Tips for calling 911 with cellphone

Thank you.  I didn’t know nearly any of that and should have.  I have always taken my (very dated) GPS unit out with me because I didn’t have any idea how to get my coordinates from my phone.

I have a flip phone and a stand-alone GPS

Some day I’m going to join the 21st century and get a smart phone

A few years ago I purchased an Apple Iphone 3g just for taking photos/videos and using it for wifi. It did not come with a sim card. Am I still able to call 911 with it and get thru in an emergency… anyone know?

thanks

dan

Not entirely relevant, but useful if you are ever put into a situation which is super low tech. I once had to deal with a non-life threatening medical problem with someone else. The person injured was too injured to walk out. There was no cell phone service even in the nearest town. We ran into someone heading in the direction of the ranger station and relayed a message with them. I managed to walk out the next morning and ran into the rangers. They wanted to wait until the morning because it was not an emergency. The helpful hikers relayed a completely wrong message to the rangers. The rangers didn’t realize what the medical problem was and didn’t actually understand where we were. I don’t fault the hikers because it ended up being a game of telephone. The solution seems so obvious in retrospect, but I was pretty distraught at the time. Lesson learned: write your message down.

“We ran into someone heading in the direction of the ranger station and relayed a message with them. . . . The helpful hikers relayed a completely wrong message to the rangers. . . . Lesson learned: write your message down.”

+1 on this.  A friend was leading a trip and while scrambling up a rock face, someone got a bad foot injury when a few-hundred-pound rock fell on his foot.  A message was relayed out through multiple people including a Boy Scout / track student who ran for 15 miles.  When the rescue helicopter came, it initially flew right past them because they were looking for 3 dead bodies (2 human and one horse).  The actual group included no dead people and no horses.

Sometimes the most useful item in a first aid kit isn’t normally considered a first-aid item: A Sharpie, gel pen or pencil.

In the digital age, I have found carefully-proofed texts to be much more reliable than voice calls, especially with marginal coverage.  I know two people whose lives were saved last winter because of texts they were able to send out.

A decade ago, my fishing buddy made a joke just as his phone battery died so he wasn’t able to clarify that it was a joke.  30 minutes later the helicopter showed up.  Don’t do that.

Like Jerry, I have a flip phone and a stand-alone GPS unit.   I want to buy an emergency GPS beacon for when I lose cell phone reception, but the reliable ones cost hundreds of dollars.  Some trails, you don’t see a single other human being all day.  All you can do is disappear for awhile.  Scary.

“… but the reliable ones cost hundreds of dollars.”

$240/7year battery = $35 a year.

That’s 3 pair of socks.

[Full Disclosure: I have one for sale here – https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/fs-rescueme-ocean-signal-plb-beacons/#post-3446534  ]

I like that logic!

“Sometimes the most useful item in a first aid kit isn’t normally considered a first-aid item: A Sharpie, gel pen or pencil.”

I have always had a small pencil in my first aid kit.  The book on wilderness first aid I read had it as an essential item.  :)

Jerry, thanks so much for posting that link, it was quite informative.

+1 on having paper and a writing instrument.  I carry a Soviet Space Pen (AKA pencil) rather than a sharpie since it’s field repairable.

Walt