where to go. You know your trip and your group; the package gives you the information, and the decisions are yours.

Public data can be incomplete or out of date: a clinic changes its hours, a repeater goes off the air. Check anything you rely on with its source. In an emergency, call 911.

Where the Data Comes From

OpenStreetMap; the National Weather Service and NOAA; the US Naval Observatory; FCC license records; the FBI Crime Data Explorer; police open-data portals; public news reports; public repeater listings; state road and wildfire camera feeds; and the Mobilize public events listing. Every report lists its sources in full.

See a Sample

Our sample package covers a weekend from Portland to Hood River, Oregon, through the Columbia River Gorge: 182 places, 33 repeaters, 108 public-safety sites, 518 road and wildfire cameras, the forecast and a 15-page report.