One shared
live map
Local Search and Rescue teams are the first to respond in rural Alaska when someone goes missing. Our solution brings real-time situational awareness to these first responders to support better prehospital outcomes for patients in disconnected and GPS-denied environments.
Built on TAK: the mapping system used by the DoD and first responder teams nationwide. Live since July 2026.
- Shared servertak.qsartak.org
- PhonesiPhone + Android enrolled
- Satellite beaconsfield-tested over Iridium
- Wave buoysreporting every 15 min
- Marine chartslive + offline bundles
- Drone videostreamed from the X10
Real screens from a Quinhagak-based Search and Rescue with position overlays in Skydio Cloud and ATAK.
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Every phone becomes a map. Searchers install a free app — ATAK on Android, iTAK on iPhone. Everyone sees everyone.
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The drone joins the map. Skydio X10 video and position stream to the same map, so the whole team sees what the camera sees.
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Beacons cover the dead zones. Satellite Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs) keep searchers on the map with no cell signal and no internet.
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Starlink ties it together. Starlink Roam kits are issued to each SAR response team, connecting each party to a shared server in the cloud.
When someone is hurt, the hard part is saying exactly where they are and what shape they're in. ATAK's CASEVAC form does both without a word of radio description.
A search generates information faster than anyone can hold it. The mission logger catches it as it comes in and keeps it after the team stands down. Tracks and mission data can be reviewed and edited, and updates pushed to team members in the field. All mission data is archived for future reference.
- Name the callout and start it. The clock starts with the mission, not with whoever remembers to write it down.
- Fill the lost-person report as you learn it. Identity, clothing, health, last seen, trip plan, vehicle — the questions a searcher would think to ask, already asked. More than one subject if the boat had more than one aboard.
- Tap the last known point on the chart. The coordinates fill themselves in, on the same NOAA chart the boats are using.
- Everything saves. Tracks are captured before the server ages them out, and the record downloads as KML or GeoJSON for review afterward.
Before a boat leaves, the question is always the same: what is the water doing out there? Three wave buoys anchored along the subsistence corridors answer it directly — wave height, period, and temperature, reported to the same map every fifteen minutes. No calling around to Goodnews Bay and Kongiganak to guess at the weather in between.
“It’s actually a dream coming true, where we’re having the tools to help us with searching or subsistence traveling.”
KYUK · May 23, 2025 Technology supports tradition in Quinhagak ocean buoy project
“It changed the river and the coastline. It’s a different land.”
“We get weekly calls for search and rescue — weekly. Sometimes three times a week. Sometimes every day.”
“At first when I came here, I thought it was going to be pretty hard. But it’s pretty easy.”
“If you’re a local pilot, you’re gonna know your traffic patterns better than anyone who’s outside.”
Photographs: Nalaquq, LLC.
KYUK · July 14, 2026 Quinhagak locals bridge drones and traditional knowledge. Now, they’re teaching others how to do it
Print or screenshot this code — scanning it opens Team resources, everything a member needs to get connected. Post it at the QSAR office, in the boats, and in the drone cases.