Mounted search and rescue

[una.smith@att.net]

 
Hi Chris,

If radio communications during the initial operational period are often inadequate, your team could fill a need by responding with an amateur radio (a "ham") operator to remain at incident base.  Ideally the ham operator would have a vehicle-mounted mobile station (higher power and better reception than a handheld).

In New Mexico amateur radio is very well established and has a network of 2-meter band repeaters.  Most of the repeaters cover highways but some have been located precisely where needed to provide radio communications in wilderness SAR "hot spots".  Also, hams offer training and exam sessions each year at our annual state SAR conference.  For these reasons, a large fraction of New Mexico SAR volunteers are licensed hams.  All New Mexico SAR managers are drawn out of this pool of SAR volunteers, not sheriff deputies nor state police, consequently most (all?) of our SAR managers are hams and almost always incident command can communicate via both amateur radio and the public safety band.  I have been on missions in which radio blind spots were covered by a Civil Air Patrol (CAP) plane circling overhead.  I  have also been on missions wher e we used cell phones in the field;  voicemail can provide more effective communication than radio, when both sender and recipient are moving in and out of communications blind spots.

New Mexico is unusual in having a statewide volunteer SAR system that is so fully integrated.  This is one end of a continuum;  at the other end is those states in which SAR field teams normally provide not only base-to-field communications but SAR management as well.  In between are those states where it is often necessary for SAR field teams to respond with their own communications resources, but SAR management is provided by the local sheriff's office.  Finally, over time many SAR teams move on this continuum, as they adjust to changes in staffing of their county sheriff's office or other agencies having jurisdiction.

    Una Smith
    New Mexico