Unlock
This console is locked with a passphrase. Without it the stored sign-in cannot be used, so somebody sitting at this computer cannot simply open the page.
Forgotten it? There is no reset — it never leaves this browser. Start again with an enrollment code.
Sign in
Paste an enrollment code. The console signs in the same way a phone does — there is no separate admin login to keep in sync.
No code, and nobody to make you one? If your email is on the roster, we can send you one.
History
Who did what, to whom, and when. Every entry is sealed to the one before it, so a changed or removed row can be detected — that is what “check the record” below does.
Press Show.
On Sentinel
Everyone in Sentinel who belongs to your agency but is not on this roster yet. Adding them here does not create or change anything in Sentinel — their account and channels stay exactly as they are. It puts them on your roster so you can page them.
Whole server
Every account on the TAK server, whichever agency holds it. Read-only toward Sentinel — adding somebody puts them on their agency’s roster and changes nothing on the TAK server.
Live nets
Every net on the radio right now, the way a phone sees them. Operation nets come and go with an event; standing nets are always there. Built to be glanced at — the tree is edited on Standing Nets.
Comm plans
The radio plan your agency agrees on in daylight — what an ICS-205 would carry. Write it once here; during a callout one button builds the whole net structure, named and ordered. Nobody designs a radio plan at 3am.
Nothing here is live. A plan is a pattern, not running radio. Press Start a callout on one and it opens Live Nets with that plan chosen — you name the callout, pick who is on it, and the nets land on their phones. Ending the operation there packs them away again.
Standing nets
The everyday radio tree that is always there — the opposite of an operation, which comes and goes. This is where the tree is built and ordered; Live Nets is where you watch it.
Who is actually on each net is on Live Nets, drawn on the nets themselves rather than listed twice.
Guide
How to run this, in the order you will actually need it. Nothing on these pages changes anything.
Nothing matches that.
What this is
This is the desk side of your TAK system. You bring people in here, decide what their phone gets set up with, and call them out when something happens. The phone side is the app.
You add somebody once. They get a code, and that one code sets up their whole phone — their TAK login, their channels, their map settings, their place on the roster. After that you can page them, give them radio nets, and send them files, all from here.
The five things you will use
- Enroll — bring somebody in and hand them a code.
- Device setup — decide what a phone gets set up with.
- Dashboard — the roster, and everything you do to one person.
- Send an activation — call people out and see who answers.
- Live Nets — radio channels for an incident.
Signing in
You sign in with a code, the same way a responder's phone does. There is no separate admin password to keep in step.
A code works once, on one device. That is deliberate: a code that works twice is a code that can be forwarded.
Setting this computer up
- Paste the code and press Sign in.
- Go to Settings and set a passphrase.
The passphrase is what makes this computer safe to leave. Without it, anybody who sits down at your desk is signed in as you. With it, the stored sign-in is locked and useless until somebody types it.
If you are locked out
- Somebody else is signed in? Ask them to find you on the roster and press New code.
- Nobody is? Use Email me a code on the sign-in page. If your email is on the roster, a code arrives. It works once and expires in 30 minutes.
First twenty minutes
Start to finish, for a brand new agency.
Five steps, on the real screens. Stop any time.
- Set the agency default. Device setup → Packages → Agency default → Edit. This is what everybody gets unless a package says otherwise. Set the map key, coordinates, toolbar, and team names.
- Upload your files. Device setup → Files. Icon sets, terrain, map sources. Once here, available to every package.
- Make a package. Device setup → New package. A package is what a kind of person gets — SWAT, Patrol, Volunteer.
- Bring one person in. Single Enroll. Pick the package. Hand them the code.
- Check it landed. Device setup → Who has picked it up.
Bringing people in
Four ways in. Pick by how many people are in front of you.
Single Enroll
One person you are looking at. Name, mobile, package. They get a link and a code.
Group Enroll
A room full of people at once. One code everybody uses; you decide in advance what role, channels and package they all get. Good for a training night.
Bulk Enroll
A list from a spreadsheet. It shows you exactly what it is going to do before it does it, so paste first and read the preview. Everything you set — package, role, team, app — applies to every row.
On Sentinel
People who already exist on the TAK server but are not on your roster here. Adopting one links the two together rather than making a duplicate. Use this when somebody already has a TAK login.
ATAK, WinTAK and other apps
Not everybody runs R2TAK. You can enroll somebody on any TAK app, but how their settings reach them is different, and that catches people out.
Two ways settings travel
-
The data package — a file they import.
Certificates, icon sets, terrain, map sources, and a
.prefsettings file. - The phone settings — sent when the app signs in to this system. Toolbar, units, team names, geofences, quick chat.
Only R2TAK uses the second one. ATAK never talks to this system at all — it talks to the TAK server. It only ever sees the package.
Who gets what
| App | Certificates | Icons & terrain | Map sources | .pref | Phone settings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATAK | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| WinTAK | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| R2TAK | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| TAK Aware | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| iTAK | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| CloudTAK | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
Enrolling somebody on ATAK or WinTAK
- Make the .pref once. Set an ATAK device up the way you want it, then export its preferences from ATAK. That file is your template.
- Upload it. Device setup → Files → "Settings file (.pref)".
- Make a package for them. Set TAK app: ATAK, and check the .pref along with any icon sets and map sources.
- Enroll them on that package — Single, Group or Bulk, all the same.
- They get an email with ATAK's own setup steps and a package holding their certificates and files. They import it, and ATAK applies the settings.
TAK Aware, iTAK and CloudTAK
These have no settings channel at all. They do not read a .pref, and they do not sign in to this system. All we can give them is certificates and files — their users set the app up themselves.
That is not something to fix here; it is what those apps support. Worth knowing before promising anybody a consistent setup.
One caution about .pref files
A .pref can point a device at a different server. That is why R2TAK ignores them — a package can arrive from anywhere, and it is not checked the way the phone settings are.
For ATAK that risk is simply how ATAK has always worked. Just do not treat the two as equivalent: one is a file anybody could hand somebody, the other only ever comes from here.
The roster
Everybody, and everything you can do to one person. On the Dashboard.
- New code — they lost their phone, or never enrolled.
- Package — move them onto a different setup.
- Permissions — what they can do in here.
- TAK password — reset it; they set their own after.
- Disable — stop their access without deleting them.
- Remove — take them off the roster.
Teams
A team is a name you can page all at once. That is the whole job.
Teams live at the bottom of Send an activation, because paging is the only thing they are for. Make a team, add people to it from the dropdown, and it becomes something you can pick when you send.
Click a name to take somebody off. Worth doing when people move on — otherwise they keep getting called to incidents that are no longer theirs.
Packages
A package is what a kind of person gets set up with — SWAT, Patrol, Volunteer. You pick one when you enroll somebody instead of setting the same nine things again.
Agency default is the fallback for anyone with no package, and the base the others build on.
What adds, and what replaces
- Channels and files ADD to the agency default.
- Everything else REPLACES it — toolbar, hidden tools, units, coordinates.
The three states, on every setting
- Switch off — we say nothing, the phone keeps what it has.
- Switch on, nothing chosen — a deliberate empty. An empty toolbar is a real instruction.
- Switch on, things chosen — exactly those.
Moving somebody between packages
Change the Package column on the roster. Their phone picks it up on its next check-in — no need to re-enroll them.
Files
The library the packages draw from. Upload once and it is available to every package.
- Icon set — a zip of map icons.
- Map source — an XML file describing a map layer.
- Terrain (DTED) — elevation data.
- Settings file (.pref) — Android and Windows only.
Everyone means it goes out with every enrollment whether a package names it or not. Unchecked, it goes only to the packages that ask for it.
Phone settings
Set on the agency default, or on a package to differ from it.
- Units — distance, altitude, speed, temperature. Display only.
- Toolbar — which tools are on the bar, in order. Around seven fit.
- Tools grid — the full page of tools behind the toolbar, in order.
- Hidden tools — off the bar and out of the menu, still in the phone's own settings.
- Quick chat — canned messages. The button text and what it sends are different on purpose.
- Geofences — alerting behavior, and how far out to warn.
- Toolbar colors — with a preview, because white icons on a light map look like missing tools.
Team names
What your people see instead of a color — Cyan is "Alpha", Green is "Medical". The color itself is fixed and shared with every other TAK app; only the word is yours. Agency-wide.
Who has picked it up
After you change a setting, this is how you know it landed. Three states:
- Current — they have what you would give them now.
- Stale — they have an older setup and will update on their next check-in.
- Unknown — we have never heard from that phone.
Calling people out
Send an activation. Say what is happening, pick who, send. Then watch the answers come in.
Who
Search finds both teams and people. Pick a team to page everybody on it; pick people to page just them. You can mix.
How it reaches them
- App notification — right away.
- Text — after two minutes, if they have not answered.
- Phone call — after five minutes, if they still have not.
Somebody who answers stops climbing that ladder. Somebody with no mobile number only ever gets the first rung.
Who has answered
Live, under the send form. Responding, not responding, and who has said nothing at all — the third one being the group worth chasing.
Radio nets
Three screens, and they do different jobs.
- Standing Nets — the channels your agency has every day. Set up once, left alone.
- Comm Plans — a saved pattern of nets for a kind of incident. Stamp it out when that kind of thing happens.
- Live Nets — what is running right now, from a plan or built by hand. Packed away when the incident ends.
Starting an operation from a plan makes the nets and puts them on the right phones. Ending it removes exactly what it made and nothing an operator built by hand.
When something looks wrong
A change has not reached a phone
Check Who has picked it up. A phone updates when the app checks in, not the moment you press Save.
A code will not work
- Capitals and the hyphen do not matter.
abcd efghis fine. - A code works once. Press New code for another.
- If that phone is already signed in, sign out on it first.
The channel list is empty or out of date
That list comes from the TAK server. If it did not answer, the screen says so rather than pretending — the last good answer is shown and marked.
Somebody did not get paged
Look at Sent. Every attempt is recorded with what happened. No mobile number means app notification only.
Who did what
History. Every change, who made it, and to whom. It can be checked for tampering from that screen.
Not built yet
Said plainly, so nobody hunts for a button that is not there.
- Aircraft and vessel feeds — the tools exist on the phone and there is nowhere to put the account details yet.
- Per-package team names — team names are agency-wide for now.
- Pinning a map point from here — the activation screen has no map picker yet.
- Taking push to talk back — it goes to everyone and hiding the tool is how you take it off a toolbar.
Lock this console
Bring people in
Roster
Everyone in your agency, as the phone sees them.
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Add a person
Creates the account, the TAK login, and a one-time code to hand them. Their phone configures itself from it.
The mobile number is what the text and voice pager calls. Without it, that person can only be reached by push.
Send it is how their code reaches them. Left alone, it uses whatever contact details you filled in above — both if they have both, one if they have one, and nothing if they have neither, in which case you read them the code yourself. Pick Not at all when somebody is standing in front of you.
TAK app decides which setup file they get and which instructions are sent with it. An Android user handed the iPhone file cannot use it, so this one is worth getting right.
Pick a template to fill these in, or set each one. Read = they see it. Write = they share to it. Both = two-way. Same words and colors as Sentinel.
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TAK login is their username on the TAK server — the one they
sign in to Sentinel with. Left on auto it is worked out from
their name: first initial and surname, so Dana Ruiz becomes
druiz. Set it yourself when that name is already taken,
which is the case for anybody who had a TAK account before this system
— the TAK server refuses a duplicate outright.
For a dispatcher or an administrator who works this console and never carries a phone. They get a sign-in code and the screens their role allows. They get no TAK account, so the TAK app will have nothing to connect to. Do not use it for anybody going out.
Bulk enroll
Paste a spreadsheet, or choose a file. Copy the rows straight out of Excel or Google Sheets — including the header row.
What will happen
Each column below says how it will be read. Change any that are wrong — the preview updates as you do.
Import
Sent enrollments
Whether each person has opened their link. "Sent" for a long time usually means it never reached them — check the address or the number, then send a new one from the Roster.
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Add a file
A plugin, a new ATAK build, a map, a data package, an installer. Upload it here, then choose below whether everyone gets it or just one person.
Your files
Everyone can download puts a file in your agency's list, below — anyone signed in can fetch it themselves, with no link to make and nothing to expire. Or check one on the left and make a one-time link for somebody who has no account at all.
What your people see
Exactly what somebody signed in to your agency gets. This is the “Everyone can download” column above, from their side.
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Send some to one person
For somebody with no account and no app — they open a link and download it. Tick the files above first.
Links you have sent
"Opened" tells you it reached them. Cancel one and it stops working immediately — the file stays, and your other links keep working.
Packages
What a kind of person gets — SWAT, Patrol, Volunteer. Pick one when you enroll somebody instead of setting the same nine fields again. Agency default is the fallback for anyone with no package, and the base the others build on.
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New package
TAK channels adds to the agency default
Everyone on this package gets these as well as the agency's default channels, not instead of them. Read = they see it. Write = they share to it. Both = two-way. Same words and colors as Sentinel.
Picking a template fills the channels below with what Sentinel has for that group. You can still change any of them afterwards — the package stores the channels themselves, so editing the template in Sentinel later does not reach back and change this package.
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Toolbar replaces the agency default
On the toolbar
In the overflow menu — click to add
Hidden tools
Tucked out of the way — off the toolbar and out of the overflow menu. Not taken away: they are still in the app's own toolbar settings, several taps deep. Nobody is ever stuck without something they turn out to need.
Click to hide
Files adds to the agency default
Files
The library. Upload once here, then choose who gets what in a package below. Everyone means it goes out with every enrollment; unchecked, only packages that name it carry it — the file stays either way.
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Who has picked it up
Phones check in when the app is opened, and every few minutes while it stays open. Nothing is pushed — a change reaches somebody the next time their app checks, which for a phone in a locker is whenever it comes out.
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Agency default
What everyone gets unless a package says otherwise. Phones already in the field do pick this up — they check in when the app is opened and every few minutes while it stays open, so a fix reaches somebody without re-enrolling them. Nothing is pushed, though: a phone in a locker gets it whenever it comes out. See Who has picked it up for who actually has.
Without it every ArcGIS basemap quietly falls back to a demo style, which looks like a broken map rather than a missing setting.
Toolbar
On the toolbar
In the overflow menu — click to add
Hidden tools
Tucked out of the way — off the toolbar and out of the overflow menu. Not taken away: they are still in the app's own toolbar settings, several taps deep. Nobody is ever stuck without something they turn out to need.
Click to hide
Group code
One code many people can use — for a class, a callout, or a mutual-aid group. Everyone who uses it gets the same settings.
Joiners are numbered from it — VOL-01, VOL-02.
Left blank they are called VOL.
Read = they see it. Write = they share to it. Both = two-way. Same words and colors as Sentinel.
For a dispatcher or an administrator who works this console and never carries a phone. They get a sign-in code and the screens their role allows. They get no TAK account, so the TAK app will have nothing to connect to. Do not use it for anybody going out.
Video
Live feeds from the video server. Turning recording on or off changes what gets kept, so it needs the same permission as editing the roster.
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Send an activation
A call-out: it goes by push immediately, then text, then a phone call, until someone answers — and the board below shows who has.
The app calls this an activation too, deliberately: one thing, one word, on every screen anybody sees.
Teams
A name for a group of people, so you can page them together instead of picking them one at a time — they appear in Who above. Nothing to do with TAK channels or team color.
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