Digital Beacon Pinpointing
Contents
1. The Vertical Plane The plane in which everything discussed in this article happens is the Vertical Plane Each burial scenario has one Vertical Plane The Vertical Plane you will find is a fairly thin slice of space less than half a meter wide that is full of easy to read and follow flux data There are no nulls or spikes in the Vertical Plane No beacon confusion in the Vertical Plane The direction lights arrows of your digi beacon are always pointing along the strongest flux line the distance readings are always reasonably accurate You will find you can completely trust your digital beacon in the Vertical Plane Great so where is the Vertical Plane This very specific 2 dimensional slice of space is of course vertical and it passes precisely through the axis of the transmitting antenna of the buried beacon We don t know where that is yet but the digital beacon knows how to find it We find the Vertical Plane by following the digital beacon to the pinpoint line We Want the Vertical Plane But First the Pinpoint Line The pinpoint line is the one and only near field straight line that is on the snow surface and that directly overlies the axial orientation of the transmitting antenna It doesn t really take any work on your part to find the pinpoint line The beacon does it for you But there is a definite skill involved a skill that can only be developed with practice You have to learn to ignore that near field beacon confus2. pinpoint line overlying the subsurface intersection of the traced curving flux lines gt What exactly have we done here We applied a technique to get your receiving beacon in a single thin plane with the transmitting antenna In so doing you have a chance to follow clean flux lines Want another easier practice technique to help you learn the curving shape of flux lines Go to the park place a transmitting beacon flat on a picnic table and explore the flux field around that picnic table while you keep your search beacon oriented horizontal at the height of that picnic table i e transmitting antenna and your beacon are in the same plane Digital Pinpointing Technique 2 The Jump Point Line The second technique being introduced in this article is built on an altogether new type of digital possible data For reasons that will soon be evident this new data is being called the Jump Point Holding the digital transceiver at chest height in the Vertical Plane point the direction indicating end straight down at the pinpoint line In this second technique you will not be rotating the transceiver to follow its direction indication but you will definitely be observing the directional lights Begin walking the pinpoint line We are siding the upside down picture along the imaginary wall at chest height We are finding the chest height Jump Point The Jump Point is specifically the tangential meeting of the ee hadi level path of the search bea
3. Digital Beacon Pinpointing In the Vertical Plane by Dave Barber A digital transceiver is defined for the purposes of this article as a beacon that uses two receiving antennas orthogonal to one another and a data processing algorithm to collect and interpret flux line data with sufficient confidence to enable the beacon to numerically estimate distance from the transmitting beacon and much more importantly to provide direction indication via a set of lights or arrows This technique applies only to modern beacons with direction display what you might call directional beacons These beacons excel in the secondary search i e following the flux lines to the near field once a signal has been located Upon reaching the near field however the digital technology has remained completely underutilized This paper realizes the potential of directional beacon pinpointing by explaining the reasons and techniques for taking your beacon to the Vertical Plane Digital s great success in the secondary search has to do with dimensions and favorable orientation The directional beacons because they have two orthogonal receiving antennas are a 2 dimensional 2 D tool They are keenly suited to reading flux lines in a 2 D space i e a plane In the secondary search when you re 30 meters away the flux field where you are is fairly spread out It s not an absolutely flat plane but it s close And you re holding the beacon flat in front of y
4. The Jump Point For this level path Figure 3 Finding the chest height Jump Point i e the tangential meeting of the straight chest height path of the digital search transceiver with the specific flux line of the Vertical Plane that is cresting and rolling over at chest height Now that you know what the Jump Point is i e tangential meeting with a flux line and you know what it looks like i e direction indication jumps to the opposite side we introduce the Jump Point Line You can easily locate several Jump Points in the Vertical Plane and over the pinpoint line at any height e g at the level of your chest waist and knee Jump Points do exist at all heights over the pinpoint line they all look the same and they re all equally easy to locate As you find several Jump Points at different heights you will notice that these Jump Points seem to line up relative to one another Locate as many Jump Points as you need to confirm this In fact those Jump Points do form a straight line headed down into the snow And now the good news This Jump Point Line is a straight path to the buried beacon Figure 4 You now are armed with a second useful technique for pinpointing with your digital beacon Your digi beacon leads you to the pinpoint line you envision and enter the Vertical Plane You locate Jump Points at several heights above the pinpoint line and project that Jump Point Line straight to the buried beacon You ca
5. con a level chest height path with ae 2 Gom curve at one and only one point Webster s Dictionary 2002 a curving flux line from the buried beacon It is easy to find with a dual antenna digital transceiver For convenience mentally label the direction indicating lights or arrows on the search beacon in order as 1 through 5 As you approach the Jump Point direction indication moves gradually but confidently to one side specifically the beacon s direction indication is in the direction from which you are walking Beacon itself is still pointed straight down At the Jump Point the direction indication suddenly jumps to the opposite side It leaps from light 1 to light 5 without touching lights 2 3 or 4 along the way You can t miss it The Jump Point reveals the precision with which dual antenna digital signal processing observes the tangential skimming of the flux line One moment the predominant flux line is down trending to the right But within just a few centimeters the flux line has peaked in height rolled over and is down trending to the left Think about that You are now at a tangential meeting with the curving flux line of the Vertical Plane that is cresting and rolling over at your chest height Figure 3 depicts location of a chest height Jump Point in the Vertical Plane This is a good time to stop and see if I am telling the truth Grab a couple beacons and see if you can find a chest height Jump Point
6. e a few flux lines and sweep your hands along those paths to implant the image You ll quickly become familiar with the possibilities This pattern recognition is easy because these flux line 4 Tt should be noted that temporary vertical orientation or tilt of digital beacons has been mentioned in some guidance see for example the 1998 Tracker DTS User Manual TrackerManual98 pdf at http www bcaccess com techlibrary trackermanuals php and vertical orientations have long been a principle facet of advanced analog pinpointing techniques see for example the discussion of analog bracketing in the MAMMUT Barryvox User Manual user_manual_7_2002 pdf at http www barryvox com manuals index_e html or Manuel Genswein s paper Pinpointing In a Circle An Effective and Reliable System for the Precise Location of Deep Burials http www genswein com downloads html This method differs from previous search guidance however in its adherence to a strictly defined Vertical Plane passing through the digital found pinpoint line murals really only come in two flavors A vertical oriented transmitting antenna sprays flux lines up and out like a fountain Figure 2a A horizontal transmitting antenna lies underneath a flux line rainbow Figure 2b Fountain or rainbow Of course there are ninety degrees worth of buried beacon transitions between these two extremes but what are those really They are nothing more than fountains tipping over turni
7. ion to see the pinpoint line Your beacon naturally puts you on the pinpoint line and at that same time it starts throwing you curve balls You have to learn to ignore near field misinformation and realize the pinpoint line Easier said than done The secondary search as you well know is the activity of following the beacon to the near field once you ve picked up a signal It starts 30 meters from the buried transceiver with your beacon flat in your hands horizontal to the world and you follow its direction indication along a path of decreasing distance to the near field Is the secondary search easy You bet The secondary search is child s play with a digital beacon But seeing the pinpoint line at the end of the secondary search takes a cool head The problem of course is that the horizontal oriented digital beacon in your hand is flooded with vertical data It will get confused A direction flash off to one side distance readings will spike more direction flashes both sides But in spite of that noise the beacon is mostly showing you a straight line You must keep a cool head and see that straight line through the noise Some secondary search approaches will straighten up aligned with the pinpoint line as much as 7 10 meters out Other approaches will still be curving slightly at 3 4 meters It all depends on where you first picked up a signal But regardless of how late your path straightens out it will And regardless of the amou
8. lines before But have you ever followed flux lines after having already limited your search space to a single plane that you knew already contained the transmitting antenna of the buried beacon How do we follow the flux lines of the Vertical Plane Simply follow the direction indication along a path of decreasing distance In practice this means your beacon will nose dive down into the snow Give it a try Start with your beacon flat against the wall at chest height What does the direction indication say One of the arrows is lit up and the beacon is telling you the strongest flux line at this exact spot on the imaginary wall is THIS WAY So follow it Repeat this from a few other starting points All paths lead to the snow Pull out your owner s manual and take at look at the drawing of the flux line field You must know the shape of this field if you re going to pull off any flux line technique You must appreciate that flux lines keep curving under the snow surface and you must account for that continuing curvature in picking your probe location If you know the basic shape of the flux line field around the transmitting antenna and can maintain disciplined orientation of your beacon in the Vertical Plane then you are already on top of this game As you practice following flux lines in the Vertical Plane you will find you can paint the flux field of the imaginary wall in your mind just like you could paint a mural on a real wall Trac
9. mp Point Line Wide follow flux lines to the top of the flux line fountain For all those cases in between remember the straight Jump Point Line and several curving flux lines projections are always headed to the same subsurface intersection The below surface intersection of these various lines is your very precise total Vertical Plane tool Conclusion This article has introduced some new techniques for pinpointing with a directional beacon This method requires that the searcher be armed with a direction indicating multiple antenna digital transceiver that the searcher be able to recognize the near field pinpoint line on the snow surface that she he be able to envision the Vertical Plane through the pinpoint line and finally that the searcher be disciplined in maintaining placement of the search beacon n the Vertical Plane ZAM the Vertical Plane Always flat against the imaginary wall 2 D tool in a 2 D problem These pinpointing or fine search techniques only begin as the secondary search ends by delivering you to the pinpoint line Realizing the pinpoint line is the crux the place where you make it or miss it As the secondary search ends and you know you re on the pinpoint line flow into the Vertical Plane Instantly roll your wrist to put your beacon in the Vertical Plane No worries Trust your beacon in the Vertical Plane You can follow flux lines in the Vertical Plane Following flux lines in the Vertical Plane will
10. n probe the Jump SS Point Line itself Figure 4 Jump Points red stars form a straight line to the buried beacon Thoughts on Preferred Techniques With a vertical transmitting antenna the flux lines are flowing up and out like a fountain and your quickest location of the victim is to follow flux lines to a position directly over the buried beacon For all other orientations following flux lines leads you to a position that is not directly over the victim and that requires some estimation of continuing curvature of flux lines The more horizontal the buried beacon s antenna rainbow flux field the more useful is the Jump Point Line In fact the Jump Point line is straight up and down over the horizontal buried beacon There are ninety degrees of variation between the vertical burial in which the flux lines place you directly over the buried beacon and the horizontal burial for which the Jump Point Line is directly over the buried beacon but these situations all become obvious and easily recognized with a little practice My personal recommendation is to learn to flow instantly from pinpoint line to Vertical Plane and immediately proceed with walking the pinpoint line with downward pointing beacon looking for a chest height Jump Point Don t slow down don t break stride just keep going in one smooth instantaneous move as you walk the pinpoint line In a fraction of a second you realize the pinpoint line envision the Ve
11. ng into rainbows Once you know these patterns you will be able to know buried beacon orientation as well as location Think about that CEN S 7 AN G O Figure 2b The flux lines in the Vertical Plane of Figure 2a The flux lines in the Vertical Plane of a horizontal burial look somewhat like the buried beacon is lying beneath a flux line a vertical burial look like flux lines being sprayed re rainbow Note Lots of continuing curvature in up and out like a fountain Following flux lines puts you right on top of the buried beacon the remainder of the flux line path beneath surface to the buried beacon Figures 2c e show a few of the other flux line fields that you ll run into in the Vertical Plane Fountains rainbows or something recognizable between the two Figure 2e You are now armed with a very powerful technique for pinpointing with your digital beacon Your digi beacon leads you to the pinpoint line you envision the Vertical Plane and you maintain disciplined orientation of your beacon in the Vertical Plane You follow any number of flux lines to the snow surface and consider their common subsurface endpoint You need as with all flux line techniques to be able to estimate continuing curvature Unless you re on top of a flux line fountain right Flux lines put you right on top of a vertical burial Fig 2a and there is no more curvature if you re right on top of it The probe point is on the
12. nt of flashing direction and display data know you re also getting enough good information to see the pinpoint line Be cognizant of figuring out the pinpoint line throughout the secondary search and practice until you always come in right on the line I cannot possibly overemphasize the importance of plenty of pinpoint line realization practice Enough About the Pinpoint Line Back to the Vertical Plane The next step after finding the pinpoint line on the snow is to envision an imaginary wall that is straight up into the sky and down into the snow passing through the pinpoint line This imaginary wall is the Vertical Plane Figure 1 Note in Figure 1 how the one and only pinpoint line is on the snow surface overlying the axial orientation of the transmitting antenna in this particular drawing it is a horizontal oriented buried beacon The transmitting antenna defines the pinpoint line The pinpoint line defines the Vertical Plane There is clearly only one plane one sliver in space that contains both the pinpoint line and the transmitting antenna Only one Vertical Plane Take a moment and really envision the plane As stated previously everything else we talk about in this article happens in the Vertical Plane Note if you haven t already mastered pinpoint line realization then it is time to stop reading You must get outside for some serious pinpoint line realization and Vertical Plane envisioning practice Please don t go an
13. ou The field is mostly horizontal you re holding your beacon horizontal a 2 D tool properly oriented in a 2 D problem Effortless Just follow the beacon The closer you get to the buried transceiver however the more you are moving into a region of up down arching flux lines Eventually you cross a threshold into a near field zone where the flux field actually has more vertical movement than horizontal You start seeing direction lights flash left and right you see distance estimates spike The beacon seems a little confused What has happened You moved You were in a nice flat 2 D flux field with a nice flat 2 D beacon You ve moved into a very dynamic 3 D flux world but you still have a nice flat 2 D beacon Your first handicap is you re dimensionally outnumbered 3 to 2 Even worse however the near field hasn t just added vertical the near field flux field is now MOSTLY vertical There is really very little horizontal info in the near field And where s your beacon Still flat in front of you still horizontal You re completely missing MOST of the near field data You re dimensionally outnumbered and your orientation is completely wrong That doesn t sound good But no worries This paper will show you how to solve both those problems with a simple roll of the wrist l David B Barber Idaho Falls ID USA jumppointline msn com or dave barber anl gov Modern dual antenna digital transceivers capable of properly implemen
14. rtical Plane roll your wrist to put your beacon IN the Vertical Plane in downward oriented Jump Point location posture and go get that chest height Jump Point Mentally mark that chest height Jump Point on the imaginary wall Then quickly check below it to the left to the right for the waist height Jump Point Now a quick assessment Are those two Jump Points close to one another or spread out narrow or wide If chest and waist Jump Points are within shoulder width narrow finish the Jump Point Line If chest and waist Jump Points are wide say twice shoulder width trace a couple distance decreasing flux lines Between those two extremes Consider a combination of both flux lines and a Jump Point Line Figure 5 is a rotatable illustration of the Vertical Plane of three separate example burial scenarios Each example scenario blue orange and green has a snow surface pinpoint line the longest colored line and Jump Points red stars Two of the scenarios have smaller colored arrows showing distance decreasing flux line paths Two of the scenarios have Jump Point Lines Figure 5 is really three separate figures on one sheet Twist the sheet to see the three different scenarios Figure 5 Rotatable illustration of the Vertical Plane of three entirely separate example burial scenarios blue orange and green The longest colored line of each scenario is the pinpoint line i e the snow surface Small scenario colored arrows indicate t
15. teach you exactly what flux fields really look like fountains and rainbows Practice Study the flux field of the Vertical Plane in all burial orientations This article also introduced Jump Points the unique field signature viewable only on the direction display of the downward pointing directional transceiver Your first pair of chest and waist height Jump Points is your guide to the burial orientation Are the Jump Points wide or narrow Jump Points wide follow flux lines to the top of the fountain Jump Points narrow finish the Jump Point Line In between use flux lines and Jump Point Line This is absurdly easy stuff Practice these techniques until your realization of the pinpoint line is instantaneous Flow from pinpoint line to Vertical Plane to first pair of Jump Points in one fluid motion Your wrist rolls the beacon into the Vertical Plane while your feet keep walking the pinpoint line If you practice this you should be verification probing and digging within seconds of reaching the near field Practice until it flows
16. the face of your beacon the surface that contains the distance readout and the direction indication as a framed picture that you want to hang on a wall Then hang the picture your beacon s face on the imaginary wall the Vertical Plane Flat against the wall By hang the picture on the wall we mean hold the beacon in the air over the pinpoint line in the Vertical Plane Let s call the end of the beacon face with the set of directional arrows the top of the picture You can hang the picture upright directional arrows point to the sky you can hang the picture upside down directional arrows point down at the pinpoint line on the snow or you can hang the picture sideways Through these rotations however the face of the beacon remains flat against the wall You can slide the picture all over the imaginary wall to the left or to the right i e the entire length of the pinpoint line down to the snow as high as you can reach All good just keep the picture flat against the wall Always flat against the wall You are now n the Vertical Plane You have limited your search space to a single plane that contains the transmitting antenna You have placed your digital beacon in that very specific sliver of space The 2 D tool has been perfectly positioned in a 2 D problem You don t realize it yet but you re already almost done Digital Pinpointing Technique 1 Follow the Flux Lines of the Vertical Plane Sure you ve followed flux
17. ting this technique must have true direction indication LEDs or arrows in a LCD these arrows point in different directions on the forward end of the beacon and must have sufficiently precise near field digital signal processing to detect slight changes in predominant flux field direction as required to exhibit the Jump Point signature behavior The Jump Point behavior was first observed and further explored ultimately producing this technique while practicing with the Backcountry Access Tracker DTS In January 2003 both a new MAMMUT Barryvox and a new Ortovox X1 were tested The MAMMUT Barryvox was found to successfully locate Jump Points all the way down to the direction indication shut off at 0 3 m note under personal configuration options the direction indication disable was reset to 0 3 m from the default of 3 0 m The Ortovox X1 was found to successfully locate Jump Points in the digital operative range between 10 m and the factory set direction indication disable at 2 0 m We re going to reduce the large 3 D problem to a manageable 2 D problem a single plane in space and we re going to show you how to orient your beacon in that 2 D plane for quick pinpointing As the title indicates and as this discussion has emphasized most the action is vertical up and down So our limited search space our 2 D plane is going to be vertical also We re going to find a very specific Vertical Plane and properly orient your beacon in it
18. y further until you have mastered the pinpoint line TypicaMpaths taken to near burial area following the distance and direction indication of the digital search transceiver Figure 1 The Vertical Plane it contains the transmitting antenna and the pinpoint line Modern digital beacons naturally lead the searcher into the near field region on the one and only straight pinpoint line for almost all transmitting antenna orientations There is however one very specific situation where resolving the pinpoint line can be less clear this is with a truly vertical transmitting antenna Only with the precisely straight up and down truly vertical antenna is there any potential for trouble in locating the pinpoint line The problem with the vertical transmitter is not a lack of a pinpoint line but rather an infinite number of equally valid pinpoint lines because of the vertical axial orientation Yes in this particular case the precisely vertical transmitting antenna my statement there is only one pinpoint line is not correct But no worries with practice you will recognize this situation and know to automatically apply the techniques of this method which will be to go vertical and follow flux lines to a position directly over the buried beacon what will be called the fountain scenario later in this writeup Getting Jn the Vertical Plane Found the pinpoint line Envisioned an imaginary wall through the pinpoint line Now think of
19. ypical paths taken if following flux lines Red stars are Jump Points found at different heights above the pinpoint line Large arrows show Jump Point Lines How would the BLUE nearly horizontal burial be best located Jump Points are narrow practically right under one another so finish the Jump Point Line The Jump Point Line is practically on top of the buried beacon and pointed straight at it The ORANGE scenario is a nearly vertical burial Jump Points are fairly wide Skip the Jump Points and follow flux lines to the top of the flux line fountain Notice I didn t even draw in the Jump Point LineS yes there are two of them on the vertical burial scenario The GREEN burial scenario is a case where the Jump Points are about shoulder width You know there s some angle to the Jump Point Line but you should go ahead and finish it See the Jump Point Line see its angle see where it enters the snow But don t probe just yet let s get a little more data Quickly trace a couple distance decreasing curving flux lines say from chest and waist heights down to the snow See in your mind s eye the flux lines continuing curvature under the snow Now remember your Jump Point Line remember its straight yet angled path into the snow Finally project all those lines mentally and see their intersection under the snow That s the buried beacon Let the width of that first pair of Jump Points be your guide Narrow finish the Ju
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