A week or so ago I answered a call on the Mt Logan repeater where a station had come across an accident in Logan Canyon and was requesting help to report it to public safety dispatch. For tonight's training, let’s consider a few things that can help if you need to report an emergency to your local dispatch center.
In most circumstances, the person reporting an emergency will be the person who is at the scene of the emergency, using a phone to call 911. The dispatcher will ask a few basic questions in order to determine what help is needed.
First of all, what is the location of the emergency? In rural areas your answer could be a milepost and the name of the road, or the standard two-direction coordinate using the address assigned to the location, such as 51 S Center, in Newton, the address of the Newton EOC.
As a reporting party, the dispatcher may ask for your name and a phone number, in case they need to contact you again if the call disconnects. This may not be necessary if there are multiple calls for the same incident, but be prepared with this information just in case.
Next, the dispatcher will ask you what is the nature of the emergency. Your answer should include a brief description of the emergency, such as, I’m reporting a vehicle crash, a house fire, a grass fire, or, I need an ambulance for an injured person. If you need a police officer, briefly describe what occurred just as you would if it were a fire or crash.
Based on your initial description of the emergency, the dispatcher may use a scripted list of questions to gather additional information that could be helpful for the units responding to the incident. You should try to answer the dispatcher's questions clearly and calmly. You should also stay on the line and follow the dispatcher's instructions until help arrives.
If you happen to answer a radio call from another ham asking for help to report an emergency to dispatch, the experience will be similar, with the exception that you are not the person at the location where the emergency is happening, and your role will be to relay information between the reporting person and dispatch.
When I answered the call from the station in Logan Canyon I was able to gather a few details from the reporting operator before calling dispatch, such as the location and nature of the emergency. In this case it was a vehicle crash at a mile marker on US 90, as well as the closest landmark. With this information I contacted dispatch by phone where I identified myself by name, and that I was relaying the report of a vehicle crash in Logan Canyon from someone who called on the amateur radio repeater.
After providing the information you know, if the dispatcher needs additional information be prepared to relay questions to the reporting operator and provide the answers back to the dispatcher. As we have discussed in other training topics, I strongly encourage all operators to keep paper and pencils nearby whenever you are monitoring a radio. Writing down the pertinent information can ensure accurate information is relayed, whether it be an EOC activation for an emergency situation, or when you need to jump in to help report an emergency to dispatch.
Last but not least, if you are in a situation where you need to report an emergency but do not have a mobile phone signal but you do have a radio available, don't forget about the autopatch on Mount Logan.
If you have a good signal into the repeater, key your microphone and state your call sign, then while the PTT is pressed use the DTMF keys to dial the star key, followed by 9-1-1. Release the PTT key and listen for the autopatch response to your request. When the call is in process you can release the PTT to listen, and press it to speak. When complete, press the PTT key and give your call sign again followed by the pound key, to terminate the autopatch. The blog post of tonight's topic will include a link to the BARC Autopatch instructions page.
Here is a .pdf detailing the autopatch instructions: BARC Autopatch.