How do you use HAM in an Emergency?

[xtatik]

Just about every Amateur Radio News podcast I listen to has a story where the FCC fined some guy or gal $10,000 for some illegal activity. Some are blatantly illegal and should be fined while others aren't. My practice is to buy a radio that only allows you to transmit on legal freqs so there will never be an issue. Instead of trying to modify your radio to transmit on police bands and what nots, why not just get a general ticket and carry a small HF radio in a Pelican case tossed in the back with the rest of your gear. A small rechargeable RC car battery and a coiled up dipole could easily fit in the case so you would be good to go in all situations. Maybe I am missing something but this seems to be the best plan I can come up with.

:iagree:What he sez....for the win!
But, you can also simply mount it in your truck like any other little FM rig.

 

[Herbie]

Wow, never heard of that happening. I guess I would be ok with it if having the capability saved someone. What's the loss of a radio in the grand scheme of things.

I think the fine point of law was that he didn't field-modify the radio to Tx on the Sheriffs frequency, it had already been converted to do so. While they weren't going to bust him for making an emergency Tx on that frequency, they weren't going to let him keep a radio illegally modified for out-of-band transmissions.

 

[xtatik]

How about joining your local volunteer firefighters , or SAR and be authorized to operate on emergency frequencies for your area, as well as receive the training on radio operations used in your area as well.

I can and have contacted incoming emergency units as needed, but it is different when you are an emergency responder.

I think it has already been said, but I'll repeat it.

The cell phone call directly to 911 will be the best choice. If you do not have cell coverage, your best contact with an amateur radio is going to be to know your local repeater system. Let a base with a phone make the third party call to 911 for you. The repeater system will be likely to be monitored. Many are linked on the weekends to give a huge reception area.
Give the universal distress : "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday" . This will clear the frequency to your traffic and have all ears listening. Followed this with the nature of your emergency: "Traumatic injury , need medical help" Give a precise location. GPS Lon-Lat is great, but the county, nearest town , road names and nearest intersection will get ground units coming faster.
Contacting emergency units via radio should be a last resort. It will only serve to confuse in most cases. If you know the department protocols and frequencies that can help to limit the confusion.

Primarily, if you have cell service...use it. If you can't hit a cell site, and you have no other means....you're sunk! Secondarily, if you have a little 2m rig and if you have repeater coverage...use it. Again, if you can't hit a repeater and have no other means...you're sunk!
Lastly, if you have HF, and if you know how to use it.....you have communications from wherever you are and can pretty much stop worrying about the above two scenarios.

 

[Youngunner]

I wouldn't worry too much about communicating with emergency services beyond a 911 call (mechanism of injury/nature of illness and where). We rely very little on first responder/bystander information. For example, while responding to a call, we do not request a medical helicopter or additional units until we have an EMS or law enforcement unit on scene to confirm the severity of the patient's condition. Regardless of what someone on scene tells us is happening or what they think is needed, we will make a plan of care based on our protocols and experience. It's not meant in an insulting way, we just get a lot of misleading information that can lead to confusion, mis-appropriation of resources and big time liability.

 

[xtatik]

I wouldn't worry too much about communicating with emergency services beyond a 911 call (mechanism of injury/nature of illness and where). We rely very little on first responder/bystander information. For example, while responding to a call, we do not request a medical helicopter or additional units until we have an EMS or law enforcement unit on scene to confirm the severity of the patient's condition. Regardless of what someone on scene tells us is happening or what they think is needed, we will make a plan of care based on our protocols and experience. It's not meant in an insulting way, we just get a lot of misleading information that can lead to confusion, mis-appropriation of resources and big time liability.

Sorry, but that is not always the case. Your scenario may be true for a semi-suburban setting and may work in some safer and not-so-remote areas where a lot of people go wheeling. But, we need to be careful what we tell people here when it comes to issues of how use radios for emergency traffic. Many people here really do travel to truly remote places. So the methods for getting help and the means by which help would respond will be varied....and perhaps they should be. Jus' sayin'.

Just today (posted on QRZ), there was a team of ham radio operators (KL7RRC/P) who were operating from Chirikof Island, a very remote Alaskan island. One operator began complaining of chest pains. A Russian operator initially picked up the "mayday" call from the group, but couldn't make phone contact to the the states (USCG would respond in this case). So, he posted the 20m freq. (14.263) and nature of the mayday call on the DX Telnet. It was picked up immediately on the Telnet and other operators QSY'd to the freq. and began setting up a relay to take all pertinent info. From that point the Coast Guard was notified and a helo was put enroute immediately...it's a two hour flight, one way. The operator who is from New Mexico was flown to a Kodiak hospital and is reported stable as of this afternoon.

 

[BigJim]

What state and county are you in?

In CA many if not all rescue aircraft have the ability to talk on almost all the rescue freqs.

Calstar
Calcord
Carda
NA SAR
SO F2
PD
CHP
CHP Extender
etc
etc.

CHP helos in CA carry satelite phones and can talk on the channels listed above.

If you are going to carry a ham radio, know the local rescue protocols.

I would have gone to any ham repeater in your area and declared an emergency and asked for someone to call 911. 911 dispatch will know what agency to call. They could also advise what freq to use for talk in as well.

AND in CA helo's use LAT/Lon for location, NOT UTM like 57 of the 59 CA counties use.

I'm a novice amateur, meaning I'm very new to HAM and don't really know what I'm doing yet. Last weekend on the trail we found an injured motorcycle rider that needed a helicopter evac. The Rider had SPOT, and we had cell phone coverage so we used both and did not need to ping a repeater to make contact with rescue personnel. I had a full listing of all the local repeaters, but did not attempt to use them because of the cell coverage and SPOT availablity. SPOT was used as requested by the victim because the recovery would be insured beyond just basic healthcare.

The first rescuer to arrive was a fixed wing Sheriff's aircraft that just circled the site. We wanted to communicate with him to let him know that we absolutely needed an helicopter for our patient, not a ground based or fixed wing transport.

Is there a way for my dual channel 2m/440 Icom 208H HAM radio to communicate with the aircraft? I tried raising him on 146.550 (Ham 2 Meter Ham FM Simplex National Emergency Frequency) and 146.520 (National Simplex Frequency) but was unsuccessful.

What do you recommend in this circumstance to communicate with the rescue teams?