Gadget could prove vital for a lost city boy

obmar · Gadget could prove vital for a lost city boy

Gadget could prove vital for a lost city boy
Published June 26, 2006

Even though I've spent a fair amount of time in the woods, I'm a city boy at heart.

I learned at an early age how to pitch a tent, use a compass, light a fire without a match and other modest survival skills.

But I never could develop a good sense of direction away from a busy highway. As a result, I got lost in the woods a lot.

Luckily I never got so lost that I couldn't be found, but I had a few close calls.

I know I'm not alone in getting disoriented in the woods. Every year we hear reports of experienced hunters, Boy Scouts and others getting lost in the Ocala National Forest.

Over one weekend last October, a deer hunter got lost in the forest, prompting 30 officers from the sheriff's department, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the U.S. Forest Service to search a 4-square-mile area.

The lost hunter eventually was found safe by a search dog named Bubba.

In 2002, a 17-year-old Eagle Scout from Alabama got separated from his troop during a midsummer bicycle trip through the forest. He was found some nine hours later suffering from heat exhaustion.

Earlier that year an entire Boy Scout troop got lost in the forest during a canoeing trip. Again the rescue teams were called out to search for them.

They were found only because they managed to get into cell-phone range and contact the outside world.

Cell-phone coverage in the forest is spotty, and even the best-equipped hikers can't be assured of maintaining a cell-phone lifeline.

So when folks go in the forest and don't come back as planned, officials call out the posse, the search helicopters and the dogs.

But now the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is coming to the rescue.

For the past few years, NOAA satellites have been locking onto distress signals from hand-held personal locator beacons.

NOAA's Sarsat polar and geostationary satellites, along with Russia's Cospas spacecraft, are part of a high-tech, international search-and-rescue tracking system. The system can locate distress signals from aircraft, boats and personal locator beacons.

The personal emergency beacons have been in wide use since 2003 and start at about $600.

Owners can register their devices through a National Beacon Registration Database.

The personal beacons have been used in Alaska since 1994 as part of an experimental program. More than 250 individuals were rescued thanks to the devices. That led to the nationwide program started in 2003.

The first three months that the program operated nationally saw 24 rescues.

But the system is particularly handy in the summer.

From June to August, during the first year of widespread use, 96 people were rescued. Last summer, 72 people were rescued.

In the United States, 5,218 individuals have been rescued, and the devices are fast becoming standard gear.

I know I'd want to have one while tramping through the national forest.

I wouldn't want to have to depend on Bubba's bloodhound instincts to be found.

Ramsey Campbell can be reached at 352-742-5923 or rcampbell@orlandosentinel.com.