Merged Threads: HMS Bounty

[Barnhard_Marine]

Faunt, Douglas, N6TQS
6405 Regent St
Oakland, CA 946181313
Licensee ID: L00209226
License Class: Extra
FRN: 0003192622
Radio Service: HA
Issue Date: 12/06/2011
Expire Date: 01/21/2022
Date of Last Change: 12/06/2011 (License Renewed)
This guy was the ships electrician he was onboard when the Bounty Floundered. As the ships engineer he is bound by federal regulation to give an accurate account of what transpired during the fateful hours that sent the Bounty to it's watery grave...
He is an Extra class amateur radio operator. Someone that knows how to operate an HF radio. Unless their was a catastrophic electrical failure or their antenna was lost or damaged in the storm. You can always get someone on HF to make a distress call to the CG. Heck I run an HF rig in my pick-up truck. I have a 26' cruiser I have VMS, AIS, VHF & HF as well as a 406 SAT / SAR EPIRB and a SOLAS Flare & signal kit. Someone is going to know where I am if I'm going down.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by GaryMayo

If they call it a hurricane fema cuts checks to people in need. If they call it a storm, fema takes the business class jets back to Washington and keeps the money.

Whatever it was, wish it had pushed some moisture towards the drought stricken areas of the Midwest.

Actually, FEMA helps in any situation called a "MAJOR natural disaster." NY did not get hit by a hurricane. It got hit by a post-tropical storm that was merging with two other fronts. The criteria would cover earthquakes in the midwest (it will happen) in all liklihood, because in the midwest, the shockwaves can spread for well more than 500 miles. The New Madrid Fault would probably do tremendous damage in both St. Louis and Memphis not to mention many other smaller metropolitan and rural areas. They don't help in isolated tornadoes but are there after major outbreaks in a concentrated area.

The media calls it "hurricane Sandy" because that rolls off the tongue more easily than "post-tropical storm" and because the distinction doesn't change why someone's house fell down.

[hpeer]

Just a point, I'm not sure they were out of VHF range. The USCG has a pretty good set of repeaters. Off shore this summer I was surprised at the extent of the coverage.

Not sure on their exact location.

But, as someone said above, surely they had an EPIRB?

[osirissail]

As to the HF radio - the only comment available is that they could not get the Maritime Mobile Net. What other stations they may or may not have attempted to contact is currently unknown to us. But quite a few cruisers with HF sets have forgotten or don't know that the USCG still operates and receives on their own sets of hf freqs. In an emergency I would have attempted direct contact using any of these freq's that are listed here:
HF Distress and Safety Watchkeeping Schedule

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by hpeer

Just a point, I'm not sure they were out of VHF range. The USCG has a pretty good set of repeaters. Off shore this summer I was surprised at the extent of the coverage.

Not sure on their exact location.

But, as someone said above, surely they had an EPIRB?

Still...VHF is line of sight. Even in that rigging, 20 miles at best. I understand they were 150 miles away from Chesapeake.

[GaryMayo]

Originally Posted by Rakuflames

Actually, FEMA helps in any situation called a "MAJOR natural disaster." NY did not get hit by a hurricane. It got hit by a post-tropical storm that was merging with two other fronts. The criteria would cover earthquakes in the midwest (it will happen) in all liklihood, because in the midwest, the shockwaves can spread for well more than 500 miles. The New Madrid Fault would probably do tremendous damage in both St. Louis and Memphis not to mention many other smaller metropolitan and rural areas. They don't help in isolated tornadoes but are there after major outbreaks in a concentrated area.

The media calls it "hurricane Sandy" because that rolls off the tongue more easily than "post-tropical storm" and because the distinction doesn't change why someone's house fell down.

They will reopen when the weather gets more golf weather like.

[xymotic]

Let it go, nobody, well nobody reasonable anyway really expects FEMA personell to risk their lives either. They are just people doing the best they can in the middle of multiple ongoing emergencies. You hate FEMA, we get it.

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

Still...VHF is line of sight. Even in that rigging, 20 miles at best. I understand they were 150 miles away from Chesapeake.

I may have to eat my words on this one. I just spent some time trying to find info about the USCG buoy repeaters and can not.

Decades ago I was a USCG radioman on HC-130's. I did a year in the reserves at Atlantic City.

One day at Atlantic City, we picked up a Mayday from a fellow taking on water something like miles off Montauk, NY. Apparently we were the only station to hear him so I took the call and worked the rescue until we could give control to a closer station who got a helo out and picked him off. Interesting rescue, more stress than I wanted as a weekend warrior.

IIRC back then, in the late '70's, the USCG had installed a series of super buoys that were replacing the light ships. Again, IIRC, they had Channel 16 repeaters to relay distress messages.

Either me head has gone soft (good possibility, so says the Wife,) or they have discontinued the service, or they don't talk about it.

I know when I took my trip this summer I left the Delaware Bay and headed East for a couple of days and then turned NE and ran up to Shelbourne, NS. Don't rightly know how far I was "off shore", I'll have to look at my records when I get to the boat. But I don't think I ever lost coverage until I was well out of US waters.

Surely I had far more than what they indicate on their coverage maps.

Rescue 21 Distress System Coverage

[GaryMayo]

Originally Posted by xymotic

Let it go, nobody, well nobody reasonable anyway really expects FEMA personell to risk their lives either. They are just people doing the best they can in the middle of multiple ongoing emergencies. You hate FEMA, we get it.

???

The photo is hourmous for anyone capable of seeing the humor in it.

[GaryMayo]

Good read from the Coast Guard

People that did the rescue relating their story.

http://coastguard.dodlive.mil/2012/1...he-hms-bounty/

[DeepFrz]

Awesome!

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by hpeer

I may have to eat my words on this one. I just spent some time trying to find info about the USCG buoy repeaters and can not.

Decades ago I was a USCG radioman on HC-130's. I did a year in the reserves at Atlantic City.

One day at Atlantic City, we picked up a Mayday from a fellow taking on water something like miles off Montauk, NY. Apparently we were the only station to hear him so I took the call and worked the rescue until we could give control to a closer station who got a helo out and picked him off. Interesting rescue, more stress than I wanted as a weekend warrior.

IIRC back then, in the late '70's, the USCG had installed a series of super buoys that were replacing the light ships. Again, IIRC, they had Channel 16 repeaters to relay distress messages.

Either me head has gone soft (good possibility, so says the Wife,) or they have discontinued the service, or they don't talk about it.

I know when I took my trip this summer I left the Delaware Bay and headed East for a couple of days and then turned NE and ran up to Shelbourne, NS. Don't rightly know how far I was "off shore", I'll have to look at my records when I get to the boat. But I don't think I ever lost coverage until I was well out of US waters.

Surely I had far more than what they indicate on their coverage maps.

Rescue 21 Distress System Coverage

How can you repeat simplex channels ???? The transmitter of the repeater drowns its own receiver. You can do kludgly voice store and forward systems, but they are a pita. Repeaters need input and output channel separation, ie duplex operation Ch 16 is by definition simplex.



Dave

[hpeer]

IIRC they were repeating on a different freq, then going back to 16 after the hop.

Boat tx 16
Bouy a rec 16 then tx on something else
Bouy b rec something else and tx on 16

But, like I said, that was a loooong time ago.

[capngeo]

Originally Posted by hpeer

IIRC they were repeating on a different freq, then going back to 16 after the hop.

Boat tx 16
Bouy a rec 16 then tx on something else
Bouy b rec something else and tx on 16

But, like I said, that was a loooong time ago.

Years ago when in the marine towing business we had a similar system... A VHF High Site (WHX-982) repeated in UHF to our office and boats. It required a special exemption by the FCC which the radio Guru somehow managed to finagle.

The upside was that a man operating a simple handheld (walkie-talkie) had the same range and presence as a 50W 250' base station. The VHF side had enough range to reliably communicate with a boat close to 90 miles away (downtown Sarasota, FL to Marco Island, FL). On more than one occasion, we had comms with the Dry Tortugas and Key West. The UHF side gave us a solid 25 miles to a handheld and near about 50 to a mobile.

[GaryMayo]

http://www.newsplex.com/home/headlin...178745071.html

Interview and videos with survivor from Bounty. This was this guy's second tour on B. He was the engineer.