Richard Webb wrote:
IF I were at sea (and I am a ham) I'd still want more than one band
capability, especially were I at sea on a boat. One of the distinct
advantages of ham radio over most services is its ability to choose
the right band for prevailing radio conditions and the path one wants
to work. Being that the ability to summon assistance when needed on
freqs such as 2182 is limited these days I'd want multiband capability
for my hf marine gear when away from land.

Richard Webb, amateur radio callsign nf5b
active on the Maritime Mobile service network, 14.300 mhz

Hi Richard, bravo for your volunteer work for the MMSN. As far as bandwidth
for prevailing conditions, there are quite sufficient bandwidths available
in the Maritime Mobile Service. Below is a little paraphrased version of the
new guard frequencies. Duplex is now history for all hailing and distress
work with the USCG.

Effective January 1, 2005 new guarded calling and distress freq-
uencies for the USCG long range communication stations will now be
Simplex (single channel call and receive). These "new" guard freq-
uencies have always been the voice-associated distress for follow
up to DSC/GMDSS alert system. Now, instead of waiting for a DSC
alert to start listening to the associated voice channel for a
particular DSC frequency, the following associated voice frequencies
will be guarded. Appropriate day/night monitoring will still apply
to the 'new' guard frequencies.

2182 24 HRS Guarded only by USCG Groups

NMN NMF NMG NMC NOJ
4125 2300-1100Z 2300-1100Z 24 HRS
6215 24 HRS 24 HRS 24 HRS
8291 24 HRS 24 HRS
12290 1100-2300Z 24 HRS

16420 is available by request, and in response to 16meg DSC

Effective Jan 01, 2005, the formerly guarded channels (below)
will be used for working frequencies only after initial contact
is made via simplex on the the guarded channels above.

ITU SHIP SHORE Sched (UTC)
NMN NMN/NMF/NMG
424 4134 4426 n/a n/a n/a n/a
601 6200 6501 n/a n/a n/a n/a
816 8240 8764 n/a n/a n/a n/a
1205 12242 13089 n/a n/a n/a n/a
1625 16432 17314 n/a n/a n/a n/a

See http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/marcomms/cgcomms/call.htm for
details concerning long range HF communications with USCG units.

Jack Painter
"Oceana Radio" USCGAUX
Virginia Beach, Virginia