An Incredible Amateur Radio Rescue Story

On the evening of September 21, 2024, Greg Owen, WX7Z, heard an amateur radio emergency call on the VHF frequency known as the national simplex calling frequency, 146.52 MHz. Ed Clark, K7ELC, was calling to get medical help for a 51-year-old man who had rolled his four-wheeler.

Mac Mackintosh, W7ENZ, found the accident and injured man near his property where there isn’t any cellphone service. Mackintosh had given his handheld radio to Clark to make the call for help while he gave aid to the injured man. The injuries were serious... head trauma, broken collarbone, broken ribs, and difficulty breathing.

Owen called 911 to request help. An ambulance, Life Flight helicopter and law enforcement were dispatched to the location, which was 35 minutes outside Orofino, Idaho. Meanwhile, Owen continued using the amateur radio to relay updates to the dispatcher. The injured man was transported to the hospital via Life Flight and at last report was recovering.

Gardner said hams in Idaho support an old national program called the Wilderness Protocol which encourages the use of the national simplex calling frequency, 146.52 MHz.

“As amateur radio operators, we train to be available to help when help is needed. The more that ham radio operators listen to the radio, the more chance there is that someone will be listening to take your emergency call. This is something that has been used many times throughout this county and here in Idaho,” he said. “This is another incredible story to share.”

Balloon to Take Ham Payloads Aloft in South Africa

The lift-off of a balloon from a South African airstrip will carry a variety of ham radio payloads into near space.

A dramatic early-morning weather balloon launch on Saturday12th October 2024, is scheduled to lift a series of CubeSats into a near-space environment above South Africa as hams follow and track the balloon from locations as far away as possible. The hams were encouraged to use the various payloads, which included cross-band repeaters, LORA and APRS trackers, parrot repeaters, WSPR beacons and SSTV payloads The CubeSats remained aloft until the hydrogen-filled balloon bursts and then they parachute back to earth.

The launch at a model airstrip near Secunda, coordinated by the Secunda Radio Club, ZS6SRC, is known as BACAR-12. The acronym stands for Balloon Carrying Amateur Radio.

Source - ARnewline

Hams Respond to 2nd Hurricane in Southern US

While emergency communications were still continuing in the wake of Hurricane Helene’s impact on the Southeastern United States, hams in Florida had to begin their own activation for Hurricane Milton on Wednesday, October 9th. In addition to the Hurricane Watch Net on 20 and 40 meters, the Statewide Amateur Radio Network, or SARNet, was busy handling traffic from the state’s Emergency Operations Center. SARNet is a network of linked UHF repeaters run out of the EOC covering most of the state of Florida.

Approaching the state's western coast south of Tampa with Category 3 winds, Milton was already producing a number of tornadic supercells in southern Florida before making landfall, causing the storm’s first deaths. More than 3 million were without power as the hurricane moved out to sea on Thursday morning.

As with North Carolina's Mount Mitchell repeater during Hurricane Helene, SARNet was linked to Broadcastify, allowing individuals from around the world a front-row seat as amateurs passed emergency traffic. Unfortunately, in addition to hearing a professionally run net, listeners also witnessed malicious interference on the repeaters, which could have endangered clear communications. With handheld radios so easy to obtain nowadays, it is hard to know whether the interruptions came from licensed hams or not.

Source - ARNewline