Man, you must have alot of spare time on your hands

That's a given, since as you know, my activities for the USCG are 100%
volunteer!
I specialized in communication areas that I felt needed improvement, and
additionally support other duties that are encouraged at the national and
all local levels. These include vessel safety patrols, marine safety
inspections, and harbor security. Of course I "tow the company line" there!
The USCG and the citizens we serve deserve no less.

So how does the USCG support skywave comms for stations not near the
coast?

By virtue of hundreds and in some cases thousands of miles distance
(North/South and East/West) between multiple antennas (of varying design
frequency, gain, direction and launch angle) at each of several antenna
sites.

You asked an interesting question about antenna locations earlier. It is my
belief that the site locations were neither arbitrary nor at the expense of
reliable communications for the defined area of operations of the USCG.
Nobody will argue that government does practically anything in the most
efficient manner possible. But most will agree that critical services are
provided in the most reliable fashion, nonetheless subject to the
availability of funds provided.


Doug, k3qt
s/v Callista

73,
Jack


"Jack Painter" wrote in message
news:8L_Gd.18132$B95.563@lakeread02...

"Doug Dotson" dougdotson@NOSPAMcablespeedNOSPAMcom wrote

Thank You! A great and sensible answer! And I agree that the squelch
doesn't work all that well on SSB.

Doug, k3qt
s/v Callista

"Me" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Doug Dotson" dougdotson@NOSPAMcablespeedNOSPAMcom wrote:

I don't know the actual answer to this, but it seems to me that
the CG has clustered its monitoring stations for HF/MF along the
coasts.
What is the rationale behind this? It pretty much limits comms to
groundwave
in the covered areas. It would seems that a few stations spread out
around the country would vastly expand coverage via skywave. Is it
because
the CG is limited in it's jusisdiction and can't establish stations
inland?
One of the advantages of using the ham bands is that station are
stread
out
all over the world. At any given time day or night some station
either
via
groundwave or skywave is going to be listening.

Doug, k3qt
s/v Callista

It is because the USCG only deals with "Certain" Comms capability, so
any skywave comms which depend on what the E and F layers are doing
and what the GeoMagnetic Index is at the moment, aren't figured in.
That is also why MF was basically given up as a Maritime Comms System
when the switch to SSB from AM happened, by the USCG. Oh, the
"Official
Line" is that they have a 24/7 Watch on 2812 Khz, but in the REAL
World,
and not Jack's Universe, Most of those MF Receivers have the volume
turn
down, because the Operators can't deal with the white noise, when
trying
to hear something on one of the HF Receivers. Been that way for MANY
years, even if Jack doesn't acknowledge it. Some of the best FCC
Maritime Monitoring that was ever done was from the old Grand Island,
Nebraska, Station.......

Me


Are you still interested in answers to your questions, or would you two
just
rather continue your back-slapping stories? Your replies to each other
sound
pretty cozy, and I don't want to barge in between your barstools while
the
two of you solve the world's problems.

For the rest of the group still following G here is my universe:

1. "Squelch" is NEVER adjusted on any USCG guard receiver, VHF, MF, or
HF.
This applies equally to every Boat Station, Group, Sector, Activity,
Communication Station and Communication Area Master Station. Anyone not
drunk will also understand the following:

2. Volume is NEVER turned down, as was foolishly suggested above. Lets
be
serious for a moment. During critical SAR comms, volume will be turned
UP
on
affected systems, this will have the same effect as turning others
"down".
That is not a long term condition, and SSB receivers are in a separate
area
from the VHF consoles anyway. This is something some of you could
observe
if
you asked for a tour of a Group watchstanding system.

3. Boat Stations do NOT have SSB capability, their AOR is always within
VHF
range.

4. Some small patrol boats DO have SSB capability, namely all new 47'
MLBs's
which systematically replace the aging 41' patrol boats. Some 41's also
have
SSB. All aircraft have VHF/MF/HF systems.

5. Most Groups (or "Sectors" as they are transitioning to) and
Activities
have multiple towers (called "High Sites" ). Location of these
high-sites
normally allows significant overlap of the adjoining Group/Sector's AOR.

6. There are still areas of the Coastal-Continental United States that
have
small gaps in VHF coverage. Maine and Florida used to be the last ones
on
the East coast reporting this problem (there may be others we are not
aware
of). USCG AUX in Florida remedied that state's problem with volunteer
funded, erected and maintained towers and repeater systems in the
thousand
islands area of SW Florida.

7. Rescue-21 when fully implemented, will maintain full VHF coverage in
all
areas, and between 20-40 miles seaward. The first Group to have this
system
completed is adjacent to me, on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Even with
Rescue-21 up and running there, that Group NOW has full MF-DSC-GMDSS
capability on 2187.5 khz and of course monitors 2182 khz (the
IMO-regulated
adjoining voice channel to 2mhz-DSC) on a 24/7 basis, just as all USCG
Groups do.

8. Each of a Group's several high-sites now has their own set of VHF
receivers and transmitters. Group watchstanders monitor a guard receiver
speaker from EACH high site, all playing "white noise" all the time.

9. The SSB/MF/HF systems of every GroupSector/Activity serves many other
purposes than just guarding 2182 khz, which is required by International
treaty for declared Sea Area A-2 (the range between VHF and HF shore
coverage of guard frequencies). IMO regulations are beyond the scope of
this
discussion, but I will be happy to try to elaborate some that relate to
ship
to shore communications later.

9. Automatic Direction Finding equipment with display on computer-screen
charts is selectable from all or individual high-sites.

10. Digital recording devices capture 100% of all incoming traffic to
USCG
Group receivers.

11. Auto-alarms received on 2182 khz (that are NOT during the
testing-periods allowed) occur up to several times a week. In no case
that
I
can remember, has the pleasure boat, fishing vessel or commercial ship
that
sounded them ever "cancelled" with apologies. Callouts and urgent marine
information broadcasts across wide areas result.

12. Auto-alarms received on VHF-DSC Ch-70 (156.525 mhz) with no
acknowledgement or cancellation occur at least weekly. Testing of
VHF-DSC
auto-alarms is illegal, so I guess it's no surprise that most don't
acknowledge. I have heard a commercial fishing captain call us to say
"the
darn thing just went off". He was DF'd and hunted-down before he
acknowledged this. It cost him nothing to apologize yet cost the Coast
Guard
an hour of SAR-callouts, boat-team launch, preparation for aircraft
launch,
etc.

13. Valid MAYDAY calls for USCG SAR-response are received on 2182 khz as
the
first communication used on average of once every two weeks or so along
the
Eastern seaboard.

14. HF is the ONLY 24hr skywave-reliable SSB system in use. MF is only
for
short range (20-200 miles), and only intended as a bridge between VHF
line
of sight and HF skywave. This doesn't stop us from completing hours of
SAR-case communications exclusively on 2182 khz as long as it remains
successful.

Hope this clears some of the fog spreading from various
barstool-scuttlebutt.

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, Virginia