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Yes, the world is a dangerous place. I remember the story of that tech guy, driving with his family somewhere out in the Pacific northwest. I believe it was Thanksgiving weekend and they got caught in a blizzard. He went to get help leaving his wife, toddler, and newborn behind.

I think it was his tech friends who realized they were missing and used some kind of cell phone triangulation to find them. My impression was that the authorities would have done nothing without extreme prodding from their friends. (Not the first time I’ve heard that.)

Sadly the man died but the wife and kids survived.

I remember hearing Curtis Sliwa talking about it and he said, as you did, that people had a hard time believing this could happen in the modern day. But that he had been out there at that time of year and you could turn a bend in the road and go from a beautiful, sunny day to a raging storm.

Eh, this is why I’ve always liked the concrete jungle best (even though I live in the suburbs now), the dangers are mostly human, which is at least something I understand.

Yea I remember that. He was an editor of a computer tech magazine. Several realities were against him cell phone wise. He was at a lower elevation with surrounding mountains. Cell phone signals are 800MHZ and above. They operate at low power because especially the newer phones are up in the microwave range. The higher the frequency the shorter the transmission range the lower the frequency the longer the range. If no repeaters are within a few miles that's it no communication.

That is why cell phones on that plane unless the plane had a high tech system would not have been likely worked because they were too far away from towers. But on 911 because the planes were over land and densely populated areas the passengers were able to use them.

The guy lost needed a Tweaked out CB with a modest linear. That would have stood a far better chance of reaching help due to it being in the 27 MHZ band.

True rescue story. About ten years ago a school took kids on a field trip to The Great Smokey Mountain National Park. They were to hike a mile and half one way to a waterfall. This was in a gorge like environment with mountains on both sides. When they got there a student fell in the water below the falls and drowned {5th or 6th grader IIRC}. The teachers faced a walk out for a ranger and cell phones did not work. One student had a HAM Radio license and had brought his handheld HAM Radio, In the 144 MHZ bandwidth he was able to get radio contact and summon help. Frequency range of radio means everything as did in this case a repeater on the mountain close to him. I know the place it happened at real well.