[Elecraft] K1 Used in Montana Ham Rescue...

[David Yarnes]

Fascinating story, and I'm particularly impressed with all that Mr. Ruby was 
able to do (with a broken leg) before even calling for help.  This guy is 
really cool under fire!  He lives only about 60 miles from where we are now 
finishing up our "summer residency" here on the Oregon coast.  It would be 
neat to meet him personally sometime and hear all the nitty gritty details 
about his ordeal.  I'm a little surprised though at how long it took for 
help to arrive.  I suppose they might have been hard pressed to get to him 
before dark on the day of the accident, but armed with his GPS coordinates, 
etc., it seems like they could have gotten there earlier the next morning. 
Maybe a helicopter rescue was deemed unnecessary?  I'd be worried about 
someone with that kind of injury going into shock.

Anyway, this seems like good fodder for a K1 advertisement.  It certainly 
emphasizes many of the reasons why I consider HF QRP gear to be a priority 
inclusion for backwoods outings like this.  Cell phones and VHF/UHF gear 
would very likely be useless in such locations.  This is the kind of thing 
you fantasize about--being able to put your ham radio skills to work to help 
someone, or yourself, in distress!  Well, I do anyway, and I admit it! 
Hopefully Ruby will be given the opportunity to more fully detail this 
experience in one of our ham journals.  Since this info appeared on the ARRL 
website, perhaps QST is already planning this.  But if not, maybe our new 
editor for QRP Quarterly will see fit to take the lead?

Dave W7AQK

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David King" <dking at vcn.com>
To: "elecraft" <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 3:48 PM
Subject: [Elecraft] K1 Used in Montana Ham Rescue...


> Check out the story at ARRL of how a K1 helped an amateur call for help 
> when he broke his leg hiking
>
> http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2008/09/23/10348/?nc=1
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