Satphones Locked up by Cuban Customs?

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by wjhutchings

Can we please get this in perspective, every country in the world bans HF/MF transmissions whilst a vessel is within their ports including the dear old US of A.

Official footnotes please? I have never heard of such a thing.

Originally Posted by barnakiel

As far as ham is considered in this particular scenario:

- there was no power in La Habana overnight,
- ham aerials may be wiped out together with other infrastructure,

HF/SSB on a boat doesn't require external power anymore than anything else aboard a well-found boat does.

I'm not sure what you think an HF/SSB antenna for ham or marine (or any other HF application) is but HF/SSB has long been the earliest communication into disaster areas.

Originally Posted by barnakiel

I think if Cuban govt censors use of sat phones, do they NOT censor the use of ham radios?

Not onboard. Cuba restricts handheld satellite phones because of concerns about uncontrolled communications by their nationals. Fixed installations of HF/SSB and indeed satellite have not to my knowledge been a concern.

Originally Posted by barnakiel

A sat phone is far simpler and more reliable. Except this particular one is sealed in the Customs office in the Hemingway Marina.

Sat phone is not more reliable. It certainly is simple. Your customer and certainly you as a service provider should not have been surprised by the very long-term policy of Cuba towards handheld satellite phones.

[JPA Cate]

Barnakiel,

They may require someone with a non Cubanham license to acquire a Cuban reciprocal license: that is quite common.

However, don't worry about the aerials. The hams who are into disaster relief generally have a whole battery powered setup with various aerials for the different bands. Even back in WWII, there were hand crank 20 meter band ham sets, that as long as you could crank, you could have voice or Morse Code transmission. The sets are different, of course, now, but hams, world wide, will be eager to help.

Ann

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Auspicious

Your customer and certainly you as a service provider should not have been surprised by the very long-term policy of Cuba towards handheld satellite phones.

This would be the case, I suppose, if Cuba were ever considered in their cruising plan. Cuba became an emergency run-away destination.

We managed to get in touch via mobile but with the power out, a mobile will work only as long.

I can see the boat on the tracker but do not know what conditions she is in.

I will post a report here on what was happening at Hemingway's when I get more info from them.

Cheers,
b.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

They may require someone with a non Cuban ham license to acquire a Cuban reciprocal license: that is quite common.

The requirements depend on the nationality of the base license. Things are of course most complex for US citizens given the state of the relationship between the two countries. Contact

Direccion de Frecuencias Radioelectricas
Ministerio de Comunicaciones
Plaza de la Revolucion
La Habana

Of course that is for ham radio and is not relevant to marine HF/SSB for which all the signatories of the IMO (182 of 195 countries I believe). Marine HF/SSB licensure is fully reciprocal between all signatories. I believe Cuba is a signatory.

I will also point out that a well-found cruising boat with a properly installed HF/SSB station is very robust. There may be propagation issues inside Marina Hemingway (like any marina) but communication with other cruisers in the Leeward and Windward Islands, and South and North America should be straightforward. Cruiseheimers and Chris Parker in particular will be listening for calls from boats along the path of Irma.

Originally Posted by barnakiel

This would be the case, I suppose, if Cuba were ever considered in their cruising plan. Cuba became an emergency run-away destination.

So why didn't you tell them there were communication implications to their choice of a bail-out?

If you weren't aware of local limitations for satellite comms in places like Cuba (which is not unique) do you know the implications of a bent-pipe architecture (Globalstar) vice on-orbit processing (Iridium)? How about LEOs (Globalstar and Iridium) v. GEOs (Inmarsat)? If you are dependent on satellite communications to serve your customers you really should know the failure modes. We all have to look out for our customers.

Originally Posted by barnakiel

I will post a report here on what was happening at Hemingway's when I get more info from them.

Folks in Cuba have checked into the HF nets straight through.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

We managed to get in touch via mobile but with the power out, a mobile will work only as long.

Hold on - this took a while to sink in. A cruising boat without 600 - 1200 Ah (at 12 VDC) of batteries? Keeping a mobile charged is trivial. Even if they abandon for shore (not necessarily a great idea in Havana) they should have a fully charged phone on departure and could (depending on installation) just take a battery along. I'm not suggesting lugging an 8D through the streets of Havana, but a start battery especially for a dinghy engine is survival gear.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Auspicious

Hold on - this took a while to sink in. A cruising boat without 600 - 1200 Ah (at 12 VDC) of batteries? Keeping a mobile charged is trivial. Even if they abandon for shore (not necessarily a great idea in Havana) they should have a fully charged phone on departure and could (depending on installation) just take a battery along. I'm not suggesting lugging an 8D through the streets of Havana, but a start battery especially for a dinghy engine is survival gear.

Please re-read the thread.

The crews of the boats at Hemingways' got evacuated. I can't say if all crews or just some boats. The part of the town to where they got evacuated is/was without power from the night before they got hit.

What forms a good idea is separate thing from what the local authorities request you to do. The evacuation was not optional.

I will post more info on what actually happened at Hemingway as soon as I have the info. At this point I only know the crew is fine and the boat survived. I am worried about the boat though as the marine looks very exposed to surge (on sat images and on web images, anyway).

Cheers,
b.

[barnakiel]

Just as I was writing the above an update came from La Habana.

The boat is OK. My clients are exhausted having spent the night in a completely dark building with windows imploding at regular intervals. The neighbouhood is chaos. Trees and concrete power and phone posts downed. No water, no electricity at the dock, nor in the district. No Internet (off course). The Customs refused to return the satphones (emergency claimed, request turned down).

I am relieved. I was imagining the worst looking at the tracker showing the boat moved across the water channel. But they say just scratches and debris everywhere. The dinghy survived too - flooded and tied to the side.

They are in the second channel from the sea. I guess the first one acted as a sort of buffer for the flooding water, I guess.

Good comments on necessity of broader search on comm limitations in any, not just the planned, destinations. This is the part of my clients by default, but does not free me from worry when contact is lost. A lesson learned, the hard way, still.

Thanks to all contributors! I hope the discussion here and our findings and ideas will help someone along the way.

BTW One thing known already is that if you invest in a tracker, why not get one that has comm options in it. One extra method to communicate. Never too many, I guess.

Cheers,
barnakiel

[jamhass]

Re Ham:
As far as I can find, we have NO reciprocal agreement with Cuba while in their territory. Therefore, it is illegal to transmit on HAM frequencies. I believe this is also true for SSB. Indeed, according to Salty Dawgs https://www.saltydawgsailing.org/wp-...ications-2.pdf
at least the military frowns on transmissions.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by jamhass

Re Ham:
As far as I can find, we have NO reciprocal agreement with Cuba while in their territory. Therefore, it is illegal to transmit on HAM frequencies. I believe this is also true for SSB.

There is no reciprocity agreement with Cuba for amateur (ham) radio. To legally use your ham radio in Cuba you must have a Cuban license. Contact the relevant authority at the address I provided above.

Marine HF/SSB is explicitly allowed under the terms of the IMO agreements of which Cuba has been a signatory since 1966. The link you provided to Salty Dawg doesn't work for me. Regardless, while I think highly of the Salty Dawg organization I defer to official sources like the IMO and Ministério de la Informática y las Comunicaciones de Cuba.