Probably about five years ago we had a mountain hiker who was injured and
was in bad trouble.  He was walking a mountain trail that goes pretty high.
He was a ham.  when he fell, he was knocked unconscious.  Another hiker came
along on the same trail and discovered him.  Neither had cell phones but
this was at a time before cell phones were as common as they are now.  The
second hiker realized if this guy did not get help right away, he was going
to probably die.  He took the first hiker's handi talki and turned it on.
He had no idea what sort of a radio it was.  It just so happened to be set
to the frequency I use all the time.  He called for help and several of us
heard him.  We have had boot leggers on our repeater before and have even
caught one of them.  We thought this might be a boot legger, too, but he
quickly explained what was going on and we explained to him how to use the
radio.  A search and rescue team was called and they got up there right away
and the guy's life was saved.  The issue of this guy, who was unlicensed,
using the frequency came up, or was raised, by some people who doubted it
was legal.  Of course it wasn't legal because he did not have a license.
The FCC was contacted here in Denver and it was reported since it happened
on our repeater.  The FCC said, since it was an emergency, as far as they
were concerned, he could transmit anywhere, at any time, for any reason.
Once the emergecy was over, he would, of course, have to stop transmitting
information which he did any way.  As soon as the search and rescue team
made it to where these guys were, they started using their own radios.  They
even used the same handi talki to get on our repeater to tell us they had
arrived and that they would have no need of the handi talki any longer and
that the guy was going to be all right.  A similar issue came up in Denver a
few years ago when a guy, who had a police handi talki, had an emergency and
transmitted on a police chanel for help.  this really created a flap after
the emergency was taken care of.  I do not recall the circumstances of why
he had a police radio but again the FCC said it was an emergency and the guy
was not prosecuted.  I know one thing, if I were having an emergency, I
would not care what frequency I was on as long as I got help.  You better
make dead sure, however, it is a real emergency or you might end up getting
in some sort of trouble.  I remember reading something about this once years
ago so the regs may have changed now but at that time, and again this was
years ago, you could use any frequency with or without a license if it were
an emergency but who knows now.

73,
Phil,
k0nx