Missing Alberta couple found

[harryshute]

Does anyone know what radio system this couple accessed to get rescued near Fernie B.C. ? They were out of cell phone range and made their way to an abandoned cabin where they put together a radio and made an emergency radio call.

ElK River RCMP were notified and a rescue helicopter sent. Not sure if it was a ham radio. The lady that made the emergency transmission said it was a "radio with a mircrophone".

http://www.theprovince.com/news/alberta/Family+rejoices+missing+Fort+Macleod+couple+found+alive/6475088/story.html

 

[kayn1n32008]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9780; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.600 Mobile Safari/534.8+)

Probably MoF&R Vhf radio. Unless there is a National park.

 

[harryshute]

You are probably correct I see a whole bunch of BC Forest Service VHF frequencies in an old frequency book. I did a search of the RR Elk Valley Fire and Sparwood Ham repeater achives. I did hear VE7 RSQ being tested between 3:55 p.m. and 4:25 p.m.

 

[harryshute]

I see quite a few VHF B.C. Hydro frequencies in the Bull River area. Also some VHF for the Bull River Guest Ranch near Wardner.

 

[Jay911]

I got the details from a fire chief in the area that I know. The cabin was an outfitters' hut and in a drawer they found a portable radio. They transmitted on it and a trucker heard them on LAD 1 - scratchy and weak but readable enough to call it in.

Kudos to them for keeping their wits about them and finding shelter.

I had kind of figured it was going to be similar to the SRD cabins that dot the Kananaskis region, and the BCFS equivalent of Firenet, but turns out it was not the case.

 

[harryshute]

Thanks Jay for solving the interesting mystery. So far I have not seen the answer in any media. Good on radio saving the day again. They did have to get the radio working but it did the trick for them.

 

[harryshute]

Rescued Fort Macleod couple recalls three days spent in B.C. wilderness

This more recent Calgary Herarld story provides more details on the radio rescue. Good for her using various channels and persisting until she got through.

 

[SCPD]

This story makes me want to carry my Baofeng wherever I go just in case ..