As a Ham and commercial radio operator with experience in Marine communications, I'd never rely on a Ham rig.
In an emergency, my first choice would be an Emergency Position Indicating Beacon (EPIRB). Modern EPRIBs are quite small. They can be activated by hand, or activate automatically if dropped into salt water if equipped with a "Cat 1" mounting bracket release the EPIRB when they hit salt water, such as if the vessel founders, and so require no human intervention. When activated the EPIRB communicates via satellite with a land-based Rescue Coordination Center giving the center the lat and long of the beacon and the name of the vessel involved. A 400 MHz beacon signal guides rescue crews to the site. Alternatively, VHF FM is the primary communications of choice within range of coastal stations under current Global Maritime Distress And Safety System (GMDSS) within Sea Area 1 (about 40 nautical miles from a shore station). Farther from shore (200 to 400 nautical miles - Sea area 2) HF SSB on the maritime frequencies does play a major role, and the marine SSB rigs are equipped with Digital Selective Calling (DSC) that will alert all vessels in range. It's an automated "SOS". Ham rigs cannot do this. People crossing oceans (Sea area 3) the International Marine Satellite (Inmarsat) system provides reliable voice and data communications unless you are near the polar regions. Sure, INMARSAT is not cheap, but neither is a vessel equipped for such crossings. Finally, if all of the above fails (and it hasn't yet among the thousands of vessels on the high seas) I'd think about whether a Ham rig was available. Most of us O.T.s remember the excitement in 1952 when Captain Kurt Carlson, W2ZSM, remained aboard his broken ship "The Flying Enterprise" trying to save it from being claimed as salvage while it was towed to port. He used his Ham radio to keep in touch with the world to pass the difficult hours as his ship listed and rolled heavily, but only *after* he had summoned and received help using the marine radio service. It was an exciting time for Hams monitoring his transmissions until he was, unfortunately, required to abandon ship just before she finally broke in half and sank. Then, as today, the value of Ham radio is great, but as a *backup* to regular services. 73, Ron AC7AC ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
