SOTA MT has received this message from the Gila County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona.
The Gila County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona is requesting assistance from SOTA Watch staff and participants in regards to checking the welfare of reported missing person Laumann, Kurt call sign KZ700. If he is heard on the radio, have him immediately call the Gila County Sheriff’s Office at 1-800-635-8017
It looks like they got the name and call sign messed up, so please be on the lookout for
Curt, K7ZOO
Please pass on the message from the sheriff’s office if you hear Curt.
Curt was spotted yesterday by RBN, but he does not have a SOTA alert up.
Thanks for posting that; will look into this right away.
Curt tends to do yet-unactivated peaks, mostly in desert areas, and so far, mostly West of Tucson, AZ
It seems he might have been carrying out a multiple activation, as we see the RBN spots grouped in 3 different times:
at about 1h utc he seemed to be CQing for about 5 minutes on 20m.
at about 4h utc he seemed to be CQing for 42 minutes on 30 and 40m.
at about 18h utc he seemed to be CQing for just 1 or 2 minutes on 20m. Looks too short. Something may have happened to him as he just started his 3rd activation. Snake, lighning strike, health problem…
If someone could tell where he was supposed to be activating from, he might still be in the area where he transmitted from at 18h utc.
I hope he will be soon found safe and sound,
Did they give details about how long he has been missing and any possible locations?
Did Curt leave instructions that if he goes missing someone contact SOTA MT? The reason I ask that question is 2 fold:
Someone who would leave an instruction to contact an organization if he goes missing would likely leave some idea of the area he was going to as well.
Might not be a bad idea for any SOTA activator to leave a similar instruction, so “local” SOTA activators/chasers can help out.
I don’t know Curt well, but I have hunted, hiked and done activations in some of the more dangerous and desolate parts of southern AZ. If we had a more precise area of where he might have gone, I would be available to lend myself to any search efforts.
GOOD NEWS! Urgency has been stood down by Gila County Sheriff’s Office. Curt’s cell phone was pinged by the Sheriff, and he was found to now be in New Mexico, as had been part of a previous travel plan.
Thanks to all who have been paying attention to this situation.
I think “mobilizing” local SOTA participants is a good idea in case of something going south. I think I will amend my emergency instructions to include a shout out to the SOTA community as well as search and rescue etc.
That’s the best thing to do.
We have a whatsapp group of SOTA (and not yet SOTA) hams and we usually are in touch with each other when planning an activation as well as while going for it, coming back from it and of course, trying to make QSO during the activation.
I highly recommend such habit to anyone.
Thanks God Ken was found safe and sound in NM.
73,
I’m fine. I didn’t do any SOTA’s, was visiting National Monuments in NM, had my cell off to conserve battery (brought the wrong charging cable!) and not sure why someone contacted the authorities. Thanks for the concern, all. de K7ZOO
Kurt,
Glat to know you’re safe. Cleqarly, friends and the community care about you! One can never have too many friends.
I hope everyone is aware of and follows the Wilderness Protocol.
And you know, it doesn’t hurt to listen in in urban areas as well.
Good goating to everyone.
Victor/KI7MMZ
That might become a huge group and such big groups usually produce so much traffic that one ends up not paying attention to so many messages and either muting the group and just looking at it from time to time or quitting.
That was my experience with an EA2 SOTA group, which is far much smaller compared to what a NA group would be, but even with 20-30 members is far too big (at least for me).and becomes inpractical for the above given traffic reasons. I ended up quitting that EA2SOTA group because it was taking me up too much time to catch up with all the traffic, comments, discussions, pictures filling fully up the memory of my phone…
The whatsapp group I use has just 8 members and we are not just colleagues of hobby, but also close friends after several years in touch. We started as a contest group years ago. We are the MONTeam.
My recommendation is for a small group of SOTA colleagues and friends rather than an extense group.
73,
