In The News:
Ham Radio Rescues Hiker

My 15 minutes of amateur radio fame...

As reported by ARRL: Ham radio helps rescue hiker (Jul 21, 2005) -- When hiker Jason Jacks, KG6ZTR, of San Dimas, California, became lost in heavy brush July 19 near Southern California's Mt. Baldy, he put out a call on the N6USO Sunset Ridge Repeater seeking help. Ron Stucker, W6RJS, Richard Pauze, KG6VNC, Ken Harris, KG6YTZ, and other radio amateurs collaborated to contact emergency personnel and relay the information from Jacks. A call was made to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which dispatched its Rescue Air-5 helicopter. Using his hand-held GPS unit, Jacks was able to provide his coordinates to rescue personnel via ham radio. Repeater owner Burton Brink, N6USO--an LA County Deputy Sheriff--heard the traffic and was able to contact Rescue Air-5 via his sheriff's radio. Using information the stranded hiker provided via ham radio, Brink was able to help direct the pilot to Jacks' location. Approximately an hour after the first call for help, Jacks was airlifted from the mountain to safety. "Once again, Amateur Radio has come to the rescue, and this shows how hams work together with emergency personnel to help one another," said Brink. "Amateur Radio at its best!"

As reported by Amateur Radio NewsLine: Ham radio helped save one of its own on Tuesday, July 19th. This, after Jason Jacks KG6ZTR, went hiking in the mountains close to Mt. Baldy in Southern California and found himself lost in heavy brush. But Jacks had a companion with him who could summon assisance. His trusty 2 meter H-T. KG6ZTR used it to put out a call for assistance on the N6USO, Sunset Ridge Repeater asking for help. His request was heard by several hams and a call was made to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The Sheriff's Rescue Air-5 responded to the call. KG6ZTR was also carrying a hand held GPS. He used I to give his coordinates to repeater owner Burton Brink, N6USO. Brink, who is a Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff used his service radio to relay the information to the air rescue unit. Using this information, Brink was able to direct the pilot to Jason's location. KG6ZTR put out his cal for help at about 6:50 pm local time. Only an hour later he was air-lifted off of the side of the mountain to safety. Hams taking part in the rescue effort included of Ron Stucker, W6RJS; Richard Pauze, KG6VNC; Ken Harris, KG6YTZ and of course Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff, Burton Brink, N6USO.

My side of the story: Actually, there really isn't a whole lot to tell. There were several of us having a QSO on the repeater while waiting for our weekly Tuesday night AR NewsLine net to start at 7:30pm. Immediately after one of my transmissions, at about 6:50pm, KG6ZTR broke in with his emergency traffic. Well, that put an end to our round-table as we turned our attention to helping Jason. He wasn't injured, but he was stuck on a hillside, could not see what was below him, could not get back up, and it was nearly sunset.

Over the course of the next half hour or so, various attempts were made to call in some assistance. As I recall, it was W6RJS who handled the bulk of the land-line work and spent a lot of unproductive time being shuffled and relayed from one agency to another – nobody seemed to know whose jurisdiction this was or who had the necessary equipment to work with the GPS data. Things got busy when they finally got the county Air-5 rescue helicopter in the air, and N6USO got involved in relaying GPS coordinates and other traffic from Jason to the pilots as they tried to get a visual on Jason. As for my part... I was the one who had initially copied Jason's GPS coordinates at the start of the incident, and I had relayed them several times while other operators made phone calls.

The hams mentioned above were not the only ones who had at least some part in handling the traffic, but for some reason, those other hams' names and calls didn't make it into the story. I don't recall who they were, but credit certainly goes to them as well.

We did eventually get around to our NewsLine net after the incident, about half an hour later than usual. That meant that a few dozen hams, who normally would have been on frequency to check in, also were listening to these events unfold.

This page is Copyright © 2006 by Ken Harris KG6YTZ,
except: ARRL News text Copyright © 2005 ARRL
Amateur Radio NewsLine text Copyright © 2005 AR NewsLine

Last update: 03/27/2006

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