- V8V2222 -
HF/SSB radio services


Emergency Contact -

Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centres

Since the late 90's introduction of GMDSS for commercial vessels over 300 tonnes, the monitoring of official HF/SSB Maritime Emergency frequencies around the world for voice calls - Mayday, Pan-Pan and Securite - has almost disappeared.

Many official Coast Radio Stations have closed or seriously reduced their services, because the money to fund their operations - HF/SSB radio telephone interconnect traffic - dried up when large ships were required to install high-power satellite systems, and they transferred their telephone calls to satellite. Previously, the income from HF/SSB radio telephone traffic helped fund free-to-air broadcasts of weather, Maritime Safety Information (MSI) warnings (eg: floating hazards, 6km survey cables towed behind ships, nav lights not working etc), and a 24/7 voice listening watch on the official HF/SSB Marine Emergency frequencies.

The HF/SSB Maritime Emergency frequencies remain the official marine emergency communication method, and are still used by MRCCs to communicate with vessels in distress and to manage and direct other resources to assist them.

These official Marine Emergency frequencies are:

                     2182   4125   6215   8291  12290  16420 

As a general rule, 2182 is not used in tropical or equatorial waters due to the high background noise.

However, it's now almost impossible to initiate contact with an MRCC or related Coast Station by making a Mayday, Pan-Pan or Securite voice call on these Marine emergency frequencies. Many governments have chosen to forget that the GMDSS service was designed for a small minority of offshore vessels - ie: commercial vessels over 300 tonnes. They have installed a GMDSS/DSC only watch for emergency calls, and therefore no longer maintain a 24/7 listening watch for voice calls - Mayday, Pan-Pan and Securite - on the emergency frequencies. 

The vast majority of the world's vessels - ie: recreational or commercial small-craft under 300 tonnes - can no longer initiate contact with an MRCC on the official Marine Emergency frequencies.

A few MRCCs or related Coast Stations (eg: Taupo Radio, Seychelles Radio. MRCC PNG) still maintain 24/7 voice monitoring of some or all Marine Emergency frequencies for Mayday, Pan-Pan and Sucurite calls.

Australian States now operate a limited voice monitoring service on 4125, 6215 & 8291 only. Australia also no longer issues new radio licenses for non DSC equipped HF/SSB radios. 

DSC equipped HF/SSB radios are more expensive and there are extra costs and installation requirements because the DSC receiver requires a second, separate, HF antenna. In addition, only a few radio brands/models are suitable for small craft, in terms of physical size, power consumption, operating voltage and price. The ICOM M802 and ICOM M801E both have DSC class E capabilities suited to small-craft operation, are capable of full power radio email operation, and have a relatively lower price. 

The move into DSC only monitoring of the HF/SSB Marine Emergency frequencies has left the vast majority of vessels in the world  - commercial and recreational - which operate beyond VHF marine radio range of shore stations, without the means to initiate HF/SSB radio voice communication contact with their MRCC, and/or related Coast Station, in an emergency. This has been highlighted by a number of recent incidents in SE Asia.

For those vessels - recreational or commercial - without a DSC equipped HF/SSB radio, the practical options for initiating contact with a MRCC or related Coast Radio station have become either a satellite phone call, or email. Many yachts or small commercial vessels now carry a hand-held satellite phone as a backup, and many also have a low-cost HF/SSB radio email service, such as SailMail or BBREmail.

Email or a satellite phone call can be effective to initially contact rescue authorities regarding a problem, but their response to that alert will almost certainly be to use the official HF/SSB Maritime Emergency frequencies for voice communications to manage the incident.

Voice communications on marine radio is more practical than satellite phone communications during emergencies, because the rescue co-ordination centres (or their associated Coast Station) can broadcast simultaneously to all ships, yachts, planes, helicopters etc involved, and all these can listen to conversations between the MRCC and the vessel in distress, or the MRCC and resources assigned to assist. This open communication allows everyone to know what is happening, what tasks have been assigned to other resources, and to consider how each might need to adapt or integrate their efforts.

For the MRCC to sequentially call each individual yacht, ship, aircraft etc via satellite phone to assign tasks would be very time consuming. And to separately tell each vessel, helicopter etc what all the others are doing would be frustratingly slow and risk errors. Voice communications using the official Marine Emergency frequencies is designed to get the identical message to everyone immediately, and to speed the co-ordination and task assignment process.

If close to shore and major ports etc, the official VHF Marine Emergency channel used by many MRCCs, ports and other authorities in SE Asia, the Pacific and Indian Oceans is still ch16 . 

BRUNEI BAY RADIO conducted a survey of MRCC services and related Coast Radio stations in the BBR service area in October 2009. This revealed:

1. All countries in SE Asia now maintain  an emergency communications watch on HF/SSB only for DSC calls.  There is no voice monitoring of the emergency frequencies for Mayday, Pan-Pan and Securite calls.

2. All MRCCs or related Coast Radio Stations now maintain a 24/7 watch for emergency EMAILS or PHONE calls. These two methods now appear to be the most reliable means for small-craft without DSC equipped HF/SSB radios to initiate contact with rescue authorities in an emergency which does not warrant switching on an EPIRB.

3. Once the MRCC is alerted, they - or their related Coast Station - will most likely communicate by voice using HF/SSB radio (or VHF if very close) on the official Marine Emergency frequencies to co-ordinate the response.  Some MRCCs - eg: Seychelles, India, PNG - report they prefer to use email for ongoing communications.

For example, MRCC Australia has two powerful radio bases with large antenna systems which provide HF/SSB coverage over most of the western  Pacific, NW Pacific and eastern Indian Ocean; including SE Asia and most of BRUNEI BAY RADIO's email service area. However, these radio bases only monitor for DSC  calls to initiate contact; there is no operator listening for voice calls of Mayday, Pan-Pan or Securite. But once MRCC Australia is alerted, these powerful HF/SSB radio systems are used to manage an incident using voice communication. When not in use for emergency communications, these transmitters  broadcast pre-recorded weather forecasts. 

While email  - or low-power satellite phones - are not officially endorsed as methods to contact emergency services, they have become the default option in SE Asia and many adjacent areas for small-craft - recreational or commercial - without DSC capability. Because a 24/7 voice listening watch on the official Maritime Emergency frequencies for Mayday, Pan-Pan and Securite calls is no longer maintained. 

Yacht owners with HF/SSB radio email know their radio email can normally get through even when voice communications is difficult.

In the case of an emergency that requires confidential communications (eg: a situation where a yacht believes they are being pursued/followed, and these vessels they may be monitoring the emergency frequencies), email or satellite phone communications may be preferable.

From the perspective of communication during an incident, some email services have the capacity for simultaneously broadcast to multiple recipients; keeping everyone quickly updated with identical information.

Small-craft equipped with SailMail or BBREmail, can use the RELAY function to quickly distribute one email to multiple email address recipients. This allows a vessel to simultaneously communicate with multiple MRCCs to initiate contact, and to send identical information to the controlling MRCC and tasked vessels or other resources, during an incident. For information about using the RELAY feature in SailMail or BBREmail, send an empty email to relayinfo@saildocs.com .

Pre-prepared RELAY emails with the correct list of MRCC email addresses for the present sailing area can be created in advance. 

Cruising yacht owners from temperate latitudes, North America and Europe should be aware that:

1. There is no VHF network or system of relay/repeater towers on high points in SE Asia, so the range of VHF coast stations is very limited. HF/SSB communications is the only reliable service for communication distances beyond 15 to 20 nm from major ports, harbours etc. 
   
   The substantial distances and lack of VHF marine networks or relay towers - relative to home waters - means VHF marine radio is extremely limited in it's functionality in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, including throughout SE Asia. For example, Australia has declared it has no VHF radio service with DSC function. 
   
   There have been a number of incidents where international cruising yachts equipped only with VHF radios became very dependent on other vessels during their emergency in offshore waters.  Without a nearby vessel to communicate via HF/SSB to/from the MRCC - and then relay on VHF to the yacht in distress - they would be completely out of contact with the MRCC and planes, ships etc on-route to assist during an incident.  A functional HF/SSB radio is important on this side of the world.
    

2. Many portable (ie: low power) satellite phone services are not as reliable in SE Asia (and probably many equatorial regions), because of factors such as the thin spread of satellites at the equator (eg: Iridium), and the density of tropical clouds.
   
   For example, numerous users of BRUNEI BAY RADIO's HF/SSB email service have abandoned existing satellite email systems (including Iridium, Aces and INMARSAT fleet 77), in favour of what they find to be a more reliable - and much cheaper - HF/SSB radio email service.
    

3. It is therefore important that small-craft (ie: under 300 tonnes) operating beyond the short range of local VHF bases, are equipped with a marine HF/SSB radio fitted with the emergency frequencies, and the complete Marine band-plan of simplex and duplex channels/frequencies. 
   
   Yachts should also have an official marine radio callsign issued by their country of registration.
   
   This will ensure the ability to communicate with limited coast stations, official coast stations and MRCCs around the world.
   
   While cruising, this HF/SSB radio will also be invaluable to help reduce the  cost of cruising, to maintain voice contact with other cruisers, to create informal nets, to get the latest local area information - such as marina or anchorage approach waypoints - and to participate in self-help skeds and frequency monitoring.
   
   If buying a new HF/SSB radio, it is advisable to buy a radio with DSC capability, in order to initiate contact with an MRCC. 
    

4. It is advisable to complete a training course to know how to use the HF/SSB radio, and to regularly use the radio for voice communication with other yachts, coast stations etc, so as to be confident of its use in an emergency and as a means to regularly check the radio is working well.
   
   Many countries - or the Yachting Associations in those countries - operate training courses in marine radio communications. In some countries it is necessary to complete the course before an operator's license and ship's radio licence/call-sign will be issued.

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