Most Americans are accustomed to reaching into their pocket for their cell phone when faced with an emergency.
There are times, however, when there isn’t an available signal to make a call or send a text. That’s when Tooele County Emergency Management turns to amateur radio — better known as ham radio — operators to transmit vital information to first responders.
The ability to use ham radios became especially important when a helicopter became trapped at the summit of Flat Top Mountain on Nov. 17.
The helicopter had left at 8:30 a.m. for a routine battery check that would usually only take about 10 minutes to complete, according to Andy Tanner, Communications Technician for TCEM.
The contractor performing the check, Dave Williams, was a former TCEM employee, and the flight was piloted by Spike Kinghorn of Classic Aviation, who has flown a number of operations for the county.
With a quick, in-and-out operation planned, Kinghorn didn’t even turn off the helicopter’s rotors upon landing at the summit of Flat Top Mountain, Tanner said. Despite the spinning rotors, ice was still rapidly building up on the helicopter.
“He started getting alarms on his helicopter, freeze warnings, so they shut the helicopter down,” Tanner said.
Kinghorn and Williams attempted to knock the ice off of the rotors and started the helicopter several times but were unsuccessful at getting it to take off. Williams managed to contact Tanner on his cell phone but the spotty reception, as well as a quickly dwindling battery, forced them to coordinate on a ham radio frequency to stay in contact.
Without the ability to get off the peak, Tanner and Williams agreed to call Tooele County Search and Rescue. Tanner drove in from Salt Lake to help with the coordination of the rescue meeting.
Williams was able to remain in touch with rescuers through the ham radio while he and Kinghorn sought shelter in the helicopter. Tanner said the temperature only partway to the peak was already 10 degrees; it was likely below zero on the peak.
While Williams had some cold weather gear, Kinghorn had only worn a light jacket and loafers, since he doesn’t leave the helicopter on maintenance runs.
To conserve battery power, Williams and Kinghorn would only turn on the helicopter strobe beacons and radio in their status every half hour. Due to Williams’ presence in the ham radio community, the frequency with rescuers had to be made private to further conserve battery life.
While the search and rescue team conducted a risky nighttime hike to the summit with supplies, Williams’ attitude began to darken as the rescue stretched into Wednesday morning.
“Come one o’clock in the morning, we’re all starting to get nervous,” Tanner said. “You could tell that the mood in his voice had changed, everything had changed. I think he was getting pretty scared, too.”
Tanner said messages from Williams were being ferried to his family while rescuers hiked to the peak. A two-person team braved steep sections of terrain blanketed in feet of snow to make it to the summit.
“The last time we had communication with Dave, he was telling us the battery was just about gone on his radio,” Tanner said. “As the search and rescue operators made it to the helicopter, his radio died.”
After rescuers reached the helicopter with supplies, the plan was to attempt to hike down in the morning. A helicopter from Vernal had been dispatched to attempt a rescue, but the fog was too thick to attempt a landing.
The pilot of the rescue helicopter decided to make one final attempt at the summit and finally had a clearing in which to land. The rescue of Williams and Kinghorn was complete at about 2:30 a.m., after the pair spent about 18 hours on the peak of the mountain.
“It was such a cool thing that the ham radio had a humongous effect on that,” Tanner said. “We would have had no idea they were even there, really.”
TCEM director Bucky Whitehouse said a cell phone call may have alerted them to the stranded helicopter crew, but without the ham radio, they would not have been able to pinpoint their exact location on the summit of the Oquirrh Mountains’ highest peak.
“We use this as an example a lot of times at our last few meetings because without that, they very well could have died,” Tanner said.
The helicopter rescue is one reason the West Desert Amateur Radio Club are hoping to grow their membership. Newly elected president Lanea Price said the goal is to get more of the county’s ham radio operators active and involved in the club.
Tanner estimates there are about 500 ham radio operators in the county and membership in the club has grown in recent years. The club was founded in the late 1990s.
“We want to get those people involved, or at least as many of them as want to be involved,” Price said. “A lot of them might be doing it on their own, but we’d like support from them in our club.”
The group is open to anyone with an amateur radio operator’s license or interested in getting one, and takes all comers.
Whitehouse said there’s a misconception that getting into amateur radio operation is expensive. Attending a class and taking the operator test would set an aspiring radio operator back about $45, while the radios themselves can be as cheap as $30 or $60 for a handheld unit.
“The money side of it shouldn’t be a barrier to people, because it’s affordable,” Whitehouse said.
Club membership dues are $5 for senior citizens, $10 for individuals and $15 for families, Price said.
Price said she became involved in the ham radio community due to her general interest in emergency preparedness. A couple years ago, she bought each of her five sons, four of whom live in Utah County, a ham radio so they could keep in touch should there be an earthquake or another significant disaster when cell phones and other traditional channels of communication could be down.
Ham radios are so reliable because they don’t require a repeater tower to transmit a signal between devices, Tanner said. If a communications tower is damaged, the radios can still communicate device to device with a range of several miles for most models.
In an emergency, a chain of ham radios can be set up within the county to relay local conditions to the Emergency Operations Center, where the response would be coordinated, according to Tanner.
“In the event of a major emergency, this might be our only form of communication,” he said. “That’s why emergency management is pushing the ham (radio) club so hard, to try and get as many people as possible.”
Ham radios have proven their effectiveness in regions where cell towers are disrupted by disaster events, such as hurricane- or tornado-prone areas, Whitehouse said. Growing the West Desert Amateur Radio Club helps county emergency management expand its base of affiliated volunteers, similar to CERT and other programs.
“In an emergency situation, we would love to have as many members affiliated with the club as possible so they are recognized and we understand where they are at throughout the Tooele County area,” Whitehouse said.
The ham radio club isn’t just a tool for emergency management, however. The club also participates in fun events that show the ability of the more advanced ham radio systems.
One thing the club has done before is a moon bounce — when the ham radio signal from a large antenna is sent to the moon, where it “bounces” off to an operator on the far side of the world. Tanner said the group has been able to speak with radio operators in Russia using the technique.
The ham radio club also wants to try communicating with the International Space Station, which is also possible with a strong enough signal.
The West Desert Amateur Radio meets once a month at the Tooele County Emergency Operations Center at 15 E. 100 South in Tooele. The group also hosts an on-air gathering, known as a net, every Thursday at 7 p.m. on channel 147.300.