Marine Communications

Safety at Sea Seminar

Your Host A.J. Doc Holub

Licensed Radio Officer, U.S. Merchant Marine (ret)
Commercial Radiotelegraph Operator License Commercial Radiotelephone Operator License GMDSS Operator/Maintainer License Amateur Radio License, Extra Class Instructor, Marine Electrical Systems, Sailing Academy, Orange Coast College

Why Do We Want to Communicate?

What Types of Communications?

Emergency Personal Business

ISAF Required Equipment

VHF radio VHF hand held SSB transceiver or satellite phone

Suggestions Before You Depart

Locate communications equipment

Find out how to activate

Determine if there is a communications protocol Be prepared for an emergency

If You Have Iridium Satellite Phone

Iridium does not have Operator Assistance. Before departing, program into your Iridium critical telephone numbers: Coast Guard station at point of departure; Coast Guard in any intermediate points; Coast Guard at destination point; medical assistance numbers if you have assistance contracts; other medical emergency numbers you might require.

A Few Other Words Before We Start

On February 1, 1999 all merchant vessels worldwide were required to have GMDSS (Global Marine Distress Safety System) installed aboard. This system Automatically monitors VHF DSC (Digital Selective Calling) channel 70 plus high frequency DSC channels.
Many private vessels also have installed at least VHF DSC equipped radios. This is important in case of emergency

GMDSS Continued:
You must register your vessel and receive a free MMSI (Maritime Mobile Service Identifier) number.

Register on-line at Boat US or FCC.

Follow setup instructions for your DSC VHF. More information later in this presentation.

These Vessels can be Your Friends in Case of Emergency

Lets Talk Emergencies

MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY Life, limb or ship in imminent danger. PAN PAN PAN Houston, Ive got a problem.

SECURITE SECURITE SECURITE Anyone around me, Im going to do something.

Communications Options
VHF.. Close by

SSB/HAM.. World wide (maybe)

SATELLITE.. World wide, instant

O.K., We Have a Medical Emergency

Its 0300 and there is a medical emergency on board. If in race, and doctor close by, try VHF. Otherwise, Iridium or other satellite telephone. Be able to describe the problem. Follow their advice.

Ship Emergency Imminent Disaster

If you think there is help nearby, initiate VHF DSC call (press the red button). It should wake up the watch at the other end. Standby on Channel 16. If no reply, pick up microphone and call Mayday on Channel 16. If still no reply, use Iridium or use EPIRB.

How Do You Broadcast a VHF Mayday?

Set your vhf radio to Channel 16. Mayday, Mayday, Mayday This is the sailing vessel Morning Light, Morning Light, Morning Light Any vessel, please answer channel one-six (Listen for answer, repeat if necessary but not too long)

(Watch your adrenalin!)

When/If You Receive an Answer

Vessel Name (answering vessel) Mayday, Mayday, Mayday This is the sailing vessel Morning Light, Morning Light, Morning Light We are taking on water and were unable to stop it. We are located at 24 degrees 15 point 45 minutes north, 151 degrees 56 point 80 minutes west. Morning Light is a 52 foot sailboat with a tan deck and blue hull. There are 15 persons on board. We have an EPIRB and three life rafts. This is the sailing vessel Morning Light, standing by on Channel one-six.

If You Acknowledge a Mayday Call

Listen carefully to see if other vessels answer. Do not cause interference. If no other vessel answers: Acknowledge that you are prepared to render assistance. If unable to render assistance, be prepared to relay information to other vessels or appropriate authorities. Relay this information to the Mayday calling vessel. You temporarily are in charge of the situation until you are able to pass it off to another vessel or authority. You may be the relay vessel until assistance arrives.

Satellite GMDSS Procedure

If you have not received an answer on your VHF calls:

If you are equipped with a satellite GMDSS certified system (Inmarsat C), activate the red button.
Stand by for answer.

If No GMDSS Response
GMDSS satellite system is worldwide but it could be possible that you do not receive a response because your own equipment is inoperative. If you have an Iridium telephone, call preprogrammed emergency numbers (USCG, etc) Activate your 406 mhz EPIRB, hopefully equipped with GPS. Wait patiently.

Enough Emergencies Already On to Part Two:

Routine Personal Communications

Weve been out for a week and I want to let my family know our location and condition.

I want to check in with the daily ham radio network and give location, weather and condition.
I just want to yack with other sailors. I want to check in to a ship-to-ship network.

Business Communications
We need some replacement parts when we get ashore.

Something has broken down and I have to speak with a shore side technician.
Be aware of restrictions on business communications.

So, How Do We Do This?

Before We Talk Equipment

In case you are in charge of communications or equipping a vessel, there are some questions:

Qualifying Questions
How far do you want to communicate? With whom? How often will you use it? How important is the message? How much skill is reasonable to expect of the operator?

How Far Do You Want to Communicate?

Effective transmission distances range from line of sight to worldwide. What is propagation? Communicating with more powerful devices may interfere with other communications. High power equipment will affect battery life.

What Kind of Communications?

Voice Data (e-mail) Fax Internet Access Emergency

Portable or Fixed Mounted?

Portables:
Independent from ships systems Convenient

Fixed mounted units:

May have better antenna installations Higher power

With Whom Do You Want to Communicate?

Coast Guard or other rescue agencies Other vessels
Recreational Commercial

Telephone network Internet

E-mail Web Browsing

Land stations (bridge tenders, YCs)

How often Will You Use It?

Will impact total cost of operation
Battery sizes, generators, fuel

Monthly charges Familiarity, ease of operation

How Much Skill is Reasonable to Expect of the Operator?

Ham, in particular, is difficult for non-Hams to operate (and illegal)

SSBs have a lesser but still challenging operating system.

Other systems are as familiar as a portable phone

Now Lets Communicate

VHF Single Side Band (a misnomer) Ham Radio Email (commercial ham) Portable Satellite (Iridium) Fixed Satellite (Inmarsat C - M) EPIRB

A Word About Licensing

VHF U.S. coastwise, no license. VHF foreign ship/operator license (ROP). SSB worldwide ship/operator license (MROP). Ham U.S. license and permission if foreign. Satellite no license but contract. Contact www.fcc.gov for information and forms
Restricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit Marine Radio Operator Permit (OCC classes) Ship Radio Station License

Handheld VHF Radios

Handheld VHF
Range: Cost: Best Uses: 3 miles (another boat) to 20 miles (CG tower) $100 to $300 Cockpit safety, ship to dinghy, small boats (inflatables, kayaks) Some uses are illegal but handy, short range, few channels

Limitations:

Fixed Mount VHF Radios

Fixed Mount VHF

Range: Cost: Best Uses: 20-60 miles (1.2 x sqrt H in feet) $100 to $500 General boat to boat communications Coast Guard; most cost-effective safety item on board if within range Probably Digital Selective Calling Marine only, line of sight range

Limitations:

ISAF Special Regs for VHF

Radio shall have 25W output Masthead antenna No more than 40% power loss due to cable
<50 50-90 90-140 140-230 RG-8X RG-8U 9913F LMR600

Handheld VHF in addition to fixed mount

VHF Antenna Considerations

Antenna height largely controls transmit range Higher gain antennas can focus signal to increase punch or power Boats which roll require a wider transmission angle to avoid clipping Use the largest lead-in wire (coax) that can be used
ORC Regulations

Use coax connectors for all terminations

VHF Antenna Considerations

Stable boats may be able to use a narrowbeam high-gain antenna

Boats which heel or roll may be better off with a wide-beam low-gain antenna

A Word About Digital Selective Calling

New safety requirement Free registration Unique vessel identifier Part of GMDSS (Global Marine Distress Safety System) Currently supplied on fixed VHF and some other communications equipment Not yet monitored by Coast Guard

Iridium 9555

Iridium
Range: Cost: Worldwide $1500-$2500 plus $1.49 per minute plus $20 per month Also rental Portable voice communications where there is no cellular, or where phone calls are expensive Hard to know if they can afford to replace LEO satellites 2400 baud for data, 9600 with compression

Best Uses:

Limitations:

Icom 710 SSB/Ham Transceiver

SSB/Ham Combined Transceiver

Range: Cost: Best Uses: Worldwide $2,000-$3,000 plus installation Long distance ship to ship voice communications, Coast Guard, and Email Rugged, marinized designs Learning curve, complicated installation, time sensitive High current draw on Xmit

Limitations:

Ham/SSB Differences
SSB (commercial) radios are channelized Channel 802, 1206, etc by turn of knob Specific channels set aside for specific uses. Ship-to-ship; ship-to-shore Ham radio has continuous coverage in specified bands. Used to require two separate radios. Newer equipment (Icom 710) combines.

HF Antenna Considerations
Two general types
23 fiberglass whip antennas Insulated wire antennas

Requires an antenna tuner to match frequency to wire length Requires a counterpoise in contact with water or coupled to water

Icom AT-130 SSB Tuner

E-mail via SSB or Ham

Requires a radio, laptop, and TNC (Terminal Node Controller, $650) Slow transmission rates Several non-profit services (Sailmail and WinLink) Commercial WLO Radio (www.wloradio.com) 10 minute per day limit (Sailmail) Very inexpensive compared to other options HAM transmissions limited by non-commercial rules

Terminal Node Controller

Block Diagram of SSB E-mail

Printer Laptop TNC

SSB Radio

Antenna Tuner Antenna

Counterpoise

Inmarsat C

Standard C/Inmarsat C
Range: Cost: Best Uses: Worldwide $2,500 plus $0.25 for 32 characters Reliable messages worldwide Emergency position reporting Free text weather 4X per day for free Small antenna, relatively simple installation Expensive if brevity is not your forte

Limitations:

Inmarsat Mini-M

Inmarsat Mini-M
Range: Cost: Nearly worldwide $3,000 (non-stabilized to $6,000 stabilized) $2.50 per minute Best Usages: Reliable voice, fax and data Foolproof Limitations: Expensive

EPIRBs
406 MHz Beacons
Category 1 (hydrostatic release) Category 2 (manual release) PLB 121.5 not monitored after 1 Feb 2009

Unique encoding for each unit Register it with NOAA (its free!) World wide coverage Available with GPS signal transmission potential Waterproof, reliable, buoyant, rugged
West Marine

Keep Your Info Current

Its free

West Marine

GMDSS
Global Marine Distress & Safety System
Evolved from 1979 meeting of IMO (International Maritime Organization) Satellite- and terrestrial radio-based Changed from ship-to-ship to ship-to-shore
Uses Rescue Coordination Centers End of Morse Code Enables automatic transmissions Reduces need to monitor emergency frequencies

Applies to ships over 300 gross tons Cost me my job.

Additional Notes
National Distress Response System (NDRS)
VHF based system, coastal and 30 miles out. Digitally based system plus voice Direction finding ability by Coast Guard using multiple towers or GPS input Automated broadcasts Up to six emergency channels RCCs connected to NDRS Completion by end of 2007 or 2008 (hopefully)

The End
Thank you for your attention This presentation available at www.arholub.com