An air traffic controller reported an aircraft on a heading for the traffic pattern that became NORD...

Narrative:

Aircraft X was inbound to nkx from the southwest out [from] 6000 feet. After checking in on button 0 I went through my scan and then issued aircraft X the weather at nkx. Approaching the shoreline I gave aircraft X a descent to 5000 feet. About 10 miles later I instructed aircraft X to fly heading 090 to set up for a base turn. Over the next 15 miles I attempted to contact aircraft X multiple times on; 121.5; and had my peers attempt him on their frequencies. Finally about 21 miles northeast of nkx I able to reach aircraft X on 125.3. He informed me he was having issues on 121.5. At that time even though he was 500 feet below the minimum vectoring altitude (MVA) I assigned aircraft X a southwest bound heading to remain clear of the higher MVA. A few transmissions later I issued aircraft X a climb to 5500 feet. Initially knowing he was heading into an higher MVA but; knowing he was above the eovm (emergency obstruction vectoring map) I wanted to get him away from the higher terrain.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Air Traffic Controller reported an aircraft on a heading for the traffic pattern that became NORDO and flew into an area below ATC's Minimum Vectoring Altitude.

Narrative: Aircraft X was inbound to NKX from the Southwest out [from] 6000 feet. After checking in on Button 0 I went through my scan and then issued Aircraft X the weather at NKX. Approaching the shoreline I gave Aircraft X a descent to 5000 feet. About 10 miles later I instructed Aircraft X to fly heading 090 to set up for a base turn. Over the next 15 miles I attempted to contact Aircraft X multiple times on; 121.5; and had my peers attempt him on their frequencies. Finally about 21 miles Northeast of NKX I able to reach Aircraft X on 125.3. He informed me he was having issues on 121.5. At that time even though he was 500 feet below the Minimum Vectoring Altitude (MVA) I assigned Aircraft X a southwest bound heading to remain clear of the higher MVA. A few transmissions later I issued Aircraft X a climb to 5500 feet. Initially knowing he was heading into an higher MVA but; knowing he was above the EOVM (Emergency Obstruction Vectoring Map) I wanted to get him away from the higher terrain.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1409546
Time
Date	201612
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	NKX.Airport
State Reference	CA
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Small Transport
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Approach
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Experience	Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 4.1
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

An air traffic controller reported an aircraft on a heading for the traffic pattern that became NORDO and flew into an area below ATC's minimum vectoring altitude.