Fieldcraft ATAK - anyone using / worth using?

[Longshot85]

Recently an ATAK civ version has been released.

Is anyone using this?

Anyone used "other versions" that can weigh in this civ version?

CivTAK / ATAK

ATAK / CivTAK - Android Team Awareness Kit Portal. News, Licensing and Support for TAK Tools. Chat, Discussions and Downloads.

www.civtak.org

I'm mainly interested in this for communicating in effective ways during "these times" and having a live map rich with features is desirable.

A few concerns:

One thing I'm not crazy about is it sounds like any user is visible at all times to other users.

How many people will actually be running this that are a threat? (Apple only people are automatically out and you have to have enough working brain cells to use this)

I'm sure constant video and audio feed is being fed somewhere from my device......where does this go and is this a big deal?

Any feedback is welcome

 

[...]

I've tried it....found it clunky and unintuitive....overall not impressed

 

[Jumper]

Pretty good assessment of ATAK and some related options

 

[Herb Stoner]

I'm sure constant video and audio feed is being fed somewhere from my device......where does this go and is this a big deal?

Any feedback is welcome

Given that its Android based I'd assume zero privacy - same as for anything googly

 

[DairyDictator]

I played with it for a little bit. Seems a little too complex for me, but I'm not trying to communicate with several groups of guys on tactics and locations. It's pretty useless to me other than a cool thing to tinker with. It's definitely built to be scaled up and doesnt really work scaled down.

 

[lariat]

It may be helpful to think of ATAK as a dynamic group planning, asset integration and information consolidation tool. Think IoT. In some important ways it’s effectiveness depends on you and your teams knowledge base and abilities. You still have to mentally process the information it gives and act accordingly.

 

[DairyDictator]

It may be helpful to think of ATAK as a dynamic group planning, asset integration and information consolidation tool. Think IoT. In some important ways it’s effectiveness depends on you and your teams knowledge base and abilities. You still have to mentally process the information it gives and act accordingly.

Group implies you have friends
Friends require being social....
That sounds like an awful lot of work lol

In all seriousness though it requires a team of guys who all know how to run the program along with internet connections for all devices. There's a steep learning curve, but more capability. I'd imagine if you're not part of an agency you probably don't need the capacity and would be better served with maps with grid squares, a Garmin, and a radio

 

[Xarzu]

Recently an ATAK civ version has been released.

Is anyone using this?

Anyone used "other versions" that can weigh in this civ version?

CivTAK / ATAK

ATAK / CivTAK - Android Team Awareness Kit Portal. News, Licensing and Support for TAK Tools. Chat, Discussions and Downloads.

www.civtak.org

I'm mainly interested in this for communicating in effective ways during "these times" and having a live map rich with features is desirable.

A few concerns:

One thing I'm not crazy about is it sounds like any user is visible at all times to other users.

How many people will actually be running this that are a threat? (Apple only people are automatically out and you have to have enough working brain cells to use this)

I'm sure constant video and audio feed is being fed somewhere from my device......where does this go and is this a big deal?

Any feedback is welcome

What is the communication protocol on the back end of an ATAK plug-in?

I have worked previously on a WINTAK system and I recall it used socket or winsock communication protocol and it was done direcly from the plug-in to the remote hardware device software system.

Is this the same with ATAK? Do I need to investigate USB communcation systems?