07/25/2025
Amateur radio had a crucial role in locating a mother and her 9-year son lost
in California's Stanislaus National Forest. On Friday July 11, 2025, the pair
was reported overdue from a day trip to Camp Wolfeboro, a popular scout camp in
the Sierra Nevada Mountains, according to a news release.
On Saturday July 12, the Calaveras County Volunteer Search and Rescue Team
(SAR) was conducting its monthly training exercise along the Stanislaus River
when members received notification that Tami and son Stirling had been reported
missing since Friday afternoon and were not answering their cell phones.
The SAR team set up a command post at Black Springs Off-Highway Vehicle riding
(OHV) Recreational Area and quickly began initiating a road-based search using
four-wheel-drive vehicles and air support from the California Highway Patrol.
Joining the search was a Deputy and a Forest Service Law Enforcement Ranger who
responded to 911 texts from campers in the area that a vehicle possibly
matching the description of the pair's missing car had been found. The SAR team
began to find handwritten notes posted near a remote Forest Service road and
then another about a mile away that included a telephone number and the names
of the missing individuals. Just before 6:00 PM, the car and the lost mother
and son were found. But the rescue was not over.
SAR team members were unable to communicate with their command post using
conventional frequencies and cell phones from their deep woods location. So
they used amateur radio frequency to report their emergency traffic. The call
was immediately answered by a retired El Dorado County communications
supervisor, who is also an amateur radio operator, monitoring from his home. He
contacted the El Dorado 911 center, which provided the information to Calaveras
County Dispatch. The SAR command post was notified, and the mother and her son
were transported to waiting family members.
Young Stirling also had a hand with the rescue. He used his scout whistle to
blow SOS, the internationally recognized Morse code distress signal, to give
searchers a better chance of locating their position.
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