Coast Guard radio protocol

[gmeyerga]

When my CG station sends a VHF emergency message (like Pan Pan)
the time is "usually" given in Coordinated Universal Time
and the location of the problem is described by its lat-long.
Bouncing around in a small boat I can't stroll into a radio room,
read the time off the wall clock and chart a position. It's a lot
easier to believe the CG is not talking to me and to just ignore the message.
Why not give the local time and an approximate geographic location as well.
Since I am in VHF range I then can quickly judge whether I am close
and have a chance to help.
Sometimes the radio gives such information, but why not always?

 

[Rick D]

See This...

...I totally agree...

http://forums.hunter.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?p=745770&highlight=Rick D

 

[Brian D]

The clock on my bulkhead is in GMT. The watch on my wrist is in Local. Got both bases covered. There maybe regions in which the meridian separates two time zones. It would be difficult to state which zone the alert is in. On top of that, what if someone forgot the change between Standard and Saving? Much confusion there also.

Universal time is just that, Universal. It never changes.

 

[Ross]

How hard is it to remember your time zone and subtract 5, 6 or7 hours from GMT. Here on the east coast we are minus five hours.

 

[sinnettc]

One of my watches displays UTC with the push of a button; it also syncs to the atomic clock nightly. With the other I just have to remember -8 or -9 depending on daylight savings.

When we cruise I set the chartplotter to show lat/lon in the lower right corner. Haven't seen much point in doing that on the lake though.

 

[Paul J. Rusyniak]

As a daysailor on a lake, I agree with the OP.

Based on one of these broadcasts just last week, the same message was sent out for at least three hours about a "reported" unmanned boat, adrift near Barge Canal marker #xxx.

There was no indication the CG or local marine patrols ever sent a boat out to verify the report. The way the wind was blowing that day, the drifting boat would have been beached well within the three hours.

Paul

 

[Warren Milberg]

My guess is that if you are receiving a USCG emergency message on your VHF, the event being reported is current. Whenever I hear one of these on the Chesapeake, the USCG is broadcasting out of Baltimore and they always state the location in pretty clear terms (near navaids, bridges, landmarks, etc) in addition to the lat-long.

 

[Winkfish]

Whenever I hear one of these on the Chesapeake, the USCG is broadcasting out of Baltimore and they always state the location in pretty clear terms (near navaids, bridges, landmarks, etc) in addition to the lat-long.

Same down here.

 

[Tom Spohn]

CG Sector Puget Sound gives UTC and local with Lat/Lon and a description of location.

 

[Chilidog]

Is it against proticol to respond to the CG message with a request for a clarification of the location?

 

[Ross]

It is permissible to request that they say again last transmission.

 

[Bill Roosa]

why GMT and lat/long

GMT is used due to the long ranges that are capable on VHF. I sail the middle Chesapeake Bay and can sometimes here Norfolk and even NJ or NY USCG broadcasts. They are all in the same time zone but would not necessarily have to be so they use the one time that everybody can convert to local aka GMT.
Lat/long is similar but for the reason that typically the USCG is talking to folks that have some basic skills and (ahum) charts. Every chart I have ever seen has those pesky black boxes all over it. Those are there for a reason not just to make the chart look "charty" Given that I can say I'm near the wicicomoc bridge and that would put me one of about 4 places on the bay but when I say xx, xx.xx North, yyy,yy.yy West there is only one place on earth that that can be.

A proficient mariner sould be able to plot a lat long in short order (or know that is not near him) and convert to/from GMT too.

 

[Rick D]

Re: why GMT and lat/long

Yea, but Bill, the problem is I can hear 150 miles of CG transmissions and there are a ton of alerts on any given weekend. First, I don't write down every coordinate and they don't repeat it, so I have no idea where on the coast they are talking about. I just don't bother anymore if they don't give some general reference to some parcel of geography. BTW, I have responded several times when I had a general idea what they were referring to. Then, at least, you can call back to get a position coordinate. I'll tell you, in SoCal, the operators need a lot of work. I suspect it's a training area.

 

[Ross]

Re: why GMT and lat/long

generally if I can't see where the problem is I can't get there in time to be helpful.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Bill, you're right. 'Cepting that trying to remember the eighteen or so digits of a lat/lon is a hell of a lot harder than simply having them say "1/2 mile south of Point Such and such." Shoot they could add the l/l, but the basics are all they used to do until they started thinking everybody has a GPS and a pencil and paper in their hands all the time.