If you get Lost....how do you get found?

COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

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G'day Hairy,

When my better half tells me to get lost........ getting found isn't a part of the conversation.

On a ( slightly) more serious note.......

On one of our trips away, we had an under bonnet fire, for seven years the wiring modification had been all good, untill now.
Didn't have HF or Satphone.
We had .... Food, water, shelter.
Rigged the 27mhz CB and was able to talk briefly with a station in Queensland. Made a sign to wave at train drivers, rail line wasn't far from our location. Kept a lookout for passing tourists.
The station in Queensland contacted their local police, who contacted the WA police, then local police and the CALM (DEC) to confirm our location. Our children at home had been advised of our loction and confirmed this when contacted.
Police arrived six hours later and carted us to civilisation.
RAC WA were contacted, VERY GOOD SERVICE, vehicle picked up, taken to a workshop ( contractor was making phone calls to find an available repairer) vehicle repaired and we went back to enjoying the rest of our holiday.
We prepared the best we could and at the end of it all, we servived. Others have not been so .... fortunate. Ilook forward to comments from others.

Cheers,
Wayne.
PS The police had a Satphone, I called the 13... number and ended up talking with the NRMA. The question from their operator, that worried me the most was...... "is your location near the NSW WA border??"
Fortunately the phone battery died before I could give their operator a coarse course in Australian geography. :-0
Wayne.

Take a deck of cards and start playing patience/sloitaire.

Within minutes some stranger will lean over your shoulder and say "put the red nine on the black ten".

Hairy ,
The bride gave me an epirb as a birthday present . My mates reckon she has taken the battery out ........maybe I should test it .
Willie .

Hi Hairy,
I look forward to your mate's input as you say its easy to put shyte on others when they stuff up but circumstances may dictate their problem as much as ignorance.

Bring him on...

We have a safety pack that we take when 4x4ing or bush walking.

The pack contains 2 x Eflares, 2 x 5w LED tourches, 5w GME UHF handheld, GPS equiped PLB (EPIRB), 2 x Hi vis vests, 2 x boxes of matches and a first aid kit.

We ulso take a bluetooth GPS mouse that can link to our Next G phone turning it into a full fledged GPS.

In the vehicle we have HF radio and satellite phone.

Regards Rchard

Hairy, in my mis spent youth I participated in a few S@R episodes and co ordinated the communications for many more. These were not remote area searches, but people lost in the bush.
First , there's a distinction between being rescued and being retreived. A live person is rescued, a dead body is retreived (as is a non living thing eg car).
Most of the rescues were due to a number of fortunate factors, knowing the general area to search, finding something that had been dropped etc. Plus the person who's lost actually knowing that they were lost ! This meant (on some occasions) finding shelter, water etc and being aware of possible rescue attempts. But each case is vastly different, as circumstances alter cases.
If you are aware that someone might be searching for you, its very different to not being aware.
A positive mental approach is a common factor in survival.
There are lots of survival handbooks, a good one is the WA police one which is online.
But surviving, and being found can be different things.

I become angry with people who don't take any precautions and get into strife. I know common sense can't be legislated, but it can help.
One thing often forgotten is that in the case of a ground search in a remote area, the local police may co opt station personnel etc.
Their preparation is often hampered by lack of time, and this can put the rescuers at as much risk as those who are lost.

Been on plenty of searchs . What makes our job easy is a smokey fire , a mirror flash , or the survivor on a line feature . Most walkers carry a day pack . If they threw in a box of matches , a can of food to use as a mirror , and a compass they are prepared . If you don't carry a day pack , the other solution is a belt pocket knife pouch containing a magnesium and flint fire liter with a miniature compass glued to the magnesium . You can wear that for years without it being a nuissance , but if ever you are caught out you have tha main essentials .My pouch also has a flat blade shaped like a spear head for scraping the flint or for making a spear .