Personal Emergency Experience Last Night

[Jerry]

Hi, Mike, good to hear from you, too. All of our communication around this event was on 146.52 simplex. Our friend who was broke down has HF/VHF/UHF capability in his rig as well as quite the portable unit in a back pack. Since he was sitting at nearly 5000 feet he made most of his 2 meter contacts on 5 watts to save his battery. When he broke into our 10 meter net he said he was running 100 watts. Prior to making contact on simplex I think he tried the 146.66 Eagle Repeater, the 147.30 Bethel Ridge Repeater and probably others.
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I listened to a KBARA emergency net last night, I think at 6 PM, but it was short. They called for check ins, including visitors, early in the net and it was over in just a few minutes. I was scanning 2m/440, all involved in finishing something at my desk, and missed the opportunity to check in.

 

[craig333]

That is a good story. All too often cell coverage is spotty or non existent and this wasn't quite the time to fire off the plb. Perfect time for the ham radio.

 

[AA1PR]

Good grief! What kind of dopes were participating in that net? It's hard to imagine anyone being that crass, ham or no ham. Probably a bunch of old guys (like me) who completely forgot about you. So what did you finally do to get help?
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We always carry a SPOT Satellite Messenger. Ours is the old style, but it still works great for our needs. Of course I bought it for the May Day aspect that I hope to never use, but really like to send location messages to family and friends on my email list. I also like to receive SPOT email messages from friends who are traveling.

At that stage I would have gotten on HF and found someone in the US to make a phone call for you or something. What you describe is exactly the opposite of everything I learned. Emergency traffic always has priority above anything else at any time. Those folks were idiots. Luckily most of the time, that is not what happens.

Thanks for sharing the story Jerry, well done.

Back then I didnt have HF in my rig early 90's

no it was a regular net on the Killington 146.880 repeater back then

a county sheriff finally came by & called a tow truck for us, got towed into town, called family & hours later we where safely home

 

[Jerry]

I'm no expert at this, but in my opinion those hams on the 2m net should have been publically shamed. It makes me angry that their actions, or lack thereof, reflect on the rest of us. Hope all is well between you and the repeater folks nowadays.

 

[AaronK]

We need to build an overland only repeater network!

Sent from my OnePlus One using Tapatalk.

 

[carbon60]

I would add to the "moral of the story" list: make sure you have some reliable and capable buddies around.

For example, my InReach's SOS will go out to some unknown authority but it will also go to three trusted friends, who I know will stop at nothing to pull my sorry *** out of whatever steaming pile I've gotten into.

A.