#208664 - 09/28/10 09:00 PM
Boy Scouts rescued in Northern Arizona
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Veteran
Registered: 07/23/08
Posts: 1502
Loc: Mesa, AZ
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Boy Scouts, GPS, Ham Radios and Signal Mirrors, Oh My! Scout troops in Arizona were on neighboring peaks near Prescott practicing signal mirror techinques with one another. One troop got into some sort of fix. They got stranded or a boy became ill or heat injured and using a ham radio they contacted a citizen who forwarded their GPS coordinates to the local Sheriffs dept. who dispatched a helicopter. I heard from a radio report that the pilot was able to see the mirror flashes from 5 miles away. The talk back is pretty heated on if the troop was prepared or if it was a foolish outing.
_________________________
Don't just survive. Thrive.
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#208676 - 09/29/10 12:48 PM
Re: Boy Scouts rescued in Northern Arizona
[Re: comms]
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Old Hand
Registered: 10/19/06
Posts: 1013
Loc: Pacific NW, USA
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Without more details I put myself in the Scoutmaster's position - in the Arizona wilderness, Scout gets sick, can't walk out. Sure, I make that call, and am happy to have a ham radio and a listener on the other end to get help. Slogans don't mean squat, you can be as prepared as you want, you still sometimes have to call for faster assistance than you could manage.
The comments of the anonymous and uniformed crowd that responds to news stories don't often dazzle me with their brilliant introspection...
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#208699 - 09/29/10 09:19 PM
Re: Boy Scouts rescued in Northern Arizona
[Re: comms]
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Geezer
Registered: 01/21/04
Posts: 5163
Loc: W. WA
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What's the problem? They had a sick kid. SAR has responded to more stupid calls than that!
So maybe the kids learned a few things: how to hike up a mountain, how to use a signal mirror, that it's okay to ask for help if you need it, maybe how to use a GPS, how to signal a rescue helicopter, how to ride in a helicopter without throwing up...
Taxpayer dollars have been wasted on far more useless things.
Sue
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#208704 - 09/29/10 11:30 PM
Re: Boy Scouts rescued in Northern Arizona
[Re: Susan]
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Geezer in Chief
Geezer
Registered: 08/26/06
Posts: 7705
Loc: southern Cal
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It's always exhilarating to embark on discussions of a situation without the limitations of any real information on the situation. We can be so much more profound when we are not limited by any facts.
Susan has it exactly right. I am sure most SAR people would rather respond a bit too soon rather than a bit too late.
_________________________
Geezer in Chief
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