"Larry W4CSC" wrote

So, tell us how DO you know what area you can hear on your HF net? Noone
transmits for fear of raising your ire. Can you hear Florida today?
Galveston? 100 miles out? 200? 500?

What magic on that dead HF frequency tells you the sun has exploded,
again,
and communications is useless? Surely you're not depending on WWV's
propagation forecast, are you?

If we observe the two quiet periods for emergency traffic calls, wouldn't
it be better for everyone involved if you knew what boats/ships are also
your ears and eyes on the frequency, expanding your pitiful little
receiving antenna cross section by several thousand miles? "CG Net this
is
WDB-6254, "Lionheart" at 32 24N, 75 12W checkin, no traffic monitoring 802
for next 2 hours." Aha! I can hear a 150W insulated backstay offshore of
Charleston on Channel 802 at this time. HE, on the other hand, will HELP
me monitor the frequency, relaying to areas I cannot hear because of
propagation, any calls that get no answers from me.

What harm have I done to Coast Guard Communications?

They USED to do it on CW, you know! It's how I learned the code when I
was
10 in 1956.....(c;

This is precisely why hams "waste bandwidth", as you say.....see?

When I operate from my station, I use every resource available to me, and it
is everything you would expect a radio operator to do. When operating from
the net control of a vast resource of hundreds of antennas and transmitters
and receivers across thousands of miles, supplemented with satellites, there
is no such concern about "will I be able to hear San Juan"? I only have
three antennas and I can get the job done pretty well too from Newfoundland
to South America, day or night. I carefully chose the antennas to do the
job, and 99% of the time I can do it on 125 watts.

You're confusing radio hobbyists who like to chat with each other and feel
accomplishment in their hobby and equipment by reinforcing that they can
talk to the same stations in the same places over, and over and over, with
the reason that ships are at sea, which is not a hobby. Professional
mariners, which make up the overwhelming majority of all high seas
travelers, have no such time or reason to chat on amateur nets or on
official frequencies reserved for hailing and distress.

The real blue water sailors of a hobbyist ilk, have options in a
communication suite that leaves about zero chance that an emergency call
would not be heard and relayed to appropriate authorities. Amateur maritime
mobile service nets make up one small and nonetheless important part of that
but only where pleasure craft or third-world fishing vessels are concerned.

The USCG just finished supervising the rescue of four people far from
Bermuda who set of an EPIRB. Until the good Samaritan vessel directed to the
scene by the Coast Guard arrived tonight, the USCG C-130 had already found
them, and supplied comfort, communications, food, water and blankets, along
with the assuredness that surface rescue was on the way. One EPIRB did that
for them. Where communications came into play was with the USCG's ability to
contact all area vessels and vector the appropriate ones to the scene. I had
no problem hearing every word that was passed to and from the C-130 and if a
major solar flare had happened, they could have changed altitude, changed
frequencies, and as a last resort, used other more expensive forms of
communication. What you allude to is totally unnecessary and serves only the
brotherhood of clubs who need social interaction to remain a coherent
organization. That's not contested or misunderstood by me, but I think you
believe they do this for reasons which modern communicators would find
frivolous. Or fun. Take your pick.

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, Virginia