US Coast Guard ceases all HF voice distress watch keeping on 7 February 2022

[joehersey]

Published in today's Federal Register. https://www.regulations.gov/document...2020-0668-0006

High Frequency digital selective calling, high frequency voice in waters off Alaska and Guam, and all VHF watches are unaffected.

Summary

The U.S. Coast Guard will cease monitoring all High Frequency (HF) voice distress frequencies within the contiguous United States and Hawaii because they are rarely used. These frequencies are: 4125 kHz; 6215 kHz; 8291 kHz; and 12290 kHz. Advances in radio technology offer alternative means to send out distress notices. We will continue to monitor HF Digital Selective Calling distress alerting for all existing regions and voice distress alerting and hailing from Kodiak, Alaska, and Guam.

Dates

The Coast Guard will cease monitoring all high frequency voice distress frequencies on February 7, 2022.

[ka4wja]

Joe,
Yep, MF/HF-DSC is the proper way to signal other vessels (> 10,000 of them) and the 100's of coast stations worldwide! (before then moving to an SSB Voice traffic channel for two-way Voice comms)
And, has been for decades.
Whether for "routine" traffic, or for "safety", "urgency", or "Distress".

The fact that the USCG is finally discontinuing the SSB Voice Radio Watchstanding is not surprising.

Nope, this is not surprising to me....especially with what I've observed when speaking to senior CAMSLANT personnel earlier this year (and from what I was told 2 years ago, by a few in DC).

{FYI, Australia is soon going the same route....not sure how long News Zealand's Taupo Radio will still have a SSB Voice watch, though?}

FYI, for all here....
Please remember that the GMDSS has been with us since the 1990's (fully implemented and mandatory for all SOLAS vessels and signatory nations on Feb 1, 1999)...so, this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
And, now....maybe, just maybe, some sailors will see the fallacy of trying to use a ~ 25 - 30 year old radio / non-DSC radio, in our modern world....
(and, they'll think of what phone, computer, TV, etc. they were using in the early 1990's, and see if they'd like to go back to using that?)

Everyone remember that the Voice Watch-standing info here on the USCG page is now only valid 'til Feb 7, 2022!!

https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=cgcommsCall

And, it'll be HF-DSC from then on!!


Thank you, Joe, for posting this!

Fair winds.

John

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by ka4wja

Joe,
Yep, MF/HF-DSC is the proper way to signal other vessels (> 10,000 of them) and the 100's of coast stations worldwide! (before then moving to an SSB Voice traffic channel for two-way Voice comms)
And, has been for decades.
Whether for "routine" traffic, or for "safety", "urgency", or "Distress".

The fact that the USCG is finally discontinuing the SSB Voice Radio Watchstanding is not surprising.

Nope, this is not surprising to me....especially with what I've observed when speaking to senior CAMSLANT personnel earlier this year (and from what I was told 2 years ago, by a few in DC).

{FYI, Australia is soon going the same route....not sure how long News Zealand's Taupo Radio will still have a SSB Voice watch, though?}

FYI, for all here....
Please remember that the GMDSS has been with us since the 1990's (fully implemented and mandatory for all SOLAS vessels and signatory nations on Feb 1, 1999)...so, this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
And, now....maybe, just maybe, some sailors will see the fallacy of trying to use a ~ 25 - 30 year old radio / non-DSC radio, in our modern world....
(and, they'll think of what phone, computer, TV, etc. they were using in the early 1990's, and see if they'd like to go back to using that?)

Everyone remember that the Voice Watch-standing info here on the USCG page is now only valid 'til Feb 7, 2022!!

https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=cgcommsCall

And, it'll be HF-DSC from then on!!


Thank you, Joe, for posting this!

Fair winds.

John

I bet there are a group of people pretty excited about no longer having to sit 8 hours at a time listening to static and random whistling sounds!