locating by cell phone

by default, don't expect your cell phone to have any coverage in the mountains, especially when you're not on top of a mountain range and dont have a line of sight to civilisation. not sure how widespread it is, but technology has been used by SAR in NZ where the searchers can make a direct call to someones cell phone when it otherwise doesn't have connectivity to the cellular network, it's done from a helicopter, not sure if the helicopter becomes another cellular tower or whether the call is completely outside of the normal network. this technology is not on helicopters by default, it is only being used on some helicopters used for SAR and I dont know how many. I saw it mentioned in the news a few months ago and havent heard any more since. so if something goes wrong and you hear a helicopter it might be worth while turning your cell phone on... sometimes you can send a text message and your phone can show up on the network even when your phone says it has no network coverage, but it's still an unreliable way of communicating and you have to have some connectivity to a cellular tower, its not the sort of thing you can expect to work in the middle of a conservation park... and not in a valley.

In recent times I guess there's also this mobile antenna that can be flown around on a helicopter. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/92553249/Search-and-rescue-helicopter-innovation-could-be-a-lifesaver I wonder how much directional information could be derived from that type of device if the helicopter flew a few converging loops of some sort. Presumably it'd have to be at low altitude to get the best directional information, and hope the phone was still visible.

Such a mobile base station (MBS) would be 360deg but with a highly directional forward looking segment. That way, the MBS could pick up the phone polling and provide an approximate range (from the signal strength info) and direction (from the sectional antenna pattern, say 8 sectors). Then, turning the heli in the rough direction on the signal, the narrow forward looking sector would provide accurate direction. You would know immediately you flew past the phone as it would shift from the fwd sector to one behind. Nice tech. Mesh networking is nice tech too and potentially applicable (but that's a whole new topic).

bear in mind if you have a PLB emergency locator beacon or some of the other satellite communication devices, when you activate them for an emergency, they will transmit your exact GPS location to rescue services who can accurately reference that to locate you anywhere including the large areas of NZ mountains that have no cell phone coverage. the new tech is great, but we've seen in the news a fair bit where trampers are relying solely on a cell phone to raise the alarm when the are in a serious situation and need rescue... often it works out well. but usually its still a very tenuous situation where the rescuees, have very limited communication, often only having the ability to text or their cell phone goes flat. one situation that didnt work out recently was two people who ran off from police into the bush on the desert rd, there have been other scenario's where if no cell phone contact was made then there was an almost certain chance one or more people would have died from injuries or hypothermia... they were making cell phone contact to friends or family , one even made a video call, then there was no more contact as no doubt their cell phone batteries went flat, although i dont recall them trying to contact authorities and there was no indication that authorities could get a reasonable fix on their location from the cell phones in this scenario. the weaker the connection with the cell phone network, the faster a cell phone uses up power trying to maintain connectionn with the network... people take for granted when they are in a town, how long their battery will last and how much they can do on their smart phones. but take those phones into the mountains and the batteries will drain a lot faster. in the mountains, turn your phone off or put your phones on airplane mode while you dont have to make a network connection. use a satellite comms device if you want a realiable device to raise the alaem in an emergency, such as a PLB or railing that a two way comms device, although those are less reliable than a PLB for connectivity in some situations like under bush canopy or in a gorge or a deep narrow valley. leave detailed trip intentions with a trusted contact before you go on a trip. what we're seeing in NZ now are a lot of tourists who go tramping but have limited tramping experience and just think a cell phone will do the job. some of these people are more likely than most trampers to need to call for help because of their improper and or inadequate clothing and lack of navigation skill and their over reliance on their cell phone for multiple tasks, draining its battery, i've seen people playing music through the phone speakers when setting out on a tramp.. a real battery drainer on cell phones. the new tech to locate lost trampers with cell phones, still isnt a get out of jail free card... and it may make people more complacent and less likely to bother with far more reliable communication devices such as mountain radios, PLB's and two way satellite communication devices, having one of the later devices can make the difference between life and death.

@Waynowski. PLB's certainly the lighthouse of rescue, but this thread was prompted by the case of the Mt Somers guy, located thru phone, after a fall. I'm presuming he was inactive ?. I'm also seeing people tramping with power packs & solar rechargers. Might even be worth having a crank dynamo as back-up if you want to travel 'connected' ?. Personally, I tramp, in part, to re-connect with natural. Was getting a little edgy when I tramped with someone who stopped to send or reply to 25 txts first day out. :(

Not enough details on me Somers. Either his oh was ringing and he didn't answer or answer texts. Or the could tell it wasn't moving even though they didn't necessarily have it's exact location. The Telco would tell the police the info they had indicated he wasn't moving. We're just guessing on what info the telco had and what technology they mag have been using

Absolutely with @wayno on this one. Yep - all this other stuff is cool technology, working with what we've got to come up with ingenious ways of helping out those who fail to help themselves. As an ex-comms engineer I'm as eager as any to discuss & play with ways of adapting commonly carried comms devices to aid with rescue. But I wince each time a newspaper (they really do still exist) runs a story on locating/rescuing people by cellphone: yet more complacency instilled in the casual, unaware, uninformed visitor to the backcountry. As a community / nation we need a single clear message to go out: Heading for the back-country? If something goes wrong, the only device that will reliably get rescuers to you is a PLB. Keep the message simple. Hammer it home.

Amen to that! I think the frequent reporting of cellphone use in some rescues creates a false narrative in the minds of the ill-informed. Probably T.V shows are also responsible for creating the illusion that 'Big Brother' can find you anywhere on the planet if you have a device. This kind of delusion needs to be stomped on hard, and media outlets should be compelled to report that cellphones are a bad option. Period.

I don't disagree with most of the above (apart from the 'compelling media ... ' bit) but we were discussing new tech, not replacement tech. It doesn't require a great intellect to realise that a phone (whatever apps it has) isn't a replacement for a PLB. Certainly, a PLB should be an esential part of tramping kit. Mine is **always** with me. However a PLB doesn't guarantee rescue - many factors can frustrate a successful extraction : PLB not deployed (person unconcious, PLB not accessible to person) PLB deployed but not effective (human error, poor location) PLB deployed effectively but no timely rescue due to poor weather, limited resources. I think using a phone as your only map is stupid; I've read of people using their phone as camera, map, compass, gps, emergency comms; using 'nutritional supplement powder' as main food source for 25 day tramp ... and other just dumb things. However, people are responsible for their own decisions. It seems this is not obvious to an apparently increasing number of people. That said, I don't feel any responsibility to restrain those who take ill-considered risk. People smoke, drink excessive alcohol, take illicit drugs (with unknown contents!?) but that's their decision, not my responsibility. (I agree; their decision can adversly affect others - that's where government has a major role). It's fantastic that SAR exists and they do the work brilliantly and have my (and no doubt everyone's) grateful thanks.

... and, wayno, we **do** know that signal strength and approx direction is available to authorities. This data is integral to how cell phone system works (in particular, how a phone is handed off from one cell to another).