Missing Prospectors & other Persons (WA) Western Australia

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Not because she has no concern for my welfare, but all my life she has got used to me disappearing into the field for up to 6 week trips alone. It is a bit different nowadays I take a PLB, SPOT tracker, Satphone and HF radio, so she could actually locate me if she was concerned. I don't know how I survived back in the 1960s and 1970s.....
 
goldierocks said:
Not because she has no concern for my welfare, but all my life she has got used to me disappearing into the field for up to 6 week trips alone. It is a bit different nowadays I take a PLB, SPOT tracker, Satphone and HF radio, so she could actually locate me if she was concerned. I don't know how I survived back in the 1960s and 1970s.....
Click to expand...
As my eyes flicked across your post, my brain saw 'Saxophone' and my first thought was, "Would that be loud enough to help searchers?" 🎷
 
goldierocks said:
Not because she has no concern for my welfare, but all my life she has got used to me disappearing into the field for up to 6 week trips alone. It is a bit different nowadays I take a PLB, SPOT tracker, Satphone and HF radio, so she could actually locate me if she was concerned. I don't know how I survived back in the 1960s and 1970s.....
Click to expand...

Perhaps you got about a lot easier when you weren't carrying all that gear 🤣
 
Moneybox said:
Perhaps you got about a lot easier when you weren't carrying all that gear 🤣
Click to expand...
I don't carry the HF - the 7 foot aerial keeps catching on branches.😁 It lets me make normal telephone calls from the vehicle, nice when away from family for up to six weeks at a time, and was useful once ringing my normal Melbourne service centre from halfway up the Canning Stock Route when I broke down (they got me on the move again). The PLB was a cheap one-off purchase with no annual subscription and the battery lasts for 10 years. I take the SPOT and PLB when walking away from the vehicle as SPOT is much smaller than a packet of cigarettes and hitches to my belt (I just have to be able to press the red button while pinned under a fallen tree), the PLB is about the size of a mobile phone and in my field bag. I work in the forest a lot in Victoria and the PLB has a flashing strobe light with fold-out mirror that will keep flashing more than a day and night (ever tried to find someone in a thick forest where satellite connection is intermittent - I have - a flashing strobe stands out like dogs balls from an aircraft)? Gives them a chance to find you before your battery is gone. And it means my last known position (not that of the vehicle) is known - that used to sometimes be a difference of up to 15 km but can still be 5 km). The SPOT annual subs are now a problem with currency exchange rate changes and I intend to fit a local satellite locator to the vehicle instead with no significant annual charge to replace it (which also has the advantage that if my expensive 4x4 is stolen I can locate it - even shows me an aerial picture of it). The PLB should be sufficient when walking. Perhaps the vehicle is not worth much now, but the idea of fitting bull bars, UHF and HF radios, winch, bash plates underneath, long-rang fuel tanks, roof rack, solar, jeryy can holders, second battery and multiple power plugs around the vehicle and an internal cage for safety and robust slide bars instead of side steps is not appealing with a new vehicle.

I bought them all when I had a business (could not afford to buy all at once now) and I keep them maintained, but I have only had one ten year replacement on the PLB and I upgraded SPOT once in the last 20 years in the field - I have had many emergency situations with my crews although not on my own (well, I got out of those ones but don't mention my stupidity to others - having to walk into Blue Spec mine east of Nullagine in mid-summer in the 60s when I hung up in a creek, - another time I got caught bogged at 35 degree angle on the river bank with rising water crossing the Macquarie River to get to Sofala from Hillend - I got out without contacting SES - it took 16 hours of hard work through the night but it felt good to have the Satphone there . Another time I watched a plane crash and could notify in. Once I used the SPOT in an emergency on the Simpson Desert. Lost two out of three vehicles caught in floods, unable to call for help (eg upper Snowy in the 60s - in those days one of the company vehicles was so bad I had a large screwdriver jammed in the selectors to stop it jumping out of gear descending places like the Mt Margaret Track out of the area around the Sentinels). Bushfires where we used our plane and ground communications to help locals save their properties - once before we had these things it took a 14 hour search to find two guys in an overturned vehicle (by the time we found them one had died - the other was paralysed but we could direct a plane to land on a nearby road and get him out and he recovered). The rolled vehicle was 10 m east of the Bulga Downs-Sandstone road but without any idea of where they were along it, we kept driving past it time and again - the sun was in our eyes when we looked in that direction. In those days you could wait days for a vehicle to pass by on some of those goldfields roads. Another time we came across a guy in a rolled vehicle (North Flinders) and could direct the flying doctor plane and had the emergency flying doctor button on the HF. Another time I had a student with heatstroke and could get advice from the flying doctor. Another time snakebite. However because I have had to use things occasionally, I know (and I bet many people don't realise) that not being able to make satellite contact on at least one emergency device is normal - but I have never known it for more than that at once (they use different satellites). It also means that I can send "I am delayed on woop woop station, don't worry", "send my crew out because I have ripped out three casings", "you have cattle getting through the fence on the Brown Hill paddock" or "here is my 5 am each day verification that I am still alive". And it has been handy in a valley full of smoke asking the fire tower which way to get out of the valley. Another time finding a recreational prospector lost for 3 days. My wife can log in each night and a map appears with my past position every 7 minutes up to where I am now, to an accuracy of 5 m.

Yes, I take OH&S seriously. Doubtful if you will ever hear of a search to find me, even if I am not alive. Embarassing, and it risks other people's lives...I know, I have risked mine for idiots.
 
Hi guys i was just wondering whether or not the older gentleman who went missing a couple of weeks ago has been found or not,the put this stuff out there and then there is nothing...hmm
 
Yeh that was him.
Was trying just yesterday to see if there was any update but nothing since the initial report and a couple of days later an update saying they found his car….
 

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