Mother and son found lost in California forest Fire & Arson W6LIW. Welcome to the ARRL Audio News Server. This week's audio news report will begin shortly and pause periodically. Welcome to the W6LIE Repeater. I'm (name withheld), IDJ. This is the ARRL Audio News for Friday, July 25, 2025. Amateur Radio had a crucial role in locating a mother and her nine-year-old son lost in California, Stanislaus National Forest. On Friday, July 11, 2025, the pair was reported overdue from a day trip to Camp Wolfborough, a popular scout camp in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. On Saturday, July 12, the Calaverias County Volunteer Search and Rescue Team, S-A-R, was conducting its monthly training exercise along the Staniswas River. when members received notification that Tammy and Sun Sterling 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 a 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 text from campers in the area. that a vehicle, possibly matching the descriptions of the pair's missing car, had been found. The czar 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. Then just before 6 p.m., the car and the lost mother and son were found. But the rescue was not over. So our team members were unable to communicate with their command post using conventional frequencies and cell phones from their deep wood location. So according to information from a Sheriff's Department news release, they used an amateur radio frequency to report their emergency traffic. That call was immediately answered by a retired El Dorado County communication supervisor, who is also an amateur radio operator, monitoring from his home. He contacted the El Dorado 911 Center and provided the information to the Calamaris County dispatch. The SAR command post was notified, and the mother and her son were transported to waiting family members.
