*** Coast Guard Communications Frequencies *** Subject: Re: JSO w/ Coast Guard Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 19:53:25 -0400 (EDT) From: Blair Doyle To: sar-l@islandnet.com >>Item Subject: cc:Mail Text >> Has anybody had a situation where you needed and received help from >> the Coast Guard (or your country's equivalent) to assist in a land >> based search? Specifically, how were communications handled? I have >> Marine VHF 156.800, 157.050 and 157.100 programmed into my mobile >> radio and I have always thought that if I had a Coast Guard chopper >> overhead that I could switch over to their channel and talk to them. >> Has this really worked for anybody? For those of you who are in a >> Coast Guard service, do you people have the ability to come up on >> 155.160 or any other frequency for that matter? Is there a frequency >> of choice for talking to the Coast Guard for ground search team to >> Coast Guard chopper? Have there been big communications problems with >> the Coast Guard that you have found a solution to? I'd like to hear >> your experiences. >> >> Ken Kurth >> Mary's Peak Search & Rescue, Inc. >> Benton County, Oregon. USA The Halifax Regional Search and Rescue Team (formerly Waverley Ground SAR) has worked with the Coast Guard on many different occassions for both salt water costal searches and inland freshwater searches, and have communicated on the following frequencies. 156.800 MHz Channel 16 Notified Coast Guard Radio on this frequency that the Command Bus was online and would be switching to the Coast Guard working frequency. Requested the working frequency. 156.950 MHz Inshore Rescue Working Frequency Most of our search communications with the Coast Guard have been carried out on this frequency. It has proved useful for contacting the Coast Guard Cutter on the ocean or the Inshore Rescue Craft on one of the lakes. We have communicated with the helicopters on this channel but see below. 155.670 MHz RCMP Simplex All the Coast Guard helicopters in this province have this frequency in them as well as the helicopters from the Department of Natural Resources. This is our frequency of choice as it is the working channel for most of our search operations. Some of the RCMP helicopters have this frequency with a CTCSS tone on it so they do not hear the chatter of police radar traps going on. Check to see if this is so. We ran into this problem recently while using the RCMP helicopter with the FLIR system. We have found that most government agencies including the Coast Guard have the RCMP simplex channels in their radios but do not know that they are there or how to bring them up. We are also fortunate that most agencies have access to the Nova Scotia Integrated Mobile Radio System which allows EMO, fire, police,transport, health and forestry departments to talk to each other through a network of 24 repeater sites accross Nova Scotia that can link up to each other and cross connect. The Coast Guard here in Halifax Nova Scotia have a mobile Command Centre which has been made available to our team during our land based searches. It provides extra lighting, cellular fax, as well as access to resources such as boats and an 8 wheeled ARGO. If we are not able to communicate for some reason with one of their resources we can use the com gear in this vehicle to do it. Respectfully submitted by, David George VE1-AJP Communications Officer Halifax Regional Search and Rescue Team dgeorge@is.dal.ca _________________________________________________________________________ David George E-Mail: David.George@Dal.Ca Instructional Media Services Phone: 902-494-3893 Dalhousie University Fax: 902-494-6831 Rm 230 Life Science Centre Amateur Call: VE1 AJP 1355 Oxford St Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 4J1 " Support Your Local Search and Rescue Team ------ GET LOST!!! " -------------------