I am putting together a presentation for the National Order of the Arrow Conference which is an adaptation of my usual Equipping Yourself To Survive presentation. Normally, I don't touch on HAM radio as a signaling means, since I rarely have anyone in the audience who flies or backpacks with one. OTOH, I know some of these Scouts will be HAMs. So, I want to include a slide on it, just so they don't feel ignored and since if I don't, they'll ask why I didn't. <g> So, looking for a half dozen bullet points to cover use of a handheld HAM radio in a wilderness emergency/survival signaling situation. IOW, you're lost or injured and need to summon help.

TIA

Although I don't have any bullet points for you I would be interested to know how it goes. I am a Scoutmaster and just had 2 from my troop "Tapped Out" last week. I don't have anyone in my troop into HAM radio and I'm thinking it is a subject to bring up and have some take on.

It is a good idea, where we backpack cell phones don't work so if something happens we have to send a couple of runners out to get help, remember the buddy system :-)

I'll toss in a few thoughts here.

If they're using a radio in the field, it's most likely a handheld 2 meter and/or 70 cm (440 band) radio. Those are by far the most common bands found on handheld (HT) radios.

There are repeaters located all over the country that receive and re-transmit signals on those bands, usually operated automatically, to access them the user needs to know what frequency the repeater uses for it's input and any PL tones that are needed to activate the machine. Those can usually be found in a repeater guide, since there are so many repeaters around, the guides are usually arranged geographically.

Accessing a repeater will only allow the original operator to get their signal out further, it doesn't guarantee that it will be heard. The best thing to do is carry a repeater guide for the area(s) to be travelled in. Ideally one would pre-program their radios with the needed information beforehand.

There are also recognised "calling frequencies" that one can use for emergency traffic, those are also listed in the repeater guides.

Any Ham, note, you don't capitalise the whole word, knows that they are to give priority to any emergency traffic on whatever band they may hear it. Most normal radio traffic/routing/usage rules don't apply in the case of an actual emergency, in other words, anyone may use a Ham radio to summon help in an emergency.

In addition to any local popularly used frequencies, there is a national calling frequency on the 2 meter band, 146.52 which is monitored by a lot of operators, there are wilderness protocols that involve listening to 146.520 for 5 minutes at the top of each hour, this is an attempt to get people to listen for anyone who might be calling for help. There is a similiar frequency on the 70cm band, 446.000.

Any Ham operator should know to bring along some extra batteries, some will bring along wire antennas that can strung up in trees to increase their range.

A neat trick is using a 2 meter handheld to access a mobile radio that is mounted in a vehicle using what's called "cross band repeating" the mobile radio acts as a portable repeater, relaying the relatively weak signal of the handheld and retransmitting thru the usually higher power of the mobile radio. It's not gonna work for everyone cause you've got to have a mobile radio that allows it to be done but it's something to consider for the Ham operator that's going to be traveling a lot in the wild.

As for the actual mechanics of calling for help, find a band that is in use or use one of the calling frequencies and start transmitting a distress signal, I would probably use something like this, "Emergency traffic, emergency traffic, any station please respond... KI6TED (my callsign) calling with emergency traffic." If there's another conversation going on, wait for a brief pause and then call out "Break for emergency traffic...". The person calling doesn't need a callsign in a real emergency but they should be able to tell any responding station the nature of the emergency, their location as best they can and what they need in the way of help.

Doug,

I don't know if this is what you want but you can include the idea into a PowerPoint style presentation.

Before an emergency occurs, be sure you know how to make a distress call on a frequency where hams are likely to be listening, such as a marine service net or a wide-coverage repeater frequency.

Store at least one of these frequencies in your radio's memories, if possible. Anyone licensed or not, can use your radio equipment in an emergency to call for help on any frequency.

Do the following things when you make a distress call.

If you need immediate emergency assistance, the appropriate voice signal is MAYDAY and the appropriate Morse code signal is SOS (yes, just like in the movies).

Maydays sound something like: "MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY, this is [your call sign]" followed by:

• Your location (latitude/longitude) or address of the emergency. Here’s where a GPS will help.
• The nature of the emergency.
• What type of assistance you need — such as medical or transportation aid
• Repeat your distress signal and your call sign for several minutes or until you get an answer. Even if you don't hear an answer, others may hear you.
• Try different frequencies if you do not get an answer. If you do decide to change frequencies, announce to what frequency you are moving so that anyone hearing you can follow.

If you hear a distress signal on the air:

• Immediately find something to record information. Note the time and frequency of the call. To help the authorities render assistance as quickly as possible, note the following information:
• The location (latitude/longitude) or address of the emergency
• The nature of the problem
• What type of assistance he or she needs — such as medical or transportation aid
• Any other information that is helpful
• Respond to the call. Say "[Give the station's call sign], this is [your call sign]. I hear your distress call. What is your situation?"

Using Morse code, you send SOS then the station's call sign. • • • — — — • • •, DE (this is) Call sign.
Note: SOS may be sent in many ways: keying a radio on and off, flashing a mirror, toggling a flashlight and similar methods.

After you acquire the information, ask the station in distress to remain on frequency.

• Call the appropriate public agency or public emergency number, such as 9-1-1. Follow the dispatcher's instructions to the letter. The dispatcher may ask you to act as a relay to the station in distress.

• As soon as possible, report back to the station in distress. Tell them who you contacted and any information you have been asked to relay.

• Stay on frequency as long as the station in distress or the authorities need your assistance.

If you do not know the persons call sign, but can access their radio do this.

MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY, This is (your name) calling MAYDAY does anyone copy, over.

Take care,

Stargazer

Thanks guys. That'll work.

Apologies if this is a bit long. This is kind of a sore subject for me (as a ham that's done a fair amount of disaster work and a backpacker). Ham radio tends to be very over-promoted as the ideal emergency communication, yet it's rarely actually used for that outside of some parts of a large-scale disaster.

The best emergency use is probably HF on a boat or at a remote stationary location. There are some great ham networks like the Maritime Mobile Service Net (mmsn.org), the 14.300 (14300.net) and the Hurricane Watch Net (hwn.org) where multiple ham operators work together to communicate with anyone in need.

But that doesn't really help the wilderness backpacker. There are a few hams that backpack with HF radios (and the associated large antennas). Those can be broken into two groups. The first, mostly "HFPack" guys, carry larger (25-100 watt) HF radios and some sort of antenna rig where they can talk on the move. Military man-pack radios are popular gear for this. They primarily use SSB (voice) rather than CW (Morse code). (The HFPack.com website seems to be down, but that's their usual home, or the associated Yahoo group.) Not many people combine that with backpacking, but a few do. This would probably be the most useful portable setup in an emergency, but you're probably looking at least $500 and 10 pounds of gear.

The second group are the "QRP" (low power) guys, who mostly carry small kit-built Altoid-tin sized radios (under 1 watt) and communicate with CW (Morse code). They generally don't communicate on the move, but from a campsite, with a wire antenna thrown up in a tree. You can build a decent portable QRP setup for under $100 and less than a pound. This light-weight setup is more popular with backpacking hams, but isn't reliable for emergency communications.

So that leaves portable VHF/UHF gear, which for the backpacker almost certainly means a VHF or dual-band VHF/UHF hand-held (walkie-talkie or "HT" to most hams). The two biggest difficulties you face with using a HT in a wilderness emergency are transmitting a strong signal and finding someone to hear it.

There are a number of things that help produce a stronger signal from a HT:

Use good batteries. The HT may be rated to operate on anywhere from 4.8-14.4 volts, but most HTs will produce significantly more power with a "full" or "high power" battery pack. For example, my old Yaesu FT-50RD has a 4xAA dry cell pack. Loaded with NiMH rechargables, that's only a nominal 4.8 volts and the radio only produces about 2.5 watts. With the full "high power" 9.6 volt battery or a 12 volt external source, the radio will produce a bit over 5 watts.

Use a good or great antenna. Most HT antennas are quite horrible. There are many sources online for the classic "roll-up J Pole" antenna. With 15' of cable and some cord, this can be hauled up a tree to really increase the radiated signal.

Climb. Get to a peak, climb a tree, get out of the valley, or move around so the mountain isn't between you and the receiver. Location makes an amazing difference to radio signals.

Finding someone listening is often the harder part. Hams will tell you about the "wilderness protocol" and that someone is always listening on 146.52, but that's just not true. There just aren't that many hams on the air at any one time and the ones that are don't spend their time monitoring a VHF call frequency that is rarely used. So how do you find someone to respond to your emergency call?

Try 146.52. It is the official call frequency and you might get lucky.

Do some homework. Get a list of repeaters for the area where you'll be travelling. Program the frequencies (and PL/CTCSS tones) into your radio and carry a backup paper list.

Get on the air early. If you can, check out a local repeater or two before you start your hike. You can make sure your radio is working and programmed correctly. You might even get to chat with a few local hams. If you want to, you could let them know that you're a ham hiking in the area. Many (but not all) hams are friendly and helpful. If they know that you're wilderness hiking, some will be happy to warn you of bad weather, call or email someone for you, etc.

Transmit on the repeater output. In a rough spot, you may not be able to transmit a strong enough signal to reach the repeater's input frequency. Another ham listening to the repeater's output frequency may be right next to you, but unable to hear you because you're on a different frequency. Transmit on the repeater's output frequency and he'll hear you. Many HTs have a "reverse" function that makes this easy.

Keep transmitting, even if nobody is responding. Just because somebody doesn't respond to you doesn't mean that nobody is listening. There are many scanner listeners out there that would gladly phone in an emergency if they heard a distress call. Or a ham may be able to hear you calling for help on a distant repeater but not able to reach that repeater himself. So make sure to transmit enough information that somebody can get you help.

In a real emergency, try non-ham frequencies. This is usually a sore spot with hams because it does get abused, but most ham HTs can easily be modified and programmed to transmit outside of ham frequencies. With a little research, it's not hard to program in frequencies (and tones) for the local forest service, park rangers, fire department, sheriff's office, etc.


Good luck with the talk. Ham radio can be a fascinating hobby and has many worthwhile aspects besides just emergency or disaster communications.

Thanks for the additonal suggestions.

There is also a thing called "the Wilderness protocol"

http://k4jwm.com/wilderness-protocol

among other sources

I concur with the doubts about Wilderness Protocol.

Having the repeaters in the vicinity correctly pre-programmed in the radio, having a supplementary higher-gain antenna (I carry an extendable 5/8 wave whip which is better than the stock rubber dummy load), having fresh batteries and understanding effects of terrain are most of the effective things to remember.

Some hams still learn Morse code which could be useful aside from radio. Maybe the Boy Scouts still have a merit badge for Morse? Flashing light or whistle signals can be used for signalling something beyond SOS (meaning "I'm here" in the context) if someone in the rescue party can read it. SAR folks are often hams too. Some of them can read code so it's not as long a shot as it might seem.(My ability to send/receive code is part of the personal info I have on my trip plans I leave with my wife when I go hiking.)

de NW0U

A very long hike on the Continental Divide aided by ham radio story here (no daring rescue though) -
http://estes.on-line.com/rmnp/reports/HighDivide.html (The email address given in the story is no longer valid. The site moderator doesn't respond to emails so it can't be changed.)

Doug's presenting at NOAC?!?

I'm going to NOAC... anyone else going to be there?