Amateur radio operators preparing for a contest sponsored by ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio® used ham radio to report a forest fire just before winds picked up.

By John Ross, KD8IDJ

With the help of amateur radio operators, a potential wildfire was averted in California on June 12. Amateur “ham” radio is a thriving technical hobby with members active all over the world. Hams often operate from remote locations, and several of them wound up in the right place at the right time while preparing to participate in the 2025 ARRL June VHF Contest.

Robert "Bobby" Debevec, W6IWN, and Jacob T. "Jake" Graham, KC7WXD, both ARRL members from the Reno, Nevada area, were hiking on the Grouse Ridge Trail in California, a section of the Tahoe National Forest. In addition to getting ready for the contest, they had hoped to also activate several Summits on the Air (SOTA) locations. Their day of using the Amateur Radio Service for recreation was going well until they saw smoke near the Black Buttes area and had to use it for its utility value.

Debevec captured the event on video, and posted it to his YouTube channel.

“I was surprised to see smoke ahead of us,” said Graham. “As we got closer, it was clear there had been a lighting hit several days ago and we could also see flames.”

Wireless service is spotty in portions of the eastern Sierra, and they didn’t have a cell signal, so Debevec used his handheld ham radio to report the fire on a nearby repeater. In just seconds, Dan Patterson, W6AI, responded back. He was monitoring the Nevada County Amateur Radio Club linked repeater system in Grass Valley, California, and heard the call. He took the GPS coordinates from Graham and notified the U.S. Forest Service.

“We were monitoring the U.S Forest Service and it only took about 10 minutes for them to dispatch a helicopter to the area,” said Graham. “We watched four firefighters rappel down followed by a pack of equipment. The pair then walked closer to the area and started talking to the crew, who thanked them for the report.

“They put the out the fires but radioed for a helicopter water drop, before they left on foot, with the gear, to a nearby pickup site,” added Debevec.

After the firefighters left, the winds picked up dramatically. Had that happened earlier, the outcome could have much worse. Amateur radio serves communities before and When All Else Fails®, and having a thriving group of trained operators active in amateur radio allowed it to facilitate emergency communications that saved the day.