SCVJeff wrote:
Photomike wrote:
I forgot to mention that dialing 911 when you are out of cell range can get you help. The call may get through and with tracing abilities emergency services can find you even if you cannot communicate by talking. BUT this is not to be relied on as it may or may not work. If I was in a predicament I would give it a shot if the other solutions were not working, or if I did not know if they were working.
On another note: You do need to keep your phone charged when out in the bush, does no good to have a phone with a dead battery.
Lets be clear about this..
Out of range is OUT OF RANGE, PERIOD..... No cellular coverage will get you no help because there are no active sites to hear you. 911 will work without the phone having a subscription, but ONLY within range of a cell site.
Depending on the fringe area yes this does work. We have had a couple rescues because our 911 operators were receiving hang up calls repeatedly from out of range cell phones. They were able to locate an area and send in SAR and successfully rescue the people. This DOES not work in all areas but does work in some areas even when the phone says that there is no service.
I have been trying to find the articles that were written about our rescues but came up with this one:
Still, the connection was long enough that two Edge Wireless engineers, Eric Fuqua and Noah Pugsley, were able to find this information in the CDR to determine that the family was in sector "Z" in the southwestern portion of the cell site's 26-mile radius. Wolf Peak's "Z" sector provides coverage to remote areas with little population and very little cell phone traffic. Using this information, authorities sent out rescue teams, which eventually located Kati Kim and her children.
Anderson said that the family was lucky that they were Cingular Wireless subscribers. Edge Wireless uses the same GSM network technology that provides roaming coverage to Cingular customers. If the Kims' phone had been with a different provider that didn't have roaming coverage with Edge Wireless, then the company might not have received any signal at all after they left the major highway, and the cell phone would have been of little use to authorities trying to rescue them.
"Where the Kims' car was found was on the fringe of our coverage area as it was," Anderson said. "So it was a miracle that the phone was able to lock onto the network at all."
Anderson said that if people ever find themselves in a similar situation--lost and having difficulty getting cell phone reception--they should search for the highest ground or area that may be in the line of sight to a tower. They should hold the phone away from their bodies or high so it has no obstructions to a possible tower. It may take up to two or three minutes for it to synchronize or connect with the cell tower and mobile switching center. Even if they can connect for a second or two, it could be long enough to register a voice mail or text message, which could ultimately help wireless engineers track their location.http://www.cnet.com/news/turning-cell-phones-into-lifelines
