Chad Wachs

Aurora Mall shooting fireground audio

2013-01-23T10:01:00.000-07:00

It's rare you get the opportunity to listen to complete fireground audio from an event like what took place the morning of 7/20/12 at the Aurora Mall. Outstanding job by all involved as well as Aurora Fire Dispatch. Recognized a couple voices on the radio as former instructors of mine at Aurora Fire Academy.

Active911 Instructional Video

2012-12-11T08:53:00.003-07:00

A quick instructional video on the operation of Active911 on iPads in the rigs. Video contains some troubleshooting techniques and suggestions as well.

Feel free to enter your comments here if you have suggestions and other techniques that you use.

Setting up your smart phone for Active 911 / CADpage

2012-08-17T19:27:00.003-06:00

This should be a simple step by step for activating your cell phone for Active911 / CADPage to receive calls from Golden Fire in real time and give you the ability to map those calls.

iPhone / iPad users:

1) Head to the App Store and download "Active911".
2) Install and open Active911. The first time it loads, it will ask you to register your device.
3) Click the small gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
4) In the Activation Code field, type in the activation code sent you to via email. It needs to be typed exactly as it was sent (capitals, dashes, etc).
5) Head over to Settings -> Notifications and set it the way you wish:

6) When Golden gets a call, you will see a screen allowing you to read the dispatch info and view a map:

Clicking on the address field at the top of the screen will open the map for the call and show you not only the location of the call but the location of other units that are using Active911 and responding.

NOTE: The buttons labeled "Respond", "Arrive", etc are only used on the apparatus iPads. They do not notify anyone else and should not be used as a substitute for calling into IamResponding.

Android Users:

1) Download CADPage from the Android Play Store

2) Launch CADPage and enter the settings menu.

3) Click on Direct Paging Vendors:

Click on "Active 911"

You will see a "Register" button right in the middle (where mine says "Unregister"). This will take you to a webpage where you will enter the registration code I gave you. You will be notified that registration was successful.

You can play with the notification settings but when Golden is paged to a call, you will be notified usually within seconds. The screen will give you the call details and the "Map" button will launch Google Maps and pre-load the call address into the map allowing you to navigate to it.

The Android software will not let you see other units.

Like the iPhone version, do not use the "Respond" "Arrive", etc buttons you see on your screen. They will not notify anyone else and this is not a replacement for calling into IamResponding.

Lastly, you can add a "widget" to your Android screen allowing you to quickly turn off audible notifications or the pop-up window of CADPage. Useful for when you don't want to be alerted to Golden calls (the widget is on the top of my screen):

If you have any questions, shoot me an email.

Other notes:

To go "on" or "off" duty with either program, follow the instructions on this link. You can do it via a SMS message. This would take the place of turning off your notifications. There may be a reason where you want to go "off duty" which would keep you from getting any pages.

GoPro Hero 2 use in broadcast settings

2012-07-29T14:23:00.003-06:00

There is becoming an increasing use of GoPro HD cameras in the broadcast setting. They are cheap ($300), they are small and can be put in places that regular broadcast cameras can't go and the look pretty good when mixed in with other professional HD cameras in a broadcast - especially with the wide angle lens they come with.

However, there are a number of issues we have discovered in making these work in a broadcast setting. for starters, read this great article written by veteran video professional Tom Guilmette about using the older GoPro's with CBS basketball. He has some very valuable information.

In this article, I am going to focus on the newer GoPro HD Hero2 and our experience on Colorado Rockies Baseball on Root Sports. Thanks to my fellow tech managers for the hours of work that have been put in researching, testing and trouble shooting this camera.

Our set up:

GoPro HD Hero 2 camera in a modified waterproof case (needs modification to get HDMI and USB cables to work).
AJA HA5 HDMI -> HD-SDI converter
Telecast Rattler system HD-SDI <--> SM fiber adapters
AJA FS-1 frame sync in the truck

Our director used a Dremel tool to create access ports in the case. Remember to make them big enough to get the entire connector housing in.

Note the angled mini-HDMI to HDMI adapter. Very helpful and lets you use standard HDMI cable runs.

This part of the set-up works fairly straight forward if you are familiar with this equipment. No issues here. The problems we have been fighting are: 1) Power related 2) Heat related

Power Problems

As Tom's article points out, power with these devices is finicky. Follow his advice. Start out with a full battery in the GoPro before starting to hook up HDMI and use it as a live camera. The battery heats up very quickly when it is being charged under load and you quickly get the "heat problem" described below.

Turn on the camera without the USB cable attached and then plug in the USB cable once the camera is powered up. Does not matter if HDMI is plugged in at this time.
Do not use a standard cell phone charger with these cameras. Most cell phone chargers output around 500mA (mili-amps) of power. While this may charge the battery while the camera is off, it is not enough power to run the camera while under load.
We are currently a 1.2 Amp USB power adapter. Ours happens to be a Sierra Wireless power supply. We are going to upgrade to a 10 watt (1.9 Amp) adapter. Check the specs on the power supply. You need the 5.2V variety and more amps are better here. I would not go below one rated at 1.5 Amps.
Get a longer USB cable. You need one with a Mini-B 5 pin type on one end and a standard USB male on the other end. MonoPrice makes some at very good pricing. I would be cautious on going too long with your USB cable - especially with lower rated power adapters. Like in video, length = loss with power cables. Also, remember to get an HDMI cable the same length as your USB!

Heat Problems

These cameras hate heat. In our experience, as soon as they get hot, they shut down and stop working until they are cooled. Because our camera is set up outside near some fountains, it is in the waterproof case that comes with the camera. This case, by design, has very limited natural air flow around the camera and adds to how fast it heats up. Your mileage may vary by not using this case.

For night games in our outdoor stadium, the camera tends to work pretty well. We make an effort to turn it on as late in the day as possible.

For day games, if the camera is in the sun and ambient temps are in the upper 80's, we get a couple hours of use out of the camera before it shuts down - and when it shuts down, you have to pull the battery to reset and cool it down first. If it's sunny and the camera is going to be in the sun at all, it does not seem to work. We loose access to the camera once the game begins so when it's gone, it's gone.

If you are inside a stadium, especially if you are not using the waterproof case, you may get better results but keep the heat problem in mind when picking your placement.

We have a medium sized Pelican case (no foam) that we use to house a power strip, the Tx side of the Rattler and the AJA HA5. All cables run into the box. This equipment also gets very hot. We are looking to add a small muffin fan to the box to help keep the equipment cooler. We like the case since it keeps everything neat and provides some environmental protection to the equipment (since it is sitting near a fountain outside).

Pelican case with the equipment mounted in. Also makes a great carrying case for the camera and cables as well. We are looking into putting a fan into this case as well to help with heat.

Notes:

Other helpful accessories:

Longer USB cable (previously mentioned)
Mini HDMI (Type C) to HDMI (Type A) adapter with a HDMI cable OR
Mini HDMI (type C) to HDMI (Type A) cable (same length as your USB power cable)

Try to avoid cables with the ferrite cores. These add weight to an already fragile connector and may make it difficult to balance your camera on some mounts:

Please feel free to post any comments here with your findings or questions. It looks like the use of these cameras is only going to be increasing over the next few years. No sense in all of us trying to figure out the same problems.

The state of firefighters in Detroit

2012-07-05T14:45:00.003-06:00

For those not involved in the fire service, you probably have not heard much recently about the City of Detroit. For those of us in the fire service, there are weekly reminders from that city. Yesterday came the latest news and perhaps the saddest. We all know that Detroit is a struggling city that in my opinion, is slowly (?) imploding into itself. It is totally out of money and rebuilding efforts appear from the outside to not be going anywhere. It is also a city that is literally burning itself up. Detroit Fire responded to 30,000 fires calls last year. They see 30 structure fires a day - for a city of 714,000. To put into perspective, Los Angeles with just under 4 million people has 11 structure fires a day.

So, in an effort to combat the financial problems the city is facing, it shut down 22 fire companies and laid off 164 firefighters yesterday. Here are the final radio calls from some of those companies:

To give you a very well done and graphical idea of what life in Detroit is like for the Detroit Fire Department, take a look at the trailer for this soon to be released documentary:

Keep the remaining hard working firefighters left to do battle in the City of Detroit in your hearts and minds.

Search & Rescue / RIT training presentations

2012-04-20T17:39:00.005-06:00

To help those that would like a copy of the presentation, you may download the PDF version of the Search & Rescue and RIT academy training presentations as well as the homework reading assignment.

Download Search and Rescue Presentation

Download Mayday homework reading assignment

Download RIT, Mayday and Self Survival Presentation

View or Download the NIOSH Report for Baltimore on 1/19/2011

Videos:

Link to the training videos in the Search presentation

Link to the training videos used in the RIT presentation

My collection of Search and Rescue videos

My collection of RIT and Mayday videos and audio

If you are not a member of the Golden combined fire academy, please let me know in the comments if you found these trainings useful or have any suggestions to improve them.

Ice rescue of dog

2011-12-28T19:26:00.001-07:00

I've been on the other end of rescues like this where the outcome was not so good. Makes me smile to see one go successfully. Also serves as a good reminder this time of year to stay off the ice, no matter how thick you think it is. I can tell you from experience you don't want to be in that water.

Opening Supra brand key lock boxes

2011-12-19T14:46:00.002-07:00

A couple of shifts ago, we removed a Supra brand lock box from a building that was no longer using it (they had switched to a Knox-Box). This gave us the opportunity to test out our ability to try to break into this lock box. Getting our inspiration from Miami Township Fire trying to break into a Knox-Box, we had a go with our Supra box.

First test was to try to remove the hinge holding the locking lid to the back mount. We tried a Halligan pike, a Rex Tool and a screwdriver in our attempts to drive out the hinge. None of these were successful.

Second test was to use the pike end of the Halligan tool placed against the lock and strike it with a 8lb axe.

One strike of the axe and it busted the lock mechanism. The face of the lock fell off giving us access to the inside portion of the lock.

Simply giving the exposed lock a slight twist with a finger popped it out of the housing inside and the Supra box opened up with no further problems. So, in short, looks like a Halligan will easily defeat a Supra box in our non-scientific experiments. More detailed pictures below.

Above is the outer ring (lower) that fell off as soon as we hit the lock and the inside lock mechanism (upper) that twisted free and fell into the box once we pushed on it with a finger.

iTunes, you still suck!

2011-11-20T18:37:00.001-07:00

Dear iTunes,

I so want to love you. Well, I do since you are the only product that will sync my music to any Apple "i" device that I own. Short of that, you are a crappy product that has not shown any technology updates for years, with the possible exception of Music Match, which might make you worse.

I am a very technically savvy person. Have been for decades. If I can't make your consumer product work, it fails. I then have my wife try it. She is very smart. Works in a high tech field. She gets frustrated by trying to do a basic feature. Fail again.

Here is the set-up. One that I don't think is very different from many other people. We have 1 Mac in the house running iTunes with a very large (19,000+ song) music library kept on an external drive. We then have an iMac and 2 MacBook Pros. None of these machines have the drive space to hold the music library.

So, playing songs from any machine - works fine. Home sharing works for this. The problems come with every other thing we want to do.

Want to put songs on an "i" device? Well, those devices are hooked up to either the iMac or one of the MacBook Pros, depending on the device, not the media server with all the music. You can't copy songs to the i device without first copying them to the machine you have the i device hooked up to. This is crap. I now have 2 options. Either copy every song I want from the Mac with the music to the Mac with the i device or mount the drive of the Mac with all the music and have iTunes use that drive as its music store. The latter is the way I have been doing things.

Now, that sort of works. Until you buy more music or rip a new CD. I have to copy those songs manually to the drive where all the music is held. That is step 1. You would think a program like iTunes that has been around as long as it has would automatically scan a folder for new music. Nope. I now have to manually tell iTunes about each and every song I add to the drive. Fail again.

Enter Home Sharing... I thought this may solve all the issues. It was touted as the savior for people in my situation. I turn it on, plug in the iPod and drag a song from the shared Mac with all the music. No go. Can't drag music onto an i device via home sharing. WTF?!? It's my music on my devices on my network. So, again, I make a second copy of every song I want to put on my iPod.

Then comes the magical cloud! Clouds can fix anything, right? I spend 4 days syncing my music to the cloud (can't wait for the Comcast bill to arrive for bandwidth use). I can now see my cloud on all my iTunes. Pop in the iPod, grab a song from the cloud and drag it to the iPod. No go. Now I am pissed. It's still my music on my cloud trying to go to my iPod and I again have to download every song locally that I want to copy to the iPod. That means at least 2 copies of my songs, one onto a drive in a MacBook Pro that does not have room for it which is why I moved them all off in the first place.

So, iTunes fails to grasp a simple concept with each new "feature" they add. Let me keep my music in one place and one place only but put it on any i device that I own without having to make a second copy of that song on the computer my i device is plugged into.

Don't get me started with playlists, or movies. I stopped using iTunes long ago for video and am very happy with Plex Media Server for all my video needs. It scans folders and automatically adds new songs, shows, movies, etc. What a concept. It lets me watch movies on any device or any TV without making a second copy. Now, if the very talented people at Plex could make an iTunes replacement app, I'd pay for that!

Apple, perhaps you can get this right in your next 5 versions. If OS X is any indicator, you will only be taking away features to "simplify" my music experience even more.

Want a white Christmas but have no snow??

2011-11-17T11:57:00.001-07:00

I was walking the dog the other day and heard this noise that to me, sounded exactly like a snow making gun. After spending 13 years as a ski patroller, I am very aware of that sound but it was totally out of place in my neighborhood.

I came around the corner and here is what I found! An actual snow making gun and a large air compressor. So, in case you want a white Christmas this year but mother nature is not working with you, give this guy a call and perhaps you can rent the snow gun and air compressor.

It did a great job of covering the lawn with snow and the driveway and sidewalk with a nice thick sheet of ice. I don't see this working out well when they come home and try to pull up the driveway.

I think the kid that lives there sets this up before he goes to school so he can sled in the driveway when we gets home - since I've seen him doing that. We do have a great sledding hill just down the block, perhaps I'll loan him some hose and extension cords so he can cover it with snow and not his driveway.

A year in the life of a firefighter

2011-10-28T14:29:00.001-06:00

This documentary is called "Burn" and it follows City of Detroit firefighters for 1 year in a city that is rapidly deteriorating. The documentary is not yet fully funded. They are seeking donations to help complete the project and release it. Not only is the firefighting footage amazing, it tells a great story about a group of hard working citizens and the city they are fighting to save.

Help them make this a reality by clicking on the link below.

detroitfilm.org

BURN Trailer from BURN on Vimeo.

Why I am voting them all OUT

2011-10-21T11:16:00.002-06:00

Last night, the Senate blocked that $35 billion bill for states and localities to hire firefighters and cops as well as teachers, marking it the 2nd defeat for President Obama's jobs agenda in less than 2 weeks. The bill, which failed in a 50-50 vote, marked the first attempt by Senate Democrats to move pieces of the president's American Jobs Act that was defeated by a Senate filibuster last week. WTF?!? All I hear both sides in Washington say is we need more jobs. We need to protect the jobs we have. Public safety and education are "priorities." But when it comes to actually doing anything about it, you fight, bitch and do nothing to help solve the problems.

I have a new plan that I started with the election this November and will continue until things improve: If you are currently in the office you are running for, I am NOT voting for you. Regardless of party affiliation, I am not voting for any incumbents for state or federal offices. You all suck, seriously. None of you have done anything that even resembles the job you said you would do when you ran. A 2 year-old has better compromise skills than you do.

All I hear is bickering, finger pointing and blaming everyone but yourself. Even your own parties can't agree to get along internally. You all have the lowest approval rating in decades. People are camping out to protest for days (weeks) in cities across this nation. Why? We are all fed up with you. Don't you get it? You really suck and we are tired of it. It's time for all of you to go and enjoy the golden parachutes, consulting jobs, lifetime pensions and health care that you voted for yourselves after your "public service" careers. The only public I see any of you servicing is your own selfish selves, followed by a few high paying special interest groups. You've done nothing to help me or anyone I know. You've done nothing to help the economy. You've done nothing to help job growth. You've done nothing to help this country you have sworn to protect. In fact, it could be argued you have made it worse. You are leaving this world a worse place than how you found it. You couldn't even maintain. If you ran a company, you would have been fired by the board or shareholders long ago. Sadly, you don't run a company, you run a country.

I hope others will follow me and send these idiots a message. That message is: Good Bye!

Firefighter pensions

2011-09-16T16:21:00.001-06:00

I'm getting into the habit of sharing interesting videos... Here is one from Connecticut firefighters unions on protecting our pensions. Interesting way of doing it.

A way to fix a broken government

2011-08-04T10:52:00.000-06:00

Most of us will agree the government is broken. The system, the people, the direction. A relative of mine sent me an email with this in it. I am not one that re-forwards emails like this to friends, however, after reading it and agreeing with everything in it, I thought I'd put it out there for those may not have gotten this from someone they know. Take a look at it and comment on what you think. I'd love to see this get traction.

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12.
The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive the message. Maybe it is time.

Ken Jeong CPR video

2011-08-04T10:45:00.000-06:00

Well done and a good message.

Videos from Africa!

2011-07-31T10:53:00.000-06:00

I've finally gotten through the videos I show while on safari in Kenya, Africa in July, 2011. All of these were shot with a Canon 5D Mark II camera in 1080p and a 70mm - 300mm lens. I did learn after watching these that you should turn off image stabilization while shooting video - you can hear the stabilization motors working the entire time. Or, get a better microphone...

Link to the playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL167045F3FC9C0A99

Pull to the Right for Sirens and Lights

2011-04-23T20:55:00.001-06:00

Love it!

Easter Eggs dropped from helicopter

2011-04-16T15:45:00.000-06:00

In Castle Rock, CO, we take the Easter Egg hunt to a whole new level. A helicopter makes a low altitude pass, dropping the eggs out into the field below.

Email signatures

2011-04-15T15:20:00.000-06:00

One of my least favorite things people put in email signatures. It seems they are totally useless as well. According to the Economist "Automatic e-mail footers are not just annoying. They are legally useless."

Instead of going green by asking people not to print your email, go green by removing this useless information from your email signature, thus sending less data over the Internet and saving money and energy that way!

http://www.economist.com/node/18529895

Firefighter Olympics

2011-04-12T15:48:00.000-06:00

Very cool to watch but I hope this never catches on in the US. I'd hate to see any member of our department wearing spandex...

Are Your Ground Ladders Safely Marked?

2011-04-06T13:19:00.002-06:00

Read this article last year and thought it was a great idea. Just finished getting it implemented at work. See comments at the end of the article for on-line sources to purchase the DOT striping tape.

Are Your Ground Ladders Safely Marked? - Firefighter Nation - Firefighter Social Network, Training & News

A Japanese Firefighter Talks Surviving the Nuclear Reactors

2011-04-05T15:27:00.002-06:00

Great story!

A Japanese Firefighter Talks Surviving the Nuclear Reactors

Bronco Cheerleader tryout

2011-04-03T16:27:00.001-06:00

Why am I not invited to judge this??

2011 Broncos Cheerleaders Tryouts, Day 1 « CBS Denver

Aurora Fire Department 10-01 graduation video intro

2011-04-02T19:05:00.002-06:00

Graduation video from the Aurora Fire Department class 10-01.

Helicopter drop on the Indian Gulch Fire

2011-04-02T19:01:00.000-06:00

Helicopter drop of water on the Indian Gulch Fire in Golden.