W3VPR In The Community -- Amateur Radio To The Rescue

W3VPR In The Community -- Amateur Radio To The Rescue

Today (July 22, 2020), an alert amateur radio operator (an AARC member) was able to do a radio assist to a fellow HAM in distress. Sometime between Noon and 1:00pm, the local HAM answered what he thought was a normal CQ contact, that escalated quickly. The caller had been out walking, and was overcome by the heat. He began to not feel well, but his cell phone was dead. Luckily, he had a handheld with him, and called out to anyone on the 147.075 repeater for assistance.

That's when our club member, mobile in his car, heard the distress call, and responded immediately. He was able to assess the situation, gather the necessary details (location down to a street intersection, the physical condition of the man in distress, and what he was wearing), and relay that information to a 911 operator -- so that services could be dispatched immediately. Within minutes, the Baltimore man was receiving treatment by the responding ambulance, and was able to report an 'All OK' around 12:50pm.

So even in the age of cell phones, we can still highlight that, "When All Else Fails, Amateur Radio Works" ... and that our little repeater system fulfills a VERY REAL need in the community.

[FYI, for those who do not know, our W3VPR repeater transmissions are linked to a "Broadcastify" feed, so that HAMS out of local range or away from their radios can still monitor our repeater feed online. This feed becomes archived, so that we are able to recover sound clips for any number of reasons, if necessary. Our good samaritan above contacted the club via email, and we were able to successfully send him a sound bite of the event.]