I was just wondering if you've ever heard a distress call during all the years of your ham careers? Like the kind where you can use any band (even outside the amateur band) and any mode possible to obtain help for the station in distress? Have you ever MADE a distress call?
What were the circumstances? What did you do? What was the outcome?
Only very occasionally on 14.300
Not me, at least nothing other than 911 and stuff like that. Although many years ago, I came up on a roll over accident on some mountainous roads in Eastern AZ. The driver was pinned under his vehicle, and badly hurt. I radioed back to Phoenix, simplex, on my two meter rig with the 160 watt amp, and managed to get a guy that had his beam in our direction. He patched me through to DPS and we got the ball rolling. When the Highway Patrol got there, their radios didn't work in the canyon were the wreck was, so the guy in Phoenix phone patched for them on my radio to get additional emergency services on the way, and when ever HQ wanted to talk with one of the officers or visa versa. While they were doing that, I went back to the victim, but unfortunately, he passed while I was holding his hand and telling him more help was close and we'd get him out; but it just never got there in time.
Oddly, he had a Doberman with him, that survived. One foot was trapped between the sunroof and the road, and every time we tried to lift the vehicle enough to get him out, he went nuts trying to bite anything he could get a hold of. We finally ran some tape around his snout, and were able to get him free. He was really a sweet dog. I took him to an animal shelter where they fixed his leg up. I told them the circumstances and told them to notify DPS the dog was there in case someone wanted to claim him. I figured if no one did, I would go back and get him. But a few days later, a family member came and took him home with them.
I can't say radio saved the day, but it did come in handy. Now, of course there are cell phones, and the DPS has much better repeater coverage, so I doubt ham radio plays as much of a role as it once did.
A clear conscience is usually a sign of a bad memory
RIP ALBI-W3MIV RIP RUSS-W5RB RIP BOB-VK3ZL
Yes. Two meters, Christmas Day, about 6 years ago, on a local repeater.
Somebody drove into a creek on a mountain road, no cell service.
We got 'em out of there before hypothermia set in. Cool beans.
"Where would we be without the agitators of the world to attach the electrodes
of knowledge to the nipples of ignorance?" ~ Professor "Dick" Soloman
Had a lot more of them on CB in its heyday than on amateur radio, but if you add the numbers of users up in each service it made sense.
As Ryan pointed out, 14.300 sees an occasional call. Why the maritime mobile crowd turns to that frequency first instead of using satphone or one of the monitored Coast Guard distress channels to call in an emergency is beyond me.
"Everyone wants to be an AM Gangsta until it's time to start doing AM Gangsta shit."
... or Maritime Radio, or GMDSS, or AIS...Originally Posted by N8YX
or sail mail
A clear conscience is usually a sign of a bad memory
RIP ALBI-W3MIV RIP RUSS-W5RB RIP BOB-VK3ZL
A message in a bottle has been known to work from time to time.
I keep my 2 feet on the ground, and my head in the twilight zone.
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All the world’s a stage, but obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re living in a tragedy or a farce.
It's tradition, nothing else. 14.300 is a general purpose Maritime frequency. A lot of low budget high seas sailboats only have HF. Does anybody still do phone patches?
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