"Doug Dotson" wrote

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

Doug, I don't agree that there is any pattern or history of that situation,
but your last comment was certainly well said. As to the "I have, so
therefore" extrapolation of long distance HF comms, that really doesn't
correlate to the daily long distance messaging traffic we work all over the
Western hemisphere for USCG HF communcations. At any given moment, there are
reasons which it is preaching to the choir to tell you about, but for the
group's sake - those are atmosperic interferences, ionispheric absorbsion,
solar ejections, flares, etc that make long distance propagation really
good, or really poor. Some Hams are certainly more adept at doing this, and
can often make better work of a given situation with equipment that may be
specifically set up for that. But that's "when they can". Tthe missions that
our transmitters and receivers work are much broader, and relied upon 24/7
in all forms of weather, so there are some compromises when compared to
special purpose propagation techniques and equipment that others may
possess. The transmitting station in my home for instance, has better long
range capabilities than any single transmitting site of the USCG. But that
is because we made this setup for a very specific purpose to assist in long
range air to ground communications. In spite of this, I have to secure for
thunderstorms, as you understand I'm sure. So would I rather have one super
setup, or 50 good transmitters and receive antennas spread all over the
country and available with the click of a mouse? I'll tell you, it's a lot
more risky running a SAR case from my single station than with a team in the
master ComSta with all those assets available as backup.

The USCG investment in HF communications is staggering, and so is the cost
to maintain it. One of the primary purposes we do this is to assist the
maritime community! As one sarcastic poster pointed out in a snide post
earlier, satcom has replaced almost all comms, but the truth is not everyone
will ever be able to afford that. So we try to maintain HF service in the
best manner possible to serve the whole maritime community.

Yes we could be better, but I doubt that many in this group are qualified
to understand how. If you know how, then by all means please tell us, as I
asked you before, it is important to hear feedback and we ask for it all the
time.

73

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach VA

On Saturday 15 May 2004 2:38 am in rec.boats.electronics Jack Painter wrote:


As one sarcastic poster pointed out in a snide post
earlier, satcom has replaced almost all comms, but the truth is not
everyone will ever be able to afford that. So we try to maintain HF
service in the best manner possible to serve the whole maritime community.

Maybe you were referring to my comments, maybe not.
A fully compliant satcom system such as F77 is expensive, but not
beyond the means of larger cruisers. Smaller and less expensive
systems are available, right down to handhelds costing little more
than a mobile phone. All of these are easier to use and more
dependable than HF radios. As a minimum all vessels, however small,
should at least carry an L-band EPIRB if they venture out of VHF range.

40 years of HF experience tells me that the unpredictable vagiaries
of HF are not the best thing to struggle with in an emergency.
Technology has moved on and modern satellite based communications
are both reliable and simple to use.

In my opinion, for what it is worth, continued support for HF is
only serving to perpetuate a false sense of security and is
costing lives.

--
My real address is crn (at) netunix (dot) com
WARNING all messages containing attachments or html will be silently
deleted. Send only plain text.