This is Part 1 of a multi-part series on ATAK and Meshtastic. For Part 2, click here.
ATAK - you've heard about it. All the cool guys run it. All the influencers swear you'll need it to survive. You don't really know what it is, you just know you NEED it (and jokes aside, you're right.) But what is it, and how do you get it?
What is ATAK?
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The Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK) is a geospatial mapping software application for Android devices used by military, law enforcement, and emergency responders. It provides real-time situational awareness, collaboration, and navigation features, enhancing operational efficiency and safety through precise location tracking and information sharing.
- Simply put: it’s an app that can show maps and facilitate encrypted communication on those maps.
- Why is that important? Showing is always better than telling. If you need to coordinate with someone in an austere (and maybe even hostile) environment, then dropping your location on a map they have access to is WAY more accurate than saying "I'm at the crossroads, by the bush, no not that bush, the one near the river..." you get the idea.
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Other reasons to want it are:
- Special forces cool dudes run it. You want to be a cool dude, right?
So now that you want it, how do you get it? Well, you're going to need some stuff.
- an Android phone - optionally running GrapheneOS
- A meshtastic node (Hey, you can get those here) - this will be used for sending data and comms when you are out of range of wifi.
- Some friends with which to communicate (We are currently out of stock on those)
Notice you NEED an Android phone. iOS has a similar app called iTAK, but it is very stripped down and doesn't provide the same framework as ATAK for adding plugins (which you'll need). It also takes a lot more to integrate with other ATAK users (requires a server), so if you're an iPhone user like me, just grab a cheap android off Amazon and dedicate it to your kit (link below for a good'n)
Installing:
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There are a couple of ways you can get ATAK on your Android phone. First and easiest way is to download it from the google play store.
- If you want to have any real cred though, you’ll want to download the app from tak.gov - that way you can control what version of ATAK you are running and stop it from auto-updating.
- If you are new to Android (i.e., an iPhone user who just bought an Android to use ATAK) just use the version on the play store.
- Open up ATAK and go through the set-up process. Give it all the permissions - yes all of them. It needs them for all the features you want to use ATAK for.
- You’ll also want the Meshtastic App on the phone, so go ahead and get that set up and test a few messages via the standard Meshtastic app.
- Now you need the Meshtastic Plugin for ATAK. Go here and download the APK https://github.com/meshtastic/ATAK-Plugin/releases (or grab it from the app store)
Ok so now that you have a phone, a Meshtastic radio, a friend, and everything downloaded, Once you have all those things, there's a catch. ATAK can display maps, but it doesn't exactly come with any out of the box, and the ones it does have are only available when you connect to the internet. Not exactly off-grid.
So let's take you through a few steps to get more maps and what you need to do to get them local on your phone. Now we need to get some maps into ATAK. There are a few ways to do this.
- You can download USGS maps from USGS, but the site gave me more issues and headaches than is probably worth it.
- https://eebulk.cr.usgs.gov
- Luckily, someone much smarter than me figured out a way to stream a whole bunch of map sources into ATAK and you can go to this website to get them set up: https://github.com/joshuafuller/ATAK-Maps
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- Under “Installation Instructions” You’ll see a link to a .zip file. Download that on your phone, then open up ATAK.
- In ATAK, open up the settings menu using the hamburger button in the upper corner.
- Go to data packages → hit the “+” button in the top right corner → File Select → select the file you just downloaded
- Now go to the map setup menu (looks like a folded up map) and go to mobile and you can now access all the maps you just set up (so long as you have internet access as these are streaming to your phone
- These are still streaming onto your phone (not local) but we'll cover downloading them in the next post.
Now you need to start poking around the app. Figure out how it works. You now have all the tools to start playing.
What should you play with?
- marker - don’t forget to select “Markers” in the menu to pull up the library of types of markers you can lay down
- grease pencil - draw on your maps. Let “x” mark the spot
- Blood hound - connects two points. You can select yourself and another point you want to navigate to and use that as a way to get to where you are going.
This has already been a long post, so we're going to follow up soon with a part 2.
So, what's next? Well don't just read this guide, USE IT. Get what you need and start setting up ATAK on your own.
Get a Meshtastic radio (or three since they're on sale through the end of the month) right here.
Need an Android phone? Grab a cheap one off Amazon.
And please, like, share, and follow us on all the social channels!
Next post will be about setting up comms in ATAK. What do you want to see next? An Apple-User's guide to google?How to de-Google your phone with a privacy-focused OS? Let me know, and we'll get it in the works.
