[Harc] Ham Radio to the Rescue Again!

[Daryl Chinn]

 Great job and kudos to all who helped, from the dispatcher to others in other communities.
DarylKN6PAO
    On Wednesday, September 4, 2024 at 09:21:01 PM PDT, Richard Van Hoose via Harc <harc at reflector.humboldt-arc.org> wrote:  
 
 Good job, Randy.  Also to all the others who helped.  Amateur radio steps up to the plate again!
Dick Van HooseWB6HII 
On Sep 4, 2024 8:35 PM, Terra Tech via Harc <harc at reflector.humboldt-arc.org> wrote:

Hey HARC folks,
I had a very interesting and satisfying experience with amateur radio today. I work from home and continually have my Icom 2730 scanning all the local ham repeaters including those in Del Norte County. From my QTH up near the water tower in Eureka I can get into the DNARC repeater in Crescent City and have the occasional QSO with folks up that way. Today I had a strange one!
At around 4:00pm I heard a scratchy call for help. The operator was calling out SOS and asking for anyone to come back to them. They sounded pretty stressed. I hopped on the radio and tried to contact the person. I could only make out about half of what the person was saying but apparently the person had fallen and could not get up. The ham said their call was good on QRZ and after I finally got a copy on it I looked them up and called 911. (I think this is the first time I have ever called 911!) The 911 operator patched me up to the Del Norte Sheriff's office who dispatched an ambulance and then transfered me over to the ambulance dispatcher. It was unusual to be placing an emergency call on behalf of someone who I did not know who was in a place 90 miles away from me while using two forms of voice communication. 
I was at times trying to get more details from the fallen ham on the radio to relay to the emergency services people while also trying to talk on the phone to those services. A ham in Medford also came to my assistance to try and suggest helpful information to gather from the ham in need. Two other hams (one was Christie WA6ZDO) in the Crescent City area also got on the repeater to try and help out. After about 20 minutes from the initial distress call, the ham in need came back on air briefly to say the ambulance had arrived. A little while later Jaimie KJ6JKL (I believe the DNARC president) got on the repeater to say that the ham in need was on their way to the hospital and he thanked those who helped out in the situation. 
I have been reflecting on this experience for the past few hours and I feel really pleased that I was able to help in such a simple way. I do not know what the circumstances were that lead to this ham in Crescent City to be in such a vulnerable situation but it is great that they had I assume their HT near by. I feel like having my amateur radio license really did assist someone in an emergency (worth the cost and effort to study!) I also feel that the experience I have had participating in radio nets, contesting and other HARC activities helped me clearly communicate the necessary information to both the emergency services and the fallen ham simultaneously.
Anyway, Jaye KE6SLS suggested I post this experience to the reflector as it demonstrates the "service" part of the Amateur Radio Service.
73!
Randy KN6NSK












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