Transcript Slide 1

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Creating an “Honesty Trace”
Using a Garmin GPS Device
By Cpl Matthew Ellis
CLB-3 S-2 Analyst
20 May 2009
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Purpose:
This manual was created for all units of 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade.
Most mounted patrols in southern Afghanistan occur not on roads, but across
deserts, through riverbeds, and around mountains. An “Honesty Trace” is a map
plotted with all the actual (vice planned) routes taken by previous patrols. Without
them, Marines often kid themselves that their routes vary sufficiently from patrol to
patrol to avoid setting patterns. The truth is that our routes set patterns that the enemy
routinely exploits. Honesty Traces are the only way to keep accurate account of where
you (and where your sister U.S. and British units) have been.
Honesty Traces plainly tell us which wadi crossings we gravitate toward, which
stretches of desert we have traversed before, and which contours and chokepoints we
and our sister units tend to repeatedly navigate. Hence, the traces keep us honest.
They indicate where we should sweep for IEDs, where we might employ snipers, and
where we should consider changing our route altogether. In short, Honesty Traces
are the single most effective tool you have for route planning.
A decade ago these had to be painstakingly plotted by hand on tracing paper.
Today, with an off-the-shelf Garmin GPS device, our routes can be automatically
recorded and plotted by plugging the device into a USB port and downloading the data
onto FalconView, C2PC, GoogleEarth, or some other mapping software.
This manual shows patrol leaders the simple steps they can follow to record their
actual routes. It also explains how they, or their S-2 shops, can create Honesty Trace
maps based on the routes recorded on their Garmin GPS devices.
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Part I:
Familiarizing Yourself With the
Garmin and Recording Your
Actual Route.
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Familiarization with the Garmin
USB CORD
FRONT
BACK
Note: You’ll need a Garmin that is compatible with a USB port.
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Garmin Buttons
LEFT SIDE
RIGHT SIDE
BACK/STOP BUTTON
ZOOM OUT
ON/OFF AND BRIGHTNESS ADJUSTER
NAVIGATIONAL STICK
MENU BUTTON
SCREEN
LEFT
FRONT
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RIGHT
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Back of Garmin
USB PORT COVER
USB PORT
BATTERIES (AA)
TURN LEFT AND PULL TO ACCESS BATTERIES
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USB Cord
THIS END GOES INTO A USB PORT ON YOUR COMPUTER
THIS END GOES INTO THE BACK OF THE GARMIN
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Powering Up the GARMIN
1)
Hold the “On” button located on the right
side (the one with the light bulb icon) for
1.5 seconds.
BACK/STOP BUTTON
ON/OFF AND BRIGHTNESS ADJUSTER
RIGHT
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Powering Up the GARMIN
•
A screen showing cardinal directions will
appear; “Acquiring Satellites” will also
show at the top the screen.
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SETTING YOUR GARMIN TO TRACK YOUR ROUTE
1)
Depending on your location it can take 1060 seconds to acquire enough satellites to
triangulate your position.
1) If you are in a location that is closed
or has cover you will not be able to
acquire satellites.
2) “Poor Satellite Reception” will
appear.
3) If this occurs move to a new location
and click on the navigational stick,
then click on the fourth selection
“Continue Acquiring”.
4) Continue this process until the
screen shows a blank map with a
North-seeking arrow in the upper left
hand corner. This indicates that you
have acquired a link with the
satellites.
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SETTING YOUR GARMIN TO TRACK YOUR ROUTE
2)
After turning on your Garmin, press the
menu button twice (located on the left side
of the Garmin).
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SETTING YOUR GARMIN TO TRACK YOUR ROUTE
3) A “Main Menu” screen will appear.
1) The battery life indicator will be in the
upper right hand corner.
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SETTING YOUR GARMIN TO TRACK YOUR ROUTE
4)
5)
Navigate to the “Tracks” icon.
Press the navigational stick once.
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SETTING YOUR GARMIN TO TRACK YOUR ROUTE
6)
A Track Log will appear (it will be on “Off”).
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SETTING YOUR GARMIN TO TRACK YOUR ROUTE
7)
8)
Use the navigational stick to select “On”
(“On” will appear with a yellow highlight
when selected).
Once “On” is selected, press once on the
navigation stick.
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SETTING YOUR GARMIN TO TRACK YOUR ROUTE
9)
The black dot will appear in the blank circle
to the left of “On”.
10) Your Garmin is now tracking the route.
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Placing the Garmin In a Turret
1)
2)
3)
A good place to put
the Garmin is in a
vehicle turret.
To mitigate dust or to
prevent the device
from getting wet, you
can place the Garmin
in a plastic bag.
Using duct-tape to
fasten the Garmin to
the turret works fairly
well. The key thing is
to ensure the Garmin
is atop the vehicle
with clear line-ofsight to the satellites.
The Garmin will not
work well from inside
the vehicle.
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Saving Your Route on the Garmin
1)
2)
3)
Once at your destination
remove the Garmin from
the turret.
Navigate to the “Tracks”
icon in the main menu (see
slides 10-13 “Setting Your
Garmin to Track Your
Route”).
Set the track log to “Off”.
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Saving Your Route on the Garmin
4)
5)
Navigate to the “Save”
selection (it will be
highlighted in yellow when
selected).
Click once on the
navigational stick.
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Saving Your Route on the Garmin
6)
7)
8)
A screen asking “Do you
want to save entire track?”
will appear.
Ensure “Yes” is
highlighted yellow.
Click once on the
navigation button.
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Saving Your Route on the Garmin
9)
10)
11)
12)
13)
A “saved track” screen will
appear.
Ensure the date is correct.
Navigate to the “Ok” in the
lower right hand corner (it
will be yellow when
selected).
Click once on the
navigational stick.
Your route is now saved.
All you have to do now is
hand the device to your S2.
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Part II:
Downloading a Saved Route to
the S-2 Computer and Plotting
the Route on FalconView or
C2PC.
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First step is to download the Garmin “MapSource” software to your
computer. MapSource allows you to download routes from the
handheld GPS and to create GPX files, which may be stored or
sent to higher. MapSource also allows you to plot the routes on
FalconView and C2PC. MapSource comes with the Garmin.
Alternatively, you can get a copy from the RCT S-2 Shop’s imagery
analysts, Sgt Spurling and SSgt Warren (they’re based at
SPMAGTF-A headquarters at Kandahar Airfield through May 2009,
and then will relocate to FOB Leatherneck). Also, the 1st CEB S-2
Officer at FOB Leatherneck, 2ndLt Bryan Warner, has copies.
Their contact information:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
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Connecting the Device to Your Computer
1)
2)
3)
4)
Connect the small
end of the USB cord
to the back of the
Garmin.
Connect the large
end of the USB cord
to a USB port on your
computer.
Turn on the Garmin
once both sides are
connected.
The Install Wizard
will appear on your
computer screen.
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Installing The Garmin Hardware On Your Computer
1)
2)
3)
If this is the first time
connecting the
device to the
computer, “Found
New Hardware
Wizard” will appear.
Ensure the “Install
the Software
Automatically
(Recommended)”
circle has a black dot
in it.
Click “Next”.
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Installing The Garmin Hardware On Your Computer
•
This will begin the
install (this can take
up to 60 seconds).
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Installing The Garmin Hardware On Your Computer
4)
5)
6)
When complete,
“Completing the
Found New Hardware
Wizard” will appear.
Click on “Finish”.
The Garmin is
installed.
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Transferring Routes From Garmin To MapSource
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Once the device is installed,
open MapSource program.
MapSource will appear.
Click on “Transfer” in the
upper left corner.
A drop down menu will
appear.
Click on “Receive from
device”.
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Transferring Routes From Garmin To MapSource
6)
7)
8)
9)
A “Receive from device”
menu will appear.
If your Garmin does not
appear in the “Device:” drop
down menu, follow the
directions given.
Ensure the “Tracks”
selection is checked.
Click on “Receive”.
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Transferring Routes From Garmin To MapSource
10)
11)
12)
A “Receiving from eTrex
VistaCx software version
2.50” will appear.
After a few seconds a
“Transfer complete” will
appear.
Click “Ok”.
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Transferring Routes From Garmin To MapSource
13)
14)
The transfer is complete and
the boxes will disappear.
All of the routes saved on the
Garmin will appear on the
map and in the left hand side.
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At this point, you have the option of saving your
recorded routes as GPX files. We recommend you do
so: GPX files can be easily emailed to other people. In
fact, you should turn all your recorded routes into GPX
files and email them to the RCT S-2 shop, which will
store them along with those of adjacent units and create
Honesty Trace maps for you.
The following three slides show you how to convert your
recorded routes into GPX files using MapSource.
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Saving route file as a GPX
1)
2)
3)
Click on the file you
wish to save as a
GPX.
Once the track is
selected, click on File
in the top right
corner.
Click on “Save As”.
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Saving route file as a GPX
4)
5)
A “Save As” window
will appear.
Select the drop down
menu “Save as type”.
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Saving Route File as a GPX
6)
7)
8)
Select “GPS
eXchange Format
(*gpx)”.
Save the file as
“Location
DDMMMYY”.
The saved GPX files
can now be emailed
to the RCT S-2 shop,
which will make
Honesty Trace maps
from them.
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Next, you will need to copy your saved routes to Excel.
The Excel files are what FalconView and C2PC will use
to plot the routes. The following slides show how to
complete this task.
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Copying Routes to Excel Spreadsheets
1)
2)
3)
4)
Double click on the
file and the track you
wish to convert and
the track properties
will appear.
Once the “Track
Properties” window
appears, select one
of the rows and press
“Ctrl + A” to select all
rows.
Once all have been
selected and are blue
press “Ctrl + C” to
copy all.
Click “Cancel”.
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Copying Routes to Excel Spreadsheets
5)
Double click on the
file and the track you
wish to convert and
the track properties
will appear.
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Copying Routes to Excel Spreadsheets
6)
7)
8)
Once the “Track
Properties” window
appears, select one
of the rows and press
“Ctrl + A” to select all
rows.
Once all have been
selected and are blue
press “Ctrl + C” to
copy all.
Click “Cancel”.
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Copying Routes to Excel Spreadsheets
9)
Once the files are
copied open a new
Excel spread sheet.
10) Select the first cell in
the first row.
11) Paste previously
copied selection into
the spreadsheet.
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Copying Routes to Excel Spreadsheets
12) Select columns “A”
through “i” by
dragging the mouse
across the letters.
13) Right click on one of
the selected letters
and click “Delete” in
the drop down menu.
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Copying Routes to Excel Spreadsheets
14) This will leave only the
MGRS coordinates in
the first row.
15) Save the document to
your designated folder
as (location ddmmyy).
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Excel to FalconView
1)
2)
3)
4)
Once the spread sheet has
been saved, open the
Excel2FV folder on your
desktop and open the file
inside.
Make sure the tab at the
top says “Import to FV”.
Ensure the import type is
“Draw.”
Click “Connect all
records”.
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Excel to FalconView
5)
A box will appear, click
“Yes.”
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Excel to FalconView
6)
Click on “Source.”
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Excel to FalconView
7)
8)
9)
“Import Source_File” will
appear.
Navigate to the location
where you stored the
spreadsheet you created
from Map Source.
Double click on the Excel
file you wish to import.
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Excel to FalconView
10)
11)
“Save Location” box will
appear.
Click on “Other Directory.”
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Excel to FalconView
12)
13)
14)
A “Save DRW File” window
will appear.
Name the file “Location
DDMMYY.”
Save the file to a location
where you will be able to
find it later.
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Excel to FalconView
15) Select “MGRS” in the
coordinate format.
16) Go to where it says
“Column One” and
click drop down arrow
and select “MGRS”.
17) Click inside the
coordinate format box
so all the letters turn
black.
18) Click “Create.”
19) The spread sheet will
appear.
20) Click on
“Excel2FV.Doc” in the
bottom tool bar.
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Excel to FalconView
21) “Import Summary” box
will appear.
22) If you wish to view in
FalconView select
“Yes” if not, select
“No”.
23) Once the route is
created it will be saved
in the same folder as
the spreadsheet you
created earlier.
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Converting to C2PC
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Open EXCEL2FV.
Click on the tab at the
top that says “export
from fv”.
Select “Drawing” in
the source file type
portion.
Select “C2PC MGC” in
the “export file type”
portion.
Click on Source.
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Converting to C2PC
6)
7)
8)
9)
Navigate to the FV
draw file you wish to
convert.
Double click the route
you wish to convert.
The file will maintain
the same name as the
FV file.
Click “Convert File!”
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Opening in C2PC
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
Open C2PC.
Select the overlay tab.
Right click on the folder that
says “imported”.
Click on “import” in the drop
down menu that appears.
Navigate to the location where
the C2PC mgc file you created
is.
Double click on the file.
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Opening in C2PC
7)
The file will be imported
into the “imported”
folder in C2PC.
8) Click on the “plus”
symbol to the left of the
file you imported.
9) Double click on the
Polyline.
10) A Polyline input data
window will appear.
11) Click on the tab that
says “Polyline”.
12) Uncheck the “auto
close” box.
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Opening in C2PC
13)
14)
15)
Select the tab “Properties”.
Here you can adjust the color
and thickness of the route to
be displayed.
The following slide will show
you an example of what
Honesty Traces look like
when they’re plotted on a
map.
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This presentation was prepared for all units of 2nd MEB, and any
other ISAF units, by the S-2 shop (1stLt Matt Pottinger and
Corporal Matthew Ellis) of Combat Logistics Battalion 3, United
States Marine Corps. Lt Pottinger is in Afghanistan until spring of
2010 and can be contacted at the following email addresses:
1stLt Matt Pottinger [email protected]
[email protected]
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