COTHEN & Coast Guard Question ?

[BOBRR]

Hello:

New at this.

Should I be able to hear the COTHEN network conversations of the Coast Guard,
or are they encoded, or do you need some ALE capable equipment to pick up ?

Would a normal, USB HF capable receiver do it ?

Thanks,
Bob

 

[eorange]

Would a normal, USB HF capable receiver do it ?

Yes. Typically you'll hear an ALE burst, followed by normal USB voice.

I use my Kenwood R-1000 and Yaesu VR-500 to listen to COTHEN.

Erik
KA3FYU

 

[jmark]

Hi Bob:

Allot of military communications are encrypted for obvious reasons. You will know when you come upon one. As far as ALE goes, it is widely and regularly used in the military and federal government. And, ALE is nothing more than an automated system employed by equipped radios to select the best possible freq. at that moment based upon RST. As this relates to you, if you do not know the operating frequencies authorized to group - say USCG, National Strike Force, Atlantic Strike Team, then attempting to monitor any communications will be by chance. By this I mean, DoD and NTIA assign freqs. The branches further assign the freqs. Ordinarily several are authorized in different bands to take into consideration atmospheric conditions and skip. So, because ALE is widely used, you need to know all the freqs assigned, then you need to understand propagation so you can select the right freq to monitor based upon the day, time, etc... [a poor man's ALE].

I'm not sure if this answered your question.

Jeff
n8slm@arrl.net

 

[brandon]

I use an Icom IC-R75 and its scan feature to monitor the COTHEN freqs. Simply program the COTHEN and other USCG frequencies and mark them as "Selected". Then you can do a scan of "Selected" freqs and catch traffic whenever it pops up. I set the squelch level so it's just barely high enough for the normal static noise to be gone and for the scan to proceed at full speed. This works best if you have a low noise level otherwise the scan may stop erroneously on “noisy” freqs without any actual voice/ALE traffic.

The Coast Guard seems to be in the clear whenever I hear them. It seems the US Customs service likes to run encryption a bit more; but not always. If you listen quite a bit you can hear some good stuff in the clear. I’ve heard a good DEA chase near the Bahamas (using a remote receiver in Florida) and also some interesting activity in the Southwest US/Mexico border areas (from my own receiver). The COTHEN is pretty active so you should be able to hear something quite shortly after scanning around. Listen for those ALE bursts because a conversation will usually follow.

 

[CSL126]

Hey guys, I live in Central Alabama. I can hear MWARA radio traffic just fine, but i've never heard anything on any of the COTHEN frequencies. What are the most active night/day frequencies?

 

[KC4ZEX]

Mostly what you hear now on the Cothern Freq's is a mix of Coast Guard since last years Hurricanes and DEA traffic. You can hear the clear voice traffic of both. If you want the ALE you will need your receiver hooked to your computer and PC ALE software or something similiar to decode it. A few of the busy Frequencies are 5.732, 7.527, 8.912, and 11.494.

 

[CSL126]

Ok, thanks a lot! This question isn't really related to this thread, but i'm going to ask it here rather than bother you all with another thread. How much will a base hf reciever outperform a portable? I'm sure the base would be better, but is it worth buying one to replace my portable? I listen to HF a lot, and this portable does a good job; however, I always find myself wondering if I could get better reception with a different radio.