Anecdotal Evidence of Ham Radio Value

[SoonerSailor]

A cruiser adrift gets help via ham radio. It points out one big advantage of ham frequencies - with thousands of hams listening all over the world, your distress call is likely to be heard by someone somewhere at almost any time.

http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php...ast-of-Mexico.

[denverd0n]

Of course, one has to wonder how much sooner the drifting sailor might have been heard if he had been using the proper marine SSB emergency channels and procedures.

I also have to point out, he is in a sailboat and his "emergency" is that the motor isn't working and there's no wind. And because of that he desperately needs the Coast Guard to come and rescue him. Uh... Yeah. Okay.

[Auspicious]

Regardless of the particular instance, I have much better luck connecting with a shore station on ham frequencies than on marine frequencies. YMMV.

73 es sail fast de dave, KO4MI