Naming Patrols and Areas¶

A good naming convention is one of the most important practices in Karttahimmeli. Patrol name is shown in all entries, location history, and filters at command. Without a consistent convention, command post has difficulty understanding situation.

Patrol ID¶

Patrol ID is set when joining operation. Command should define naming convention before patrols start marking or sharing location.

Principles of good patrol name structure¶

1. Use descriptive prefix, not single letters

Recommended	Avoid
`Dog01`	`D1`
`Foot03`	`F3`
`Car02`	`C2`

Single letter is ambiguous and may match many unrelated names in search.

2. Use zero-padded numbers

Why zero padding?

With filter search, Foot1 matches Foot1, Foot10, Foot11, etc. Foot01 matches only values containing 01, not 10 or 11.

Use Foot01, Foot02 ... Foot10 instead of Foot1, Foot2 ... Foot10.

3. Separate patrol members with slash

If multiple people in same patrol use Karttahimmeli, routes get mixed if they have exactly same ID.

Recommendation: add initials or other unique token after slash:

Dog03/tk
Dog03/ah

Then searching Dog03 shows all members of that patrol.

Start only after ID is known

Do not start markings or location sharing before you know command-approved ID. Wrongly named entries are almost impossible to fix afterwards.

Area naming¶

Same principles apply to area naming:

Use zero-padded numbering: A01, A02 not A1, A2
In phase naming use two letters rather than one: phaseAA, phaseAB
Area name does not need method (e.g. sweep), put that in extra info

Extra info for areas¶

Area extra info can include for example:

Special terrain notes
Patrol instructions: "Start from north, pay special attention to ditches"
Patrol after-action comments: "Area covered, snow to mid-calf"

Remind patrol about extra info

It is good to mention separately to patrol lead if area has instructions in extra info. Otherwise they may be missed.