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Permalink Reply by Don Zimmerman on July 25, 2008 at 11:25pm

Go with a ruggedized tablet computer with the touch screen. Have the following in it as software: Accountability/ICS set up, wildland fire, erg book, wmd swag, rmp comp, marplot, cameo, wiser, aloha, biochem

wiser, aloha, cameo marplot, rmp com, erg are all free from the government.

Those below will cost $$ but actually will not break the bank. There are some that cost a lot of money and the cheaper ones seem to work just as well. Pocketmobility will work with you when thinks do not go right as will Askansoft.

I have all of these on laptop and pda

A pda for an engine is not good to easy to make it disappear, tablet computer will work better, be sure and use screen protectors to prevent wear on the screen.

wildland fire>>>pocketmobility
ICS set up>>>pocketmobility
wmd swag>>>arkansoft
accountability>>>ITAC or somewhere I have no idea, we use ITAC which is probably faster
bio chem 1st responder>>>arkansoft

Many work with lap top, tablet or pda

I have used them on real incidents and they work

I am using a standard laptop but the tablet will be less moving parts than that, I am using a Palm 650 with Palm OS but many of the new ones have MS mobility which will work just as good, Mogul looks good so far I am not making the move till the cost comes down more.

We are about to make proposal to get one tablet for each engine and the command car to have all the above and the prefire planning for the entire Hanford Nuclear site. thousand of plans and all types from hazmat to rescue to fire to medical to mass causality, you man it. We plan to have the prefire plans set up so all you do is write the building number in the box on the screen or type it in hit enter and the whole plan with pictures, foot print and plan at your finger tips, pics will include hazards areas, all sides staging area of people foot print will indicate hazards and everything on the planet we can think of to put into it, looks like we should hire a gis guy for a bit.

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Permalink Reply by George on July 28, 2008 at 5:19am

thanks will check into these and pass it on to the chief

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Permalink Reply by Mick Mayers on July 28, 2008 at 4:51pm

Don Z has some great ideas there and I'd follow up on some of those ideas. However, we bought Panasonic Toughbooks for our US&R Task Force; I wouldn't recommend them. Since that blog, I have gone through another "Toughbook". For the amount of money, you are probably better off buying three "regular" laptops and replacing them when they break, which is our new plan.

We are, however, putting Toughbooks on our trucks in my home department. We'll see how that goes; they say these are tougher than the ruggedized milspec versions we bought at the state level. Seeing that my state computer was never exposed to anything more adverse than the inside of my Suburban, I'll have to remain skeptical.

I have seen some pretty cool things done with PDAs. We were using Palm products and liked them, but at least the command staff in my home department is pretty much using smart phones with Windows platforms. One of the other Battalion Chiefs and I are using the T-Mobile Wing, which I like (he seems to like his as well), but our two Deputy Chiefs are using something on the Verizon network that they seem to like and one of my TFLs who is a Lieutenant in my home department has that new Verizon that is almost identical to the iPhone and he LOVES it.

Sorry this couldn't point in a specific direction but there's a lot of good stuff out there (and a little bit of over-hyped crap). When it all comes down to it, that legal sized yellow tablet computer and the three-ring binder mapping computer are both pretty reliable and a lot cheaper, and we've used them for years with a lot less headache and griping - but I wouldn't trade my Wing to have them back either :)

Good luck.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on July 28, 2008 at 8:07pm

Mick,

I just put a Verizon SmartPhone 5800 in service. I'll let you know how it goes.

My Nextel (milspec, ruggedized) lasted about 5 years, but it was voice-only and the coverage was non-existant away from population centers or Interstate highways. I can vouch that my smart phone gets voice, e-mail, and internet access in places that my Nextel didn't get either phone or PTT service.

My Panasonic Toughbook is still ticking, but it's old, slow, and doesn't get used outside my vehicle much. I've killed a couple of regular Dell laptops as well, and they were a lot faster and had a lot of features that my Toughbook doesn't have.

I always have the notepad backup as well. It's amazing what a notepad and some pre-printed NIMS forms can accomplish when the electricity is off.

I'm watching the ROAM IT project with great interest. I'm used to having Toughbooks that are always vehicle-mounted from my previous employer, and those were pretty long-lasting, except for the tough screens. Once they got rid of the tough screens, the Toughbooks did well, as long as they stayed in the vehicle's docking station.

Hopefully, the ROAM IT Toughbooks will live up to their billing. I'm skeptical, but would be glad to be proven wrong on this one.

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