(BOEING377) wrote in
:

"No
answer to calls to USCG on 2182, 4125 etc."

Did you use the CG's CB "handle" (i.e. "Group Charleston") or their
callsign when you called them? I had a problem here with watchstanders not
knowing what the station callsign of CG Group Charleston was so they
wouldn't answer my calls from the 2nd marina in full view of their antenna.
As soon as I called "Group Charleston" on 2182 he came right up. (I
informed him what his station callsign was after a short discussion of
radio protocol in an international environment.)

Larry WDB6254

"Doug Dotson" wrote in
:


Why is it that USCG "monitored" frequencies are not reliable at these
distances, but ham frequencies are pretty reliable. 4125 is just a bit
above the 80m ham band. I can talk to Australia, Africa, Europe and
Asia fairly reliably.

I think the bottom line is that for whatever reason, the USCG and
USCGA do not do a very good job of monitoring the frequencies that
they claim to. Hams are always on the air somewhere, getting a ham
license is the best insurance for one's safety.

Doug, k3qt
s/v Callista



While the mechanic in Daytona Beach was working over the Pickled Perkins in
Lionheart's bilge, they were astonished to listen to the emergency comms
handled by the hams on 14.300 MMSN for a Honduran fishing boat captain who
had a crew fight aboard where one guy had a knife stuck into his back 7
inches and needed meds, bad. A VE3, who is one of the net's controllers,
was the contact station with USCG who never showed up on 14.300, at all, to
help or take charge of the situation. The hams were alone handling it.
The boat was doing 7 knots headed towards Honduras from about halfway to
Jamaica.

USCG got in touch through some kind of channels with Honduras Air Force
who, eventually, got in touch with the captain of the vessel on VHF several
hours later. A fast boat was dispatched and I heard the hams say they had
heard from the fishing boat captain that the guy had survived the attack
and was safely in a Honduran hospital.

Wonder why CG couldn't get $400M in HF gear I paid for tuned up on 14.300
to talk to the captain, directly? Most interesting. I know their gear
will run on the ham bands because I...er, ah...."operated" on 20 meters
from NMN's great 10KW Harris transmitters into big cone verticals when I
cal'd their test equipment back in the 80's. The transmitters and antenna
systems there can come up on any old frequency you like with serious power.

Larry (No, I didn't run 10KW on 20 meters, but the temptation was
overwhelming!)

Wonder why CG couldn't get $400M in HF gear I paid for tuned up on 14.300
to talk to the captain, directly? Most interesting. I know their gear
will run on the ham bands...

I guess they couldn't pass the code test to get a license

Doug
s/v Callista

On Sun, 06 Jun 2004 03:58:15 -0000, Larry W4CSC
wrote:

(BOEING377) wrote in
:

"No
answer to calls to USCG on 2182, 4125 etc."

Did you use the CG's CB "handle" (i.e. "Group Charleston") or their
callsign when you called them? I had a problem here with watchstanders not
knowing what the station callsign of CG Group Charleston was so they
wouldn't answer my calls from the 2nd marina in full view of their antenna.
As soon as I called "Group Charleston" on 2182 he came right up. (I
informed him what his station callsign was after a short discussion of
radio protocol in an international environment.)

Larry WDB6254

generally the 'stations' wait to see if 'activities' will pick up the
call. if activities does not, the station hearing someone calling
'coast guard' will respond on the 2nd or 3rd call.

bob/wf3h


---------------------------
to see who "wf3h" is, go to "qrz.com"
and enter 'wf3h' in the field

"Bob" wrote

Larry W4CSC wrote:
As soon as I called "Group Charleston" on 2182 he came right up.

generally the 'stations' wait to see if 'activities' will pick up the
call. if activities does not, the station hearing someone calling
'coast guard' will respond on the 2nd or 3rd call.

Bob, there could be exceptions, but Group and Activity are the only USCG
levels manning SSB for 2182 watch. Stations are VHF only. Starting very
soon, there will be no more use of the words Group or Actvities. As the
Marine Safety Office (MSO) merge with existing Groups and Activities, all
future descripton of those units will be "Sector". Each Sector will then
control several Stations as they presently do under the title Group or
Activites, etc.

Best regards,

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, Va

About a month ago Group Portland (MSO Portland, OR) started using Sector
Portland. This went on for a week and then they went back to Group Portland.
I believe they jumped the gun on the switchover to the Sector call sign.
Doug K7ABX
"Jack Painter" wrote in message
news:drMxc.14533$1L4.186@okepread02...
"Bob" wrote

Larry W4CSC wrote:
As soon as I called "Group Charleston" on 2182 he came right up.

generally the 'stations' wait to see if 'activities' will pick up the
call. if activities does not, the station hearing someone calling
'coast guard' will respond on the 2nd or 3rd call.

Bob, there could be exceptions, but Group and Activity are the only USCG
levels manning SSB for 2182 watch. Stations are VHF only. Starting very
soon, there will be no more use of the words Group or Actvities. As the
Marine Safety Office (MSO) merge with existing Groups and Activities, all
future descripton of those units will be "Sector". Each Sector will then
control several Stations as they presently do under the title Group or
Activites, etc.

Best regards,

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, Va

"Doug" wrote in
.net:

About a month ago Group Portland (MSO Portland, OR) started using
Sector Portland. This went on for a week and then they went back to
Group Portland. I believe they jumped the gun on the switchover to the
Sector call sign. Doug K7ABX

I think this paragraph from the CAMSLANT webpage tells a lot why open calls
are not being answered on HF-SSB at USCG coast stations....

"•Guarding specified international distress frequencies, (High Frequency
Digital Selective Calling) responding to emergency signals and requests for
medical advice."

If you're screaming your head off, waist-deep in seawater, on your Icom HF
radio and THEY are waiting for a DSC call without the speaker making all
those nice, old HF noises.........you ain't gonna git saved.

http://www.uscg.mil/lantarea/camslant/station.htm

"HF DIGITAL SELECTIVE CALLING
Portsmouth/NMN, Boston/NMF, Miami/NMA, New Orleans/NMG, Pt. Reyes/NMC,
Honolulu HI/NMO, Kodiak AK/NOJ

2187.5 kHz Coast Guard will normally respond to DSC test calls if
acknowledgment is requested. Reports of uncancelled or unacknowledged
inadvertently transmitted distress calls will be forwarded to the Federal
Communications Commission.
4207.5
6312
8414.5
12577
16804.5

Note: For radiotelex and digital selective calling,
frequencies listed are assigned. Carrier frequency is
located 1700Hz below the assigned frequency."

http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/marcomms/cgcomms/call.htm

"Larry W4CSC" wrote

If you're screaming your head off, waist-deep in seawater, on your Icom HF
radio and THEY are waiting for a DSC call without the speaker making all
those nice, old HF noises.........you ain't gonna git saved.

Larry, the navcenter website is a bit confusing, I agree.
Here are the guarded (voice) marine channels:

ITU
SHIP SHORE Sched (UTC)
NMN NMN/NMF NMG
424 4134 4426 2300-1100 2230-1030 24 HRS
601 6200 6501 24 HRS 24 HRS 24 HRS
816 8240 8764 24 HRS 24 HRS 24 HRS
1205 12242 13089 1100-2300 1030-2230 24 HRS
1625 16432 17314 ( -- on request only --)

And unofficially only,
2182 is guarded 24 hrs by CG Groups, limited range
2182 is guarded 24 hrs by WLO Moble Radio, long range

The United States does not maintain Sea Area A-2 yet, and will not until
RESCUE-21 is completed. But 2182 continues to be monitored even as DSC was
supposed to replace it. Our coverage of 2187.5 DSC is also somewhat limited
due to multi-purpose antennas not being specifically tailored to that
frequency (yet).

CAMSLANT may hear a general call on those guarded channels (above) and not
be able to respond to it if there is a broadcast marine information
bulletin, weather fax/sitor, etc going out at that time. ALWAYS in the case
of a distress call though, any broadcast would be terminated immediately and
the call answered.

"HF DIGITAL SELECTIVE CALLING
Portsmouth/NMN, Boston/NMF, Miami/NMA, New Orleans/NMG, Pt. Reyes/NMC,
Honolulu HI/NMO, Kodiak AK/NOJ

2187.5 kHz
4207.5
6312
8414.5
12577
16804.5

Note: For radiotelex and digital selective calling,
frequencies listed are assigned. Carrier frequency is
located 1700Hz below the assigned frequency."

No voice is ever guarded there. This is the case worldwide as well. However,
since I asked us to monitor for interference caused by our own transmitters
(HFDX, broadcast wx fax, etc) there are now speakers connected to these
receivers, but there is never voice traffic expected or listened for on DSC.
DSC procedures describe an appropriate voice channel to switch to after a
DSC distress call is sent. The DSC distress channels are overloaded with
safety testing most hours of the day and night since IMO originally required
daily testing. Now the requirement is weekly, but that word is slow in
getting out to the commercial fleets. It hasn't slowed down much!

Hope this helps,

Jack

While I was in Daytona Beach, waiting for the mechanic to show up to work
on the diesel, I monitored 14.300 Maritime Mobile Service Net run by the
"professionals", those retired hams who doggedly keep MMSN running.

The captain of a Honduran fishing vessel half way to Jamaica knew where to
come to get ANSWERED. He got the finest emergency service anyone could ask
for. Eventually, USCG got contact with the Honduran Air Force who located
the boat and sent a boat to intercept him with medical care. The victim,
who had been stabbed with a 7" knife in between his guts in a fight aboard,
actually survived they tell me!

The boat captain wasn't a ham, not licensed. That mattered not. What I
couldn't figure out is why CG didn't come up on 14300 to talk to him,
directly. The hams provided all the comms to the boat. The ham talking to
USCG was in Canada.

A lot of bad things happen to ham radio, these days. But, those old guys
who give up their retirement to help the net....made ham radio just shine
like a bright star that day.

Larry

"Larry W4CSC" wrote

While I was in Daytona Beach, waiting for the mechanic to show up to work
on the diesel, I monitored 14.300 Maritime Mobile Service Net run by the
"professionals", those retired hams who doggedly keep MMSN running.

The captain of a Honduran fishing vessel half way to Jamaica knew where to
come to get ANSWERED. He got the finest emergency service anyone could
ask
for. Eventually, USCG got contact with the Honduran Air Force who located
the boat and sent a boat to intercept him with medical care. The victim,
who had been stabbed with a 7" knife in between his guts in a fight
aboard,
actually survived they tell me!

The boat captain wasn't a ham, not licensed. That mattered not. What I
couldn't figure out is why CG didn't come up on 14300 to talk to him,
directly. The hams provided all the comms to the boat. The ham talking
to
USCG was in Canada.

Larry, the good things you said about Mobile Maritime Service Net are
understated, if anything. But none of your assertions about getting answered
or questioning why USCG did/does not come up on 14300 are accurate. Any
service such as MMSN will have success strories to tell, but that does not
diminish the internationally unequaled service provided by the USCG.
Mariners in distress are never so fortunate anywhere in the world as they
are when reachable and assisted by the United States Coast Guard and United
States Navy. It doesn't matter whether the call was answered by or referred
to the USCG or USN. Both services have applauded the dedication and ability
of the MMSN, and both can and do come up with the operators there to assist
in assessment and in many cases rescue of distressed vessels.

Jack


A lot of bad things happen to ham radio, these days. But, those old guys
who give up their retirement to help the net....made ham radio just shine
like a bright star that day.

Larry