How do you use HAM in an Emergency?

[nwoods]

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?

 

[soonenough]

I know very little about this (I'm a Ham newbie as well), but don't most aircraft use AM instead of FM for voice? Law enforcement aircraft may use FM though since the other officers, dispatch, etc that they're communicating with are probably all using FM. Also, I think there is probably a separate frequency band set up for aircraft use that does not overlap with the 2m or 440 operating bands, meaning that your dual band radio is probably not capable (out of the box, anyway) of transmitting on those frequencies. Again, it may be a different answer because it's a law enforcement aircraft.

But as for the larger issue of "how do you use Ham in an emergency?", I'd love others' input on this as well. That was one thing I thought was somewhat overlooked on the Technician exam, and I've often wondered about. There were plenty of questions designed to reinforce the idea of "emergency communications always have priority", even one that went something like "Q: What do you do if you hear an emergency call? A: Treat it as a real emergency and act accordingly". Ok, great, but what does "act accordingly" entail? If I was to come across someone in need of help in a remote area, I'm not sure exactly what the standard protocol is. Call "Mayday", briefly state the situation, and hope to get an answer back from someone?

Now that I've rambled, I guess there's almost two different questions here. One is 'how do you use ham when you're having an emergency?' The other is 'what do you do when you hear someone else making an emergency call?'

 

[adventureduo]

I tried raising him on 146.550 (Ham 2 Meter Ham FM Simplex National Emergency Frequency) but was unsuccessful.

DId you try National Call Simplex 146.520?

 

[articulate]

The tools you had were:

• SPOT
• Cell phone with coverage
• and a HAM radio

Rock solid communication is paramount in this situation, and I think it would have made the most sense to use only the cell phone and relay your position via a 911 call and let the cavalry come. If the conversation goes this far, you could also mention that you've got 144MHz and 440MHz radio capabilities. There's a possibility that would just complicate the situation if the person on the other end of the phone doesn't understand.

I suspect that using the SPOT when you've got the other two tools (phone and radio) did complicate things, because it's only a one way communicator. I think that's lower on the totem pole when you've got phone coverage.

If all you've got is the radio, know your nearest repeater (and PL tone, if necessary) and try to raise some help - but you might not get a response if no one's listening.

 

[crawler#976]

I'd recommend you contact your local ARES or RACES organization for frequencies used for connecting to SAR.

http://www.rain.org/~jkrigbam/ares01.html may be a place to start.

Locally I have two repeaters that are ARES/RACES and they cover most of my county. I've participated in relaying info via HAM to the local Sheriffs Office in a similar situation. The on scene HAM was using a HT and didn't have enough power to reach the repeaters, so I acted as the relay from a distance of 15 miles from his position.

Mark

 

[adventureduo]

From my buddy, long time HAM user and works at LAX.

"Pilots only monitor ham frequencies if they are hams - a pilots license doesn't allow them privliges on ham frequencies. Same situation for the Sheriff."

 

[Cabrito]

Why use SPOT if you have cel phone coverage?

If you have cel coverage then I don’t think the SPOT would be needed and should not be used. I think that could even end up causing more confusion. Isn’t the SPOT just for emergencies when there are no other forms of communication available? If you don't have cel coverage and can not contact another HAM operator that can help then the SPOT would be the way to go

For Ham:
This would be used to contact another Amateur Radio Operator that is near a phone to relay the emergency info, but not to contact the sheriff or airplane directly for reasons others have stated above. The Ham will only work if you are close enough to a repeater or another ham on simplex.

-m

 

[nwoods]

DId you try National Call Simplex 146.520?

Yes, sorry, I did try BOTH 146.520 and 146.550.

I suspect that using the SPOT when you've got the other two tools (phone and radio) did complicate things...

The injured rider requested to use SPOT specifically because of the insurance. We informed the 911 call center that we had activated SPOT also.

If all you've got is the radio, know your nearest repeater (and PL tone, if necessary) and try to raise some help...

I have the listings of all the repeaters and code in the area, but as stated, did not need to use them due to other means available.

crawler#976, that link is helpful, but it seems that what I am looking to do may not be possible. I was hoping to talk directly to the aircraft via my radio.

 

[nwoods]

From my buddy, long time HAM user and works at LAX.

"Pilots only monitor ham frequencies if they are hams - a pilots license doesn't allow them privliges on ham frequencies. Same situation for the Sheriff."

I guess I am just wondering if their radio equipment uses any of the same frequencies that my radio equipment can transmit on, and if so, what freq's would they be using?

I recall from my military days that all pilots and ships monitor a frequency called "Guard", but I have no idea what freq that is.

 

[BigJimCruising]

Several different questions going on here so I'll give a shot at what I know. Been using Ham for years including staging races and using cells and Hams often for emergency traffic so I've got some background on this. So here goes.

Always try the cell or landline phone first, it's what most of the emergency system is designed to deal with. Once you leave this system confusion quickly ensues until it's sorted out. Let the dispatchers deal with talking to the onsite responsders and they'll get what you need there as soon as they can.

When venturing into new remote areas you should, before you leave home, research and locate local Ham repeaters and have their frequencies PREPROGRAMED into your radio. If you want to try using a handheld I strongly recommend getting an amplifier as most handhelds simply don't have the power for emergency use. You can also upgrade your license to HF and have some possiblity of obtaining help there but keep in mind the person you're talking too could be in another country or at least cross country so help could be slow to arrive. The repeaters are your best bet as long as you realize that the operator might have to leave the scene for a while to get into repeater range to call for help. You'll be telling your story to another Ham who will then relay or call the local emergency responders so again this will take some time. Have GPS coords ready although sometimes trying to explain this to dispatchers can take a while before they understand. Preplanning is the KEY here. Without it trying to find a repeater by just scanning the band (except in major traffic areas) will almost always fail. You can try 146.520 simplex and hope for the best but this is a huge roll of the dice and you don't want to bet your victims life on this.

You can get some radios altered to talk on police or fire frequiencies however with very few exceptions this won't do you much good and cause more confusion then the good you're trying to acomplish. Some police or fire (they are often combined in rural areas) aircraft can tune some Ham freqs if the operator knows how. Don't count on this too much although it can work in more rural areas where they have dealt with this before. Bear in mind that once they are in the area they're pretty busy up there on their radios talking and trying to sort things out and get the help needed so talking to you will be short and spoty. If you really think it's a good idea to be able to contact aircraft I'd suggest getting a radio specificlly for airbands. If I recall their emergency freq is 121.5AM. If you're a regular in certain areas you could look up the local police or fire freq's and if compatable you could program these into your Ham if it's capable. Just recognize that you may very well be prosecuted for being on their freq's.

Ok I've rambled on long enough here but I hope your getting the idea. Preplanning will almost certainly make the difference between a sucessful rescue and a wishful one. Just getting a radio and turning it on is just setting you up for failure. Just like in our off roading planning ahead and some research will save the day! Done right you won't need to try and talk on police or fire freq's and you'll get the help you need when you need it. Hope this has helped somewhat. Happy camping!

 

[nwoods]

Thanks BigJim. I've edited my initial post because I think people were misconstruing my initial question. I think we had the preparedness issues covered.
A) I am HAM certified
B) I had a full listing of repeaters for the area, and PL codes, etc...
C) We had 4 or 5 SPOT trackers on hand in our combined group
D) I have received Wilderness First Aid training and have a reasonably complete first aid kid onboard

My question was focused solely on how do we communicate with the rescue teams via radio, and the general answer seems to be that you can't, except via direct cell/landline connection or via HAM repeater link to someone on a telephone connection to their rescue dispatch center.

One of my ongoing goals is to actually figure out this HAM thing. My radio is terribly hard to use and thus discouraging, and I have not been able to find anyone locally who will sit down with me and show me whats up.

 

[BigJimCruising]

I'm sorry if I didn't quite understand your post, hope I didn't offend you. You're right that generally you won't be able to talk directly to rescue teams. You'd think with all our technology we would be past that now but we've still got a ways to go.

On the Ham side I see you're listed as SoCal. I'd be happy to meet with you sometime and offer my help in understanding your radios and Ham in general. I certainly understand how hard some of these radios can be to learn and use! They can be a great tool once your past the learning curve. I've always had a big gripe with the license testing that didn't cover much at all about how to use the radios! I'm in the Garden Grove/Santa Ana area if you'd like to meet up sometime. Best wishes, Jim. KD6FHO

 

[flywgn]

...My question was focused solely on how do we communicate with the rescue teams via radio... .

I'll just add a note to all this good information.

In addition to a 2m, cell phone, and sat phone we carry an SP-200 NAV/COM handheld transceiver. Well worth the price. We've used it three times communicated with air support in emergency situations and it made the difference each time.

Allen R

 

[nwoods]

In addition to a 2m, cell phone, and sat phone we carry an SP-200 NAV/COM handheld transceiver. Well worth the price. We've used it three times communicated with air support in emergency situations and it made the difference each time.

Allen R

Interesting. I looked up the frequency range of that unit, and it's below the 2M freq (144.000 MHz to 148.000 MHz ) at COM — 118.000-136.975 MHz range. That alone tells me a lot about why I could not talk to the aircraft. I can tune my radio to those freq's, but can't transmit on them.

 

[nwoods]

I'm in the Garden Grove/Santa Ana area if you'd like to meet up sometime. Best wishes, Jim. KD6FHO

Jim, I work in Irvine, live in Yorba Linda, we are neighbors! I will definately try to set something up with you. I am scheduled to be home (for a change) the weekend of the 21st. Maybe we can meet then.

Cheers,

NW