I am the US Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla Staff Officer Communications for Flotilla 73 located in Channel Islands Harbor, California.
See About for more information.
April 13, 2010 Alert 02-10
Washington, DC
DANGERS ASSOCIATED WITH AUTOMATIC CHANNEL SWITCHING
ON DIGITAL SELECTIVE CALLING (DSC) EQUIPPED VHF MARINE RADIOS
It has come to the Coast Guard’s attention that an automatic channel switching feature found on certain models of Digital Selective Calling (DSC) equipped VHF marine radios may create an unintended hazard by automatically switching from a working channel that might be in use at the time to Channel 16 when the VHF marine radio receives a DSC distress alert, distress alert acknowledgment or other DSC call where a VHF channel number has been designated. This could happen without a vessel/radio operator’s immediate knowledge and could initiate an unsafe condition by which the vessel/radio operators would believe they were communicating on a working channel such as Channel 13 when, in fact, they were actually on Channel 16. Imagine a towboat operator on the lower Mississippi River making passing agreements on VHF channel 67 and then suddenly, without warning, not being able to quickly reestablish communications with those vessels because his/her radio automatically switched to Channel 16 instead.
Charlie Geiger, SO-CM for Division 7, hosted a BBQ today for the communications people in Division 7. It was an anjoyable evening with a lot of great people.
The division 7 station, Channel Islands One, has a new home and is now located at Station Channel Islands just outside their comms room This will make the system even more valuable for future operations.
There was little damage in the Channel Islands / Ventura harbor areas. A few docks were broken in Ventura Keys. The wave reached about 2 feet in height and about a half a foot negative. Channel Islands Harbor was not affected that I know of.
This shows my computer screen for monitoring the Coast Guard marine broadcast. The left side is WEFAX, upper left is NAVTEX and SITOR. The lower right corner monitors marine VHF channel 70 for emergency digital selective calling broadcast.
P 032110Z FEB 10 ZUI ASN-A12034000016
FM COGARD NAVCEN ALEXANDRIA VA
TO CCGDONE BOSTON MA//DPW//
(other addressees deleted)
BT
UNCLAS //N16562//
SUBJ: TERMINATION OF ALL U.S. LORAN-C SIGNALS//A//
BROADCAST AT A, C, F, G, J, N, O, Q, R, V, W
ACTION ADDRESSEES, REQUEST BNM BE FORWARDED TO YOUR SUBORDINATE
UNITS
BNM 117-10
1. IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE 2010 DHS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, THE U.S.
COAST GUARD WILL TERMINATE THE TRANSMISSION OF ALL U.S. LORAN-C
SIGNALS EFFECTIVE 2000Z 08 FEB 2010. AT THAT TIME, THE U.S. LORAN-C
SIGNAL WILL BE UNUSABLE AND PERMANENTLY DISCONTINUED. THIS
TERMINATION DOES NOT AFFECT U.S. PARTICIPATION IN THE
RUSSIAN-AMERICAN OR CANADIAN LORAN-C CHAINS. U.S. PARTICIPATION IN
THESE CHAINS WILL CONTINUE TEMPORARILY IN ACCORDANCE WITH
INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS.
2. ADDRESS INQUIRIES TO THE NAVIGATION CENTER INFORMATION SERVICE
AT (703) 313-5900 OR WWW.NAVCEN.USCG.GOV.
3. FOR DISTRICTS (DPW): REQUEST DISSEMINATION VIA BROADCAST NOTICE
TO MARINERS USING SUBJECT LINE AND PARAGRAPH ONE AND TWO.
4. FOR CAMS: REQUEST ISSUE OF NAVTEX BROADCAST AT AREAS LISTED
ABOVE.
5. CANCEL AT TIME//082001Z FEB 2010//
BT
NNNN
ALCON,
Effective today, a new PACAUXMONSTA has been added to the team for PACAREA. The Owner Operator is Richard Duncan and the station is located at Oxnard, CA. The station has passed a reception test with flying colors. Early next week, specific tasking wrt to broadcasts will be finalized. Please join me in welcoming this new resource to the PACAUXMON team.
v/r,
Bill Scholz, USCGAUX
USCG CAMSPAC, AUX Support Coordinator
COGARDAUX Upland Radio, NF114AG
A station console has been placed into operation for Division 7, US Coast Guard Auxiliary. The station will be available to support Auxiliary missions and providing additional communication capabilities when needed.
This site now supports the iPhone with its own theme. Pages are not shown, but makes reading blogs quicker and easier when mobile.
Many people I am associated with do not understand the true difference between using an HT verses a base station. They work “with” communications but are not involved with the technical aspects. So, here are two maps. The first one displays coverage area assuming a HT on the ground.
Now, below is coverage of my base station with a roof antenna and 50w.
