Hiker summons help with ham radio
'It's just a stroke of luck that turned out great'
Last updated September 23, 2008 11:42 p.m. PT
By JACKSON HOLTZ
THE (EVERETT) HERALD
EVERETT -- A series of dots and dashes bouncing off the ionosphere Sunday helped save a hiker stranded on Buck Creek Pass east of Glacier Peak.
The hiker, who broke his leg, used a low-voltage portable radio and Morse code to send out a call to help.
Six hundred miles away, in Bozeman, Mont., Robert Williams was testing his ham radio Sunday when he heard the call signal, "W-7-A-U."
Williams replied and quickly learned, in the dashes and dots, that he was talking with a 62-year-old Corvallis, Ore., man, who had slipped and hurt himself in the high Cascades of Western Washington.
"I just happened to be at the same frequency," Williams, 65, said Monday. "It's just a stroke of luck that turned out great."
Williams called 911 and was connected to Snohomish County search and rescue officials. He spent much of Sunday and Monday relaying information, including GPS coordinates, from the hiker to rescuers.
"It was quite an experience," Williams said. "I'm just glad that he was a ham radio operator and that I was able to talk to him. It made the difference for him."
On Sunday, rescue crews reached the man, who had set up camp on Buck Creek Pass, at about 6,000 feet just west of the Chelan County line.
He was taken to safety Monday on horseback.
The call set in motion one of two mountain rescues Sunday.
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It isn't the first time amateur radio operators have helped out with an emergency situation, said Allen Pitts, a spokesman for the American Radio Relay League in Newington, Conn.
The radios work well when other kinds of communication fail, he said.
Ham radio operators were of paramount importance after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and when a tsunami ravaged Southeast Asia in 2004.
Still, it's rare that Morse code is used to initiate a rescue, he said.
Amateur radio operators used to be required to know Morse code to get a license. That requirement was dropped a few years ago.
Since then, Morse code has actually gained popularity, Pitts said.
"Morse code will get through when no other type of communication will," Snohomish County Hams Club President Grant Hopper said.
Williams, the Montana man, said he was able to understand the injured man's code even when his signal became very weak. Voice communication over the airwaves likely would have become garbled or misunderstood.
The man had a low-voltage radio transmitter, which operates on about as much power as it takes to make a tiny Christmas tree light sparkle.
In the right conditions, radio signals can bounce off the Earth's atmosphere and ricochet thousands of miles.
"A signal like that can skip a long way around the world," Williams said. "You can talk to Europe or Asia given the right conditions."
This is the first time Williams has helped someone in danger using his radio.
The rescue likely wouldn't have been possible if the injured man weren't a competent radio operator, Williams said.
"My guess is that he was just waiting to hear from somebody," he said. "I happened to be the lucky one."
EDITED on September 25th to add: Per the ARRL article, he was using an Elecraft K1, battery powered CW-only QRP rig.
*A newspaper name so rife with satiric possibilities I leave it alone...
1 comment:
OUTSTANDING!!
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