With all this talk about inability to raise USCG on HF SSB let me relate my
experiences in two high seas emergencies. I was aboard a commercial tuna boat
fishing between Midway Island and Japan. In the first incident a boat nearby
had a crewman whose hand got caught in machinery and was severely mangled. Too
far for helo medivac so what was needed was emergency medical advice and
clearance to put the injured guy ashore at Midway, several days away. No answer
to calls to USCG on 2182, 4125 etc. Although I am not a ham, I broke into a net
on 20 meters and was answered by a guy named Danny in New Guinea. He
immediately phone patched through to an emergency room doctor in the US who
gave hours of guidance on how to treat the hand and save it. He also contacted
the CG who got the Navy to give clearance for a Midway landing. The next
incident was a very very weak mayday I heard on some 8 MHz marine channel. The
distressed vessel could not hear me nor was it heard by anyone else. It was a
fishing vessel about 200 miles from Hawaii and it had suffered a major engine
room fire. It was taking on water and had no power for pumps. I got the vessel
name and position thank goodness. All calls to USCG went unanswered. In
desperation I finally tuned up on 11179 USB and called a Mayday Relay. I was
anwered by a Marine Corps C 130 air refueling tanker call sign QB 0x? which was
flying off southern Calif. The radio op on the plane was really sharp and in no
time had relayed all the info to the USCG. The boat was saved, no lives lost.
The lesson? Use all your resources, know HF aircraft freqs, etc. Know ham
bands. Hams are generally very helpful in a true emergency. 5696 USB is a USCG
aircraft channel. Its a good one to have in your freq list. Listen to it, there
is almost always some traffic on it if you listen for 15 or 20 min. BTW, all
the calls were made on an "illegal" Drake TR 7 modified to operate anywhere
between 1.5 and 30 MHz. Our "legal" SSB was crystal controlled controlled and
had only official ITU marine channels.