"Bruce in Alaska" wrote

Back a few yers there was a Big Infight between the FCC and USCG
concerning this very issue. The FCC rules REQUIRRED a Logged
Radio Check for each piece of equipment, during a SOLAS Inspection,
and the USCG wanted to get out of doing them, because they said their
operators were to busy. Since the SOLAS Requirement was an International
Requirement, the USCG had to backdown, and all District Communications
Officers were informed that these would be the ONLY Radio Checks that
their CommSta's would conduct.
At the time I was the FCC Field Inspector for Southeastern Alaska and
was the liason to District 17, and had many discussions with the
Commander for District Communications, about this and other issues of
mutual interests. this issue never was a problem here in District 17,
but some of the other districts had issues with the policy. Puget Sound
was one of those places, and it took the Region X FCC Director a while
to get the Admiral to come around.
It was ALWAYS very hard to get the USCG to answer up on 2182 Khz for
these checks, even after setting up the check via the VHF Check, and
most of the Southeast Alaska, and Puget Sound, Checks were done with
Canadian Coast Guard, as these guys ALWAYS Kept their 24/7 Watches on
2182 Khz, ALWAYS. The Canadians have always been better at comm's that
our own USCG, and their Wx Transmissions are used thruought the North
Pacific extensivly.

Bruce in alaska
--
add a 2 before @

Bruce, the ten Canadian stations that I can copy in the Newfoundland/Nova
Scotia area do a pretty good job as well. They require all shipping to
contact their VTC's on 2182 and other 2kc freqs, and so the equipment has
probably been modernized to maintain such traffic. There is so much overlap
on US/Canadian wx in the NE that if one station goes a little long, the next
one is on top of it.

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, Virginia