Even less than a 150 years ago that would have been impossible. And prior to that communication among normal people could take months.
Even less than a 150 years ago that would have been impossible. And prior to that communication among normal people could take months.
Back in 98, dad managed to reach me on board an intercoastal flight (bos to LAX) from a small sailboat heading to the bahamas. He was on a VHF and hailed a passing cruise ship. Their radio OP had i think a shortwave, and was radio buddies with some ATC guys in the Midwest. He reached out, and one of them went on the air asking if anyone in his airspace was flying BOS to LAX with an unacompanied minor. My plane responded, a stewardess came and got me, and I was able to talk to my dad for a few minutes before we went out of that tower’s VHF range (I guess)
GMDSS has a system and procedure for routing phonecalls over VHF. It’s expensive as hell, and the conversation happens over open frequencies, but it works for those times when there’s an emergency. Works all over the world where there’s maritime VHF comms and the GMDSS convention is in effect.
A coworker of mine got a scare once while we were doing a seismic survey far off the coast of Brazil. A message was passed down from the bridge that he had to come up and phone home ASAP. Cases like these rarely happens unless there’s a family emergency such as death and whatnot.
Well, we were all concerned for him, but when he came out to the backdeck, he was laughing at the entire ordeal. Turned out his dad had come across a really good offer for a quad bike, and needed to know if he should order it for him.