"30 Miles Out, in 40-Degree Water
Several hours after sunset on March 13, the 100-foot commercial clam boat Captain Joe was battling 10 to 15 foot seas about 30 miles off of Point Pleasant, north of Atlantic City, (a LOT north of ACY) New Jersey. Suddenly, the boat began taking on copious amounts of water. The Rescue 21 system, which also has the ability to clean up scratchy transmissions, automatically recorded and archived the frantic, broken and garbled distress call."
That was handled by Station Manasquan on the Point Pleasant Beach side of the inlet, the tower is on the Brielle side at an unmanned site. FYI, this has been "The Beach" since 1963 but the Borough always gets the credit. (;->) There is a ring of VHF antennas at the top forming a Doppler array and several side mounted sticks and folded dipoles that appear to be for HF.
"An End to Mayday Hoaxes?
Rescue 21 also offers the Coast Guard long needed help with the problem of false mayday calls."
EEEeeeh, that's debatable. I don't hear nearly as many directly since I'm want for a proper antenna these days but I still hear the occasional pon pon. With all the weekend warriors' little brats playing with the radios there's no reduction in the nonsense going down on 13 and 16 driving the bridge tenders and Coast Guard nuts. They're not the only ones breathing sighs of relief when the bennies go home for the winter.
Too bad I don't have better pictures but you get the idea, that tower is HUGE.
