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> Has a cell phone saved your life?, Question of the month
starlagurl
post Apr 28 2008, 02:54 PM
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Never do I bring a cell phone with me when I'm traveling, so this blog post intrigued me.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080...962/1006/SPORTS
My newspaper column this week is about cell phones in the great outdoors. They're an incredible safety tool, but they don't always work when you really need them. In everyday use, they're often annoying. And so on ...

Here's a sample:

Cell phones have saved lives. There’s no doubt about that.

Jason Stevenson, associate editor of Backpacker magazine, knows of kayakers being rescued at sea because of their cell phone signals. He’s heard of lost hikers e-mailing photographs of their location to help rescuers find them.

If you're going into the backwoods, yeah having a satellite phone is a good idea, just don't get it wet!

Have you ever been saved by a cell phone? In the backwoods or in the city, it doesn't matter!


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findingnine
post Apr 28 2008, 09:16 PM
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Highway.

Sometimes Keith has difficulty keeping between the lines. It was blizzarding in December. Had a ditch issue on the way to Saskatoon. I called a towing company to come get me. Even then it was just in time. I was shivering for hours!


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starlagurl
post Apr 29 2008, 08:54 AM
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Oh my goodness... did you have a foil emergency blanket at least???


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findingnine
post Apr 29 2008, 06:19 PM
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No. I had a suitcase in the back of the truck, but I was too cold to get it. I know that makes no sence, but rationality diminishes quick in those circumstances.


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starlagurl
post Apr 30 2008, 08:28 AM
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Yeah that doesn't sound rational at all... At least you had your brains on enough to call a tow truck...



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huckabmm
post Feb 5 2009, 10:15 AM
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This didn't happen to me personally but I have some friends that were canoeing on the Boundary Waters between the US and Canada and had to use a Sat phone to call for an emergency airlift. Crazy!

Another time, some friends were on a boat in the Florida Keys and their boat smashed into a reef. It didn't break the hull but their boat couldn't steer. They didn't use a cellphone but they had to radio for a tow, so I guess that counts??

As an "outdoor adventurer" who enjoys kayaking/backpacking/etc I would never go out without some kind of device (Sat phone, cell phone, radio) that allowed me to call for help.

As Pasteur said, "Chance favors the prepared mind" or as the Boy Scout Motto says, "Be Prepared"


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"Chance favors the prepared mind." - Louis Pasteur

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starlagurl
post Feb 5 2009, 10:48 AM
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Hm...Yes I would imagine when you are in the water, you would need some kind of emergency communication device... You never know when things could turn bad.

Why did these canoeists need an airlift?


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huckabmm
post Feb 5 2009, 10:54 AM
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QUOTE(starlagurl @ Feb 5 2009, 11:48 AM) *

Why did these canoeists need an airlift?


If I recall correctly, a guy in their party broke his leg. Ouch!


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"Be a traveler, not a tourist."
"Chance favors the prepared mind." - Louis Pasteur

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My upcoming trips:
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starlagurl
post Feb 5 2009, 10:56 AM
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Oh man...yuck.

I know a lady who that happened to when she was backpacking in the wilderness somewhere in northern Ontario.

They really had to hike out with her and a makeshift splint. It was nuts. I'm absolutely sure they had a cell phone and they had an ambulance waiting at the end of the trail.

She was in a wheelchair for a WHILE.


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aopaq
post Feb 6 2009, 08:17 PM
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Sadly, in the north many people go out in the spring hunting or fishing and get lost or don't return back as scheduled due to a blizzard. Cell phones don't work there and Sat phones are too expensive so search parties organized by the local Rangers commonly have to go out looking for these folk.....not too infrequently with tragic results.

Unfortunately, even if there was cell phone coverage, the cold sucks out the power of batteries so quickly, they (Sat phones as well) become unusable anyways. That is also why most people do not solely rely on GPS's in the north because you can't expect the batteries to last for very long (something to remember with camera batteries as well).
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starlagurl
post Feb 18 2009, 10:20 AM
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Very interesting. I experienced this lack of cellphone availability in Yellowknife. Apparently there is only one network that works there, and it wasn't the network that we had on our cellphone...

I forget what it is now, but it was one of the big ones. Unluckily for us...the OTHER big one. It ended up being OK anyway. We just used payphones a lot more than usual.


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christbarr22
post Jan 11 2010, 06:11 AM
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I agree that cellphone save the life in emergency But some times It does not work with bad signal coverage like underwater scuba diving.


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