[casey1999]

Practical Sailor has a good article on "Calling Mayday on SSB".

Mayday Calls on SSB - Inside Practical Sailor Blog Article

Very important thing in article is 2182 kHz is no longer monitored by CG and the DSC freq of 2187.5 kHz is no longer used by CG. Very important as a lot of older SSB units have these pre-programmed as emergency default.

See:
DSC DISTRESS

and:
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pdf/marcomms/2MHzDistressWatchkeepingClosureSafetyAlert.pdf

 

[MarkofSeaLife]

Dont use HF. For Maydays at all unless you afe right smack up bum against the USA or Australia.
No
one monitors it.

No one in Asia monitors it, i doubt if anyone in Africa, or South America monitors it.

But if you are in Chesepeake bay after a few hours someone may hear you.

 

[casey1999]

Dont use HF. For Maydays at all unless you afe right smack up bum against the USA or Australia.
No
one monitors it.

No one in Asia monitors it, i doubt if anyone in Africa, or South America monitors it.

But if you are in Chesepeake bay after a few hours someone may hear you.

My plan is to use my Icom Marine SSB on 14.300 Mhz as I have General Class ham license. But if the conditions are bad, I would also try the CG freqs as well as other ham freq (my Icom is "unlocked" for all freq 2-27 Mhz. I guess it would be best to have sat phone and call CG direct. The folks on the "Bounty" did use ham e-mail to get their mayday through which is also a good method. I have herd stories of people trying to contact CG on marine SSB while between Hawaii and California but had no luck.

Also remember, in an emergency you can use ham bands even if you have no license- it is legal. Freq 14.3 Mhz has a range of up to 1/2 way round the world so someone will hear you if band is open.

 

[MarkofSeaLife]

As I said, they were up the bum of the USA.

No one else in the world listens. So where are you going?

 

[casey1999]

as i said, they were up the bum of the usa.

No one else in the world listens. So where are you going?

ch

 

[jackdale]

I used a sat phone to contact RCC Honolulu to get assistance for our medevac in 2012.

Tried both VHF and SSB without success.

 

[aeventyr60]

You will need an understanding of what frequencies people are actually listening in on and communicating on. For the Pacific get familiar with the Pacific Seafarers Net.

I'll try and find a link for you on the current nets that you maybe able to communicate on from Hawaii.

 

[aeventyr60]

Check out DownWind marines cruising guide. Several pages on SSB/HAM nets.

PDF would not attach, so here is the link:

http://downwindmarine.com/downloads/cruisingdownwind.pdf

 

[casey1999]

Check out DownWind marines cruising guide. Several pages on SSB/HAM nets.

PDF would not attach, so here is the link:

http://downwindmarine.com/downloads/cruisingdownwind.pdf

Looks like they list pacific seafarers net as 1430 kHz lsb, I think it is 14,300 kHz USB, that is what I used.

 

[aeventyr60]

While the USCG and other agencies may not be monitoring specific frequencies, other ships carry on communications on a variety of frequencies. Casey- next time you are out in a quiet anchorage listen in on 4 Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, then go up to 6 and 8 and 12. You will be surprised at all the chatter going on. If you tune in often enough, you will hear the same guys talking. Make contact, find out where they are, see how far your radio can receive and transmit. You might make some friends out there.....

 

[SVAuspicious]

Dont use HF. For Maydays at all unless you afe right smack up bum against the USA or Australia.
No
one monitors it.

No one in Asia monitors it, i doubt if anyone in Africa, or South America monitors it.

But if you are in Chesepeake bay after a few hours someone may hear you.

Brunei Bay Radio is in SEAsia and monitors HF/SSB and provides other services.

Australia SAR services monitor HF/SSB.

Monaco Radio can be reached from much of the African East and West Coasts.

There are a lot of nets in Africa and SE Asia although they aren't 24/7.

HF/DSC provides the opportunity to reach commercial shipping.

 

[transmitterdan]

I have not seen the PS info but much info in this thread is wrong. I invite you to look at the Cruisers Forum section on Engineering Systems->Electronics. There at the top in a stickie you will find lots of good (and correct) information about SSB emergency use. It is wrong to say that no one monitors. There are many monitoring but they do it automatically and your SSB radio needs to be DSC equipped for the best chance at being heard.