On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 01:59:01 GMT, Larry W4CSC wrote:

The ham responded, immediately. An American ham contacted someone in the
State Department who acted as liason with Nicaraguan Air Force to start
things going ashore. A Canadian ham contacted the USCG bureaucrats and
acted as relay station for the boat to get all the usual form-filler-outer
data to them.

you miss the point. there is a reason we ask the questions we do.
being both a ham who's handled distress calls, and a CG radio operator
at station sandy hook, the hostility to both camps is unwarranted.


I listened for over 2 hours while pouring over a DC wiring nightmare in our
boat. Not ONCE did USCG come on 14.300 Mhz to talk to this fishing boat,
directly, or did any other government bureaucracy in any country. Why? CG
tried to get him to go to one of the marine HF SSB freqs, but he ended up
back on 20 meters after hearing nothing in reply to his calls there on the
same radio. Any CG can commandeer 14.300 for emergencies. Are their
frequency dials stuck?

i've heard the CG on 14.3 many times.

the CG handles many, many more distress calls than ham radio does. and
the difference is the CG is the ones to go get the folks.

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