Which distress/ Mayday frequencies? Anybody monitoring?

[KD0JKM]

Imagine: you run into an emergency, your cell phone does not have a signal, you are out of VHF/UHF repeater range and no one hears you on 146.520 MHz or 446.500 MHz.

But you do have your HF rig with you... Which frequencies will you try to call help on?

A post some years ago said: "...if you personally are in distress and can't use a cell phone or know the local EmComm repeater, 146.52 MHz, 14.300 MHz or 7.255 MHz are probably pretty good bets to use as distress calling frequencies..."

How about the following frequencies?
http://mmsn.org/iaru.html
http://hflink.com/emcomm/
(I am not asking any HFLink group members, I suspect they monitor).

Do you monitor any calling frequencies yourself? If not - why not (since you ARE reading this "Emergency Communications" Forum?)? Do you expect someone else to hear your emergency call when you yourself aren't monitoring?

vy 73 de Marcus KD0JKM

[K1CJS]

If its a real, bona fide emergency, listen around on the bands and try breaking into any conversation you may be able to hear.--but ONLY if its an emergency--life or death--situation.  Most hams will gladly assist you and get a message to the authorities.  Of course, there are those who will curse you out and ignore you too.

[LA9XSA]

If they refuse to help, they should expect to be punished for that. The authorities take a dim view indeed of both false distress calls and those who fail to give way to emergency communications.

I have 14.300 in my scan list, but the biggest benefit of that frequency is that it's monitored 24/7 by directed traffic/distress nets.

If it's a real life-or-death emergency, I'd try 14.300, and I'd also try to break into other QSOs, or even break into marine SSB (8291 kHz, 2182 kHz etc.) or any other radio service that might hear you. I'd also try 446.0, because some places they monitor that frequency in the "wilderness protrocol". In Alaska, there's the 5167.5 kHz Alaska emergency frequency.

If you do any solo trekking outside of repeater and cell phone coverage areas, I'd consider getting a PLB as well; you can only use it as a last resort when your life is in danger, but it has global coverage.

[K7RBW]

Ditto on the PLB. If you are going places where you might get into serious trouble, I wouldn't count on [just] ham radio. But the best method and frequency depends on the specific situation.In some places, you might get a faster response from people in the area if you call them on a CB.

In any case, I'd call on a frequency that had an ongoing QSO first (be it ham or otherwise) because at least you know there's someone on the other end to hear you.

[ONAIR]

Imagine: you run into an emergency, your cell phone does not have a signal, you are out of VHF/UHF repeater range and no one hears you on 146.520 MHz or 446.500 MHz.

But you do have your HF rig with you... Which frequencies will you try to call help on?

A post some years ago said: "...if you personally are in distress and can't use a cell phone or know the local EmComm repeater, 146.52 MHz, 14.300 MHz or 7.255 MHz are probably pretty good bets to use as distress calling frequencies..."

How about the following frequencies?
http://mmsn.org/iaru.html
http://hflink.com/emcomm/
(I am not asking any HFLink group members, I suspect they monitor).

Do you monitor any calling frequencies yourself? If not - why not (since you ARE reading this "Emergency Communications" Forum?)? Do you expect someone else to hear your emergency call when you yourself aren't monitoring?

vy 73 de Marcus KD0JKM

    I hate to say it, but if you can go out of band..   27.1850 Mhz. AM.   There are thousands of trucks on the roads at any given time, and chances are that there will be a truck driver somewhere on the road that is currently or will soon be within range of your location.  Once I got stuck on the road in the middle of nowhere.  My cell phone didn't work and I was out of repeater range on 2 Meters.  Within just 5 minutes of calling on 19, a friendly trucker saved the day.

[AC2Q]

Having had the "Emergency" you mention, I cannot over-emphasize 2 things.

1.) Know the local repeater frequencies. My experience is there are hams out there listening who don't want to ragchew, but are RIGHT THERE if you come on with "This is AC2Q and I have an emergency"

2.) Rather than an HF rig, GET A CB RADIO. There is more local activity on channel 19 than on any Amateur frequency.

[K1CJS]

Mike, You know you're going to take some flak for your number 2, right?   

[K7RBW]

If he gets into trouble, I'll be there to back him up.

Last summer, I went on a trip with a 2-meter radio and a CB and I can tell you the CB had MUCH more traffic than the 2-meter.

That said, the few QSOs I had on 2-meter were much more enjoyable than anything I heard on the CB.

So, with that combination of radios, you can have quality or quantity, depending on the band

[KD8BKB]

I stumbled across this info the other day i forget which book it was http://www.amazon.com/Wilderness-Evasion-Hiding-Eluding-Pursuit/dp/1581603657 or http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/books/0653.html ( i am not some nut i heard the book was very good advice since i am involved in SAR, and it is a good book) but i recalled it was 146.520 simplex every 3 hrs for 5 min.... and it was called Wilderness simplex. so i googled and this is what i found.

http://www.tcoek12.org/~tcarc/tcproto.html

hope it helps and Google " Wilderness Protocol Communications"

[KD4LLA]

What is almost laughable is that with all the prep FEMA and ECCOM folks do, little do they figure out what common mode of communications nearly each and ever delivery truck in the nation has, a CB radio.

Mike

[LA9XSA]

Some emcomm groups have CB and FRS/GMRS radios to keep in touch with the neighborhood, but while a few people might still be monitoring CB channel 9, CB is not as popular as it used to be. It might work if you're lost where there's a road nearby, or you're actually on the road.

[KB2FCV]

But you do have your HF rig with you... Which frequencies will you try to call help on?

If it were a true emergency life/death situation I would find the strongest signal/QSO and break in with a mayday/SOS.

[KD6KWZ]

...you might get a faster response from people in the area if you call them on a CB.

I remember one ham admitting in a magazine how much quicker CB channel 9 was to get help than trying to find someone on the air on one of our bands.

If it were a true emergency life/death situation I would find the strongest signal/QSO and break in with a mayday/SOS.

Who's listening locally is important, for someone that sends a mayday in Arkansas might get heard here, but figuring *who* to call 2,000 miles away from me is a problem.

14.300? I don't have a rig with 20 meters. That HF ALE list is helpful, but only if you can contact someone when needed.

There's still stretches of roads in the US & elsewhere with no cell phone service. So, are those roads covered by repeaters for VHF & UHF?

[ONAIR]

What is almost laughable is that with all the prep FEMA and ECCOM folks do, little do they figure out what common mode of communications nearly each and ever delivery truck in the nation has, a CB radio.

Mike

   You know that it is kind of sad to say, but if a nuclear war took out the US power grid, landline and cell phone service, as well as the internet, the lowly CB radio would probably be our last line of communications.  Just about every truck in the United States has one, and they are in use almost all the time.

[KD0JKM]

Mike,

I hope we'll never have to witness a nuclear war or any other kind of "conventional" war. What I suspect more likely to happen, is that some "Super-Computer-Virus" brings down the comms infrastructure, only leaving off-grid radios to handle all comms for some time and be it only for a few hours or days.

Maybe we should include CB for local comms more into our thinking...

Regarding HF frequencies for longer range Mayday calls: would the 60m channels not be good ones to listen to, since propagation for most antenna setups for 60m is likely NVIS, meaning more local?

Since my original post, I have grown more and more in favor of scanning the 40m/60m/80m voice frequencies listed here:
http://mmsn.org/iaru.html
http://hflink.com/emcomm/
http://hfpack.com/air/
due to their NVIS characteristics throughout the day.

Anyone else scanning any frequencies? Suggestions?

vy 73 de Marcus KD0JKM