Have you ever had a distress call?

[W3WN]

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?

Many, many years ago, it was my turn to run the Sunday Night ARES net, when I lived up in State College. When I made the pro forma call for "emergency or priority traffic", someone actually did come back to report a traffic accident. I put the net on stand by, activated the auto patch, and called the borough cops.

If you're wondering why no one used a cell phone, this was around 1980-81. No cell phones yet. And, I wasn't home at the time, but standing in a parking lot (long unrelated story), so using the landline was out.

That's the only one that comes to mind.

[W3WN]

That sounds like a problem for the sailboats, and not ham radio.

Sure does, "and thank you, Captain Obvious". (Sarcasm is not directed at you, but at the cheapskate sailboat owners)

BTW, a little trivia... why did MMSN move from 14.313 to 14.300? (Besides the obvious futile attempt to get away from the crazies, who merely followed them to the new frequency)

Answer is... the MMSN merged with the old Intercontinental Traffic Net (which was part of the old "alternate non-NTS non-ARRL" traffic handling system), and ICTN was on 14.300.

...and they still don't handle much traffic these days, do they?

[WØTKX]

They do it, "just for the check-ins", same as most NTS nets.

[W3WN]

They do it, "just for the check-ins", same as most NTS nets.

OK, I should have been more specific.

I meant "traffic" in the sense of actual 3rd party messages, ie formal traffic.

Which is why you don't hear me on any of the NTS nets much anymore. But that's another story.

[kb2vxa]

"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."

My only distress call happened in my CB daze, back when REACT actually performed a useful service. For those like Jeff K1NSS who remember the Pigpen... er... Playpen Lounge in Sayerville, NJ and the main road home, Rte. 1&9N over the bridge this reads like one of those don't drink and drive PSAs on TV. I only got really pissed once and slept in the back seat but I digress, I was always one of the last ones out of the lot to avoid the mad dash into traffic. As such I observed a bunch wobbling across the lot, get in the car and ZOOM out and up the bridge, uh oh, I was a quarter mile behind when everything stopped dead. Going nowhere I locked the car and walked up to assess the situation, there they were in a mass of tangled wreckage blocking all 3 lanes. I went back to the car, put out a call on channel 9 and Staten Island (NY) REACT handled the call. I instructed emergency vehicles (via REACT) to head south from Perth Amboy in the northbound lanes as nothing was moving and the roadway clear. They did and not wanting to get in the way I just sat there playing radio for the next hour or so, then we started moving and I finally got home none the worse for wear. I don't know about anyone else's condition, like I said I just stayed out of the way.

I did mention in the phone thread that I did use autopatch to report a TA on Rte. 22 (naturally) but it was minor, nobody hurt, just needed to clear the roadway to expedite traffic. Well, if they REALLY wanted to expedite traffic they'd raze the shops and make the center isle into two more lanes but NOOOooo, money talks and Jean Shepherd knew it. (See quote below.)

[n2ize]

or sail mail

A message in a bottle has been known to work from time to time.

[NQ6U]

A message in a bottle has been known to work from time to time.

http://www.dailywav.com/0105/fanmailflounder.wav

[N2RJ]

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.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Cheep cheep!

[kb2vxa]

"Why did the chicken cross the road?"

Because I was there.

[KG4NEL]

No, neither heard one nor needed to make one.

The most personally urgent call I've made on a repeater was made while backpacking in the NC mountains - I was heading up Clingman's Peak, after visiting the Mt. Mitchell visitor's center earlier that day (Public bathrooms never look as good as they do after 7 days in the forest, thank you NPS...) I knew the weather was about to go bad quickly, and I was in a completely lightning-unprotected area.

After first being answered by two guys in Georgia, I got someone in his truck at the Mitchell parking lot who told me to basically hang onto my ass, it was heading right for me. To this day, that was the worst lightning I've ever experienced and the only time I've ever felt unsafe in a thunderstorm.