Doug Dotson wrote:

I don't know the actual answer to this, but it seems to me that
the CG has clustered its monitoring stations for HF/MF along the coasts.
What is the rationale behind this? It pretty much limits comms to
groundwave in the covered areas. It would seems that a few stations spread
out around the country would vastly expand coverage via skywave. Is it
because the CG is limited in it's jusisdiction and can't establish
stations inland? One of the advantages of using the ham bands is that
station are stread out all over the world. At any given time day or night
some station either via groundwave or skywave is going to be listening.

Coastguard stations around the world are generally blessed with
serious antenna farms and excellent professional receivers. They
are therefore well equiped to hear you if there is a signal to be
heard.

Always try the official stations first, they are the professionals
and have the training and experience required as well as usefull
stuff like direct links to rescue facilities.

HF communications are, however, subject to atmospheric influence so
it is possible that there may be no direct signal path. In most cases
another vessel or aircraft will respond and be able to relay your
distress call. Once you have exhausted all of the "official" channels
it is certainly worth giving the Ham frequencies a try, the operators
are in different locations and a good signal path may well exist
to someone who can help.

It is important to note that you should not be reliant on HF which
is being rapidly replaced by more reliable satellite services.


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

I don't think you understood the essence of my question.

"Chris Newport" wrote in message
...
Doug Dotson wrote:

I don't know the actual answer to this, but it seems to me that
the CG has clustered its monitoring stations for HF/MF along the coasts.
What is the rationale behind this? It pretty much limits comms to
groundwave in the covered areas. It would seems that a few stations
spread
out around the country would vastly expand coverage via skywave. Is it
because the CG is limited in it's jusisdiction and can't establish
stations inland? One of the advantages of using the ham bands is that
station are stread out all over the world. At any given time day or night
some station either via groundwave or skywave is going to be listening.

Coastguard stations around the world are generally blessed with
serious antenna farms and excellent professional receivers. They
are therefore well equiped to hear you if there is a signal to be
heard.

Always try the official stations first, they are the professionals
and have the training and experience required as well as usefull
stuff like direct links to rescue facilities.

HF communications are, however, subject to atmospheric influence so
it is possible that there may be no direct signal path. In most cases
another vessel or aircraft will respond and be able to relay your
distress call. Once you have exhausted all of the "official" channels
it is certainly worth giving the Ham frequencies a try, the operators
are in different locations and a good signal path may well exist
to someone who can help.

It is important to note that you should not be reliant on HF which
is being rapidly replaced by more reliable satellite services.


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

Chris Newport wrote in
:

Coastguard stations around the world are generally blessed with
serious antenna farms and excellent professional receivers. They
are therefore well equiped to hear you if there is a signal to be
heard.


Not without a cooperating ionosphere, which hasn't been cooperating of
late.

What serious antenna farm have you been to? Their receiving antenna is a
whip! Their transmit antennas go from a whip to a conical monopole at the
10KW stations. Serious antenna farm!

Those silly hams are running 1.5KW PEP, when necessary, into an amazing
array of beam antennas both receiving and transmitting. The average Icom,
Yaesu or Kenwood receiver at any ham station has 2 or 3 HF SSB bandwidths
with digital signal processing of both IF and audio. CG had an old blue
display Commercial HF receiver, last time I went from base to base
calibrating their test equipment a few years back. What ultra-sensitive
receivers are they using today? Those ham rigs have 120 db crystal-sloped
IF skirts and .1 uV receivers. The receivers are so sensitive we have to
have an attenuator to protect them from atmospherics.

Back to the antenna problem.....

Let's say there's 50 hams in USA and Canada monitoring MMSN at noon,
tomorrow. The furthest East is in Nova Scotia. The furthest South is in
West Palm Beach. The furthest West is in Honolulu. The other 50 have
their sensitive little Yaesus listening every few hundred miles in between.
So, their "effective receiving antenna" is VERY well distributed across a
wide area of two countries, maybe even Europe and Asia at times.

CG has...well....8 to 10 whip antennas on each frequency....all right along
the COAST with nothing in between?

Which receiving system has a better chance of hearing out little backstay
transmitter, 180 miles off the Georgia coast??

PS - 22 hams KNOW they can hear me because they heard me and wrote down my
callsign on their desk pad when I did my useless chit-chat checkin.....(c;

"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
Chris Newport wrote in
:

Coastguard stations around the world are generally blessed with
serious antenna farms and excellent professional receivers. They
are therefore well equiped to hear you if there is a signal to be
heard.


Not without a cooperating ionosphere, which hasn't been cooperating of
late.

What serious antenna farm have you been to? Their receiving antenna is a
whip! Their transmit antennas go from a whip to a conical monopole at the
10KW stations. Serious antenna farm!

Those silly hams are running 1.5KW PEP, when necessary, into an amazing
array of beam antennas both receiving and transmitting. The average Icom,
Yaesu or Kenwood receiver at any ham station has 2 or 3 HF SSB bandwidths
with digital signal processing of both IF and audio. CG had an old blue
display Commercial HF receiver, last time I went from base to base
calibrating their test equipment a few years back. What ultra-sensitive
receivers are they using today? Those ham rigs have 120 db crystal-sloped
IF skirts and .1 uV receivers. The receivers are so sensitive we have to
have an attenuator to protect them from atmospherics.

Back to the antenna problem.....

Let's say there's 50 hams in USA and Canada monitoring MMSN at noon,
tomorrow. The furthest East is in Nova Scotia. The furthest South is in
West Palm Beach. The furthest West is in Honolulu. The other 50 have
their sensitive little Yaesus listening every few hundred miles in
between.
So, their "effective receiving antenna" is VERY well distributed across a
wide area of two countries, maybe even Europe and Asia at times.

CG has...well....8 to 10 whip antennas on each frequency....all right
along
the COAST with nothing in between?

Which receiving system has a better chance of hearing out little backstay
transmitter, 180 miles off the Georgia coast??

PS - 22 hams KNOW they can hear me because they heard me and wrote down my
callsign on their desk pad when I did my useless chit-chat checkin.....(c;

Larry you are so far off base, did you even read any of the messages in this
thread???

HOW MANY of the 50 or so Hams you say might be listening to the MMSN are
listening to 2182 khz?

EVERY USCG Group is guarding ONLY that MF-Marine hailing and distress
frequency.

The Communications Area Master Stations are guarding 4125 khz, 6215 khz,
8291 khz and 12290 khz international maritime hailing and distress
frequencies. Unfortunately we cannot describe the antennas receivers and
transmitters doing this job, but you are sadly misguided is you think they
are inferior to anything. Nor does the cooperation of the ionosphere have
as much impact on the performance of this highly versatile system as you
imagine.

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, Virginia