One day awhile back on the 17 meter band

[Capt. Radio]

I thought I'd relate a short story about an experience I had on the then newly opened 17 meter ham band.

As usual, I was spinning the dial on my TS-130S looking for a contact within the 17 meter band when I stopped the dial on a strong ssb station. This station was attempting to make contact with another station, calling repeatingly. It didn't take too long for me to gather that the station was US military, and not a ham op. When the station called, another military station answered, but the first one couldn't copy the second one. The second station tried several times to come back to the first, but the first still couldn't hear the reply.

I was in a quandary...  I didn't know if I should act as a "go-between" by giving them my call and offer to help these two stations communicate, or just sit there and ignore the situation. I chose the second path beause I was afraid of what could possibly be negative repercussions for me, even though the communications were clearly in the middle of a ham band for which I was licensed for.

Another factor in my decision was the fact that the comm didn't seem to be a life-or-death situation.

I've always wondered what would have taken place, had I threw in my call on that freq and offered to be the "relay"? 

[atrainradio]

I have no idea what would've happened. I figure they wouldn't have been mad- maybe a bit concerned but they would've just let it go. Maybe even happy that you helped them out.

[Capt. Radio]

Atrain,

Another analog to my story is one I read about (if memory serves me correctly) in either QST or Monitoring times... a ham op that had come upon the scene of a serious car accident. I think this was a bit before the cell phone age where everyone has one now.

The bottom line is that the fellow had only one means of communication. He had a VHF transciever in the car that had the capability of transmitting out of band. He used it to contact the local PD directly, and relayed the emergency to them. They responded, and then the troubles began for this fellow. The PD made a whole lot of grief for the "good samaritan".

Even though there is legislation that allows this activity in a life or death situation, the fellow went through a lot of grief in the legal system before it was all over. If I recall, he was finally "absolved" but I'll bet he regretted being in that situation.

I'm sure this story can be found in a 'net search if one was inclined to look.

I've thought of this story after my experience...

[atrainradio]

Well thats bullcrap!! He had to report a serious acciedent and had the VHF trans. What could they get mad about??? He probably saved some lives by reporting it. If they didn't want us to contact them in emergencies- they wouldn't give us ham licenses.

[OldSeaRock]

That's a bit of a tough one for me.  If it had been two hams then I'd offered a relay or at least given my call and let them respond/not respond.

If either of the stations had been calling SOS then I'd have given my call. 

But since these were not recognized ham call signs and there was no mention of emergency, I'd probably have sat back for a bit and then "spun the VFO".   

[Capt. Radio]

...and that's exactly what I did.