SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger - emergency information

You most likely arrived at this page by following a link in an email sent to you via my SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger.

The SPOT sends one of four preprogrammed messages along with GPs coordinates:

• SOS/911 emergency help - This is call for help in a life threatening or other critical emergency that goes directly to the GEOS International Emergency Response Center which attempts to contact primary and secondary listed contacts and/or alerts the appropriate agencies, i.e. 9-1-1.
• Help - This preprogrammed message is a call for help in a situation which currently is not critical or life-threatening. However if I am stuck somewhere far from civilization without necessary shelter or supplies in cold or adverse conditions, it could turn in to a real emergency. The most likely reason I would send this is that I have encountered a serious problem like being hopelessly stuck or broken down while snowmobiling far from civilization. If you receive this message, please attempt to help or contact someone who can come in and help get me out.
• Check in / OK - This preprogrammed message indicating my position and that I am OK. I may send a position report message when I know I am in a good location for signal, and/or when I am stopped anyway.
• Custom - This is an alternate preprogrammed message indicating my position and that I am OK. Depending on the situation, it may be used as a prearranged indication of status such as starting a trip, arriving at a junction or location, etc.

More info about the SPOT is available at www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=102

If you get a non-help status message, no action is required unless we have prearranged some additional meaning for the message.

If you get a request for help, please first try contacting me by cell phone at (315) 405-7760. However it is likely I am not in cell range.

Please also try calling my house phone (518) 548-3843 (Lake Pleasant) (315) 376-8878 (Glenfield) to see if anyone else is there who might be able to help, or if I have returned.

If you get a request for help and can not respond yourself, please attempt to contact someone who can.

If this is a winter help request message, I am most likely out snowmobiling somewhere and have a problem that could turn in to a real emergency if I don't get help within a couple of hours, especially at night. If the indicated position is not local and you don't know who to call, you could try contacting the local snowmobile club. You can find contact information for all clubs on the New York State Snowmobile Association list at https://membership.nyssnowassoc.org/club/statemap.

If the coordinates are near Lake Pleasant, try contacting someone in the DRAG of Speculator [website]   [Facebook] or Pleasant Riders [website]   [Facebook] snowmobile clubs. You might try Village Motorsports 855-868-7124. There may also be one of my showmobiling friends hanging out at King Of The Frosties diner 518-548-3881.

If the coordinates indicate I am in somewhere near Brantingham, try contacting someone in the Brantingham Snowmads. Another posibility is that someone at Kovach Repair (315) 348-4060 might be able to find and send someone out to help.

My Amateur Radio call is KC2WI. I may or may not have my 2 meter handheld transceiver, and may or may not be in repeater range. You can contact a local Amateur Radio Operator who can try to contact me on a nearby repeater. In the Lake Pleasant area this will be the Speculator repeater 147.165. In Lewis County this will most likely be Lowville 146.955 (- no pl), Boonville 146.655 (- no PL), Copenhagen 147.255(+ PL 151.4), or Old Forge 147.315 (+ PL 71.9). See the Northern New York Amateur Radio Association web site nyara.net for a list of repeaters in and around the Adirondacks. Additional repeaters covering the Black River Valley and eastern Tug Hill are listed on the Black River Valley club web site brvarc.org. If I have the radio and can not get in to any repeater, I will be monitoring and trying to call periodically on 146.520 simplex.

If you need to get in touch with an amateur radio operator, try the following:

Hamilton County/Lake Pleasant area:
Bill Weaver KA2VLB (518) 548-8351 work 548-3867
Peter Weaver KC2GCH (518) 548-8352
Bill Theilking K2LML (518) 548-6318

Lewis County/Western Adirondacks/Tug Hill:
Dan Hirschey N2OYQ (315) 376-2216; cell 286-2856
Paul Schultz AB2QG (315) 376-4460
Ray O'Brien KC2NBU (315) 942-2578; cell 796-5166