BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - Fed Register: High Frequency (HF) Radio Broadcasts of Marine Weather Forecasts may soon end

Jason Billingsworth

wrote:
On 2007-04-26 7JaYh.14405$vD4.4973@bigfe9 said:
Weather Forecasts may soon end
On Apr 26, 4:38?pm, krj wrote:
Yes, you are correct.
---Looks like this only affects HF radio, not VHF. Am I correct?
"Chuck Gould" wrote in message
roups.com...
On Apr 26, 4:10?am, wrote:
Federal Register: April 26, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 80)]
[Notices]
[Page 20863-20865]From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr26ap07-72]

--------------------------------------------------------------------
--- DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Coast Guard
[USCG-2007-27656]
High Frequency (HF) Radio Broadcasts of Marine Weather
Forecasts and Warnings
AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS.
ACTION: Notice; request for public comments.
Yes, but try getting weather on the VHF 100 miles from shore.-
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Like most coastal cruising stink potters, that wouldn't be an issue
for me.
However, for sailors and some LRC folks it would present a problem.
YOu got that right, including shrimpers and others who make
their living, and otherwise would have no reason to
subscribe to the pay for play satellite services etc.

wHat gets me is the part about the equipment being obsolete
and hard to repair/replace. I don't know what these folks
are smoking, but you can run rtty and generate fax with a
garden variety computer. Hell they don't even need to go
with the digital equipment synthesizers for speech anymore,
unlike some of us blind folks who use those for screen
access.

Believe it or not, I utilize these brodcasts myself and i"m
a landlubber. wHy do I use them? SO that when my internut
connection is broken and I can't get the latest data I can
tune in, take shorthand dictation from the synthesized
speech and have the info for those who need it when I
operate as net control for the Maritime mobile service net,
14.300 mhz.

IF having that data saves some poor sap from having to be
fished out of the drink by the cg at $150 k a pop it pays
for itself pretty quickly.

73 de nf5b

Richard Webb, amateur radio station nf5b
Active on the Maritime MObile SErvice net, 14.300 mhz
replace anything before the @ symbol with elspider to email

Any IC protected by a fast acting fuse will protect the
fuse by blowing first.

As a coastie I count the number of techs in the guard that can actually
still repair something as maybe 12. Today's coast guard has something
called the XB program where defective equipment goes back to Baltimore
to be repaired, or is repaired by tech support civilians. It is black
box trouble shooting at its best. It works out well with modern gear
that can be swapped out as a unit. It works out poorly with something
such as an HF-80 that is vintage.

You would think why not buy some new gear, well the procurement process
is very convoluted. There are a lot of senior enlisted and officers
whos job it is to ensure nothing gets changed w/o their personal stamp
of approval. There is absolutely no reward for being able to fix a
piece of gear that others have forgotten about. There is a great deal
of award for having lots of people skills. We shine in the areas of
diplomacy and public image. Just don't ask us to fix a radio or build a
boat.

-Regards