5 ms·
Actually, I'm not sure this is good advice. Two-way commiunicators are vastly preferred by Search and Rescue organizations. The reason for this is that they ca
by tony_cannistra 4y ago
Actually, I'm not sure this is good advice. Two-way commiunicators are vastly preferred by Search and Rescue organizations.
The reason for this is that they can learn about what they need to do and who they need to send to you, because they can ask you.
If you have a broken leg, they'll send in 10 people to get you out. Dehydrated? Two responders and water.
Calls that come in from "dumb" communicators like PLBs are more likely to get a 1-2 person "hasty" team assigned to them who can arrive quickly then call in more reinforcements if necessary. A SAR org. isn't going to put 10 volunteers on a PLB call that ends up being a rolled ankle, at least not immediately.
This has the potential to greatly delay the time to care for you, especially for more severe emergencies.
- widforss 4y agoI'm on a SAR team. We literally deployed 10 people on both PLB's and Inreaches last winter. SAR people are cheap
- biomcgary 4y agoSAR people may largely be volunteers, but helicopters have fairly expensive operational costs. In time-sensitive situations, it is better to have two way communications (because it keeps SAR as inexpensive as possible). See my sister comment for my wife's experience.
- widforss 4y agoThose two operations were made using snow mobiles, but yes, as soon as helicopters com into the picture, the costs skyrocket.
- danuker 4y ago> because it keeps SAR as inexpensive as possible "Hurry, but please hold the helicopter, I won't make enough money for the rest of my life to pay for it, whether I survive or not."
- circular_lights 4y agoI was wondering who foots the bill for the equipment
- widforss 4y agoIn our case, our org (Norwegian Red Cross) buy the equipment using sponsor money and the like. Then we get reimbursed by the government for using them in SAR operations. It works well enough for us to have maybe 4 snowmobiles, 2 6-wheel ATV's, a 4 person rope rescue kit, 10 TETRA phones and a car in addition to various medical equipment.
- tony_cannistra 4y agoTotally. It sounds like your team has the advantage of having a large volunteer corpus. I wish they all did.
- biomcgary 4y agoMy wife has an InReach. While hiking in Colorado, she encountered a woman who started going into shock (for no obvious reason!). Because of the satellite-based texting, SAR determined that Medivac chopper was more appropriate than land based rescue. Doctors said that the woman had 1-2 hours before death / permanent injury, so the most likely outcome of only having an emergency beacon would have been her death.
- oofbey 4y agoThis is a very telling example, and probably not uncommon.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]