does anyone have or know where to get a current list of cal fire towers in use, and when they give the degrees for where they see smoke are the using true north?
The nomenclature for these facilities is "lookout" or "lookout tower." The Osborne Fire Finder is used to take a directional sighting called an "azimuth," which is stated in terms of a 360 degree circle. The direction is not in of "bearings," which divides the circle into four 90 degree quadrants with north and south being 0 degrees. A bearing in the northeast quadrant would read "North 27 degrees East." To answer your specific question true north is used. I've not come across the use of magnetic north in any professional application.
ok, now listening to the local lookouts which are usally oroville btu and grass valley neu west, i heard them say to the like "heavy line of smoke at 263 at 12 miles" or something to the like, so i was guessing the were using bearings of of north, just wasnt sure of true or magnetic.
