USCG Sector Seattle,Bainbridge island Washington

[Stavro35]

Yesterday, here in Bainbridge island Washington our community hosted a boating safety fair. In addition to local police and fire . The coast guard was on hand. A water rescue demonstration was part of the show.

I couldn't find the communications from the coast guard boat with the helicopter. And I know from monitoring communications in Saint simons island, Brunsiwck Georgia, the coast guard DOES communicate by radio when doing these training operations.

I asked one of the coast guard auxiliary on hand where they were on the radio. They were talking to them on 21a. I HEARD them on 21a. And when they started the demonstration my radio went silent. Not a peep on that channel. I asked again where they were. One of the coast guard guys said they went to a secure net.

I was too busy taking pictures by then to even bother following up and trying to find anything that might have been related to what I was watching.

Does the coast guard use other frequencies aside from the normal vhf marine band in the Seattle area? I know they're on the 380 DoD . I didn't hear them there yesterday either .

 

[ecps92]

Most likely they went to the new VHF LMR as listed in the RR WIKI

Yesterday, here in Bainbridge island Washington our community hosted a boating safety fair. In addition to local police and fire . The coast guard was on hand. A water rescue demonstration was part of the show.

I couldn't find the communications from the coast guard boat with the helicopter. And I know from monitoring communications in Saint simons island, Brunsiwck Georgia, the coast guard DOES communicate by radio when doing these training operations.

I asked one of the coast guard auxiliary on hand where they were on the radio. They were talking to them on 21a. I HEARD them on 21a. And when they started the demonstration my radio went silent. Not a peep on that channel. I asked again where they were. One of the coast guard guys said they went to a secure net.

I was too busy taking pictures by then to even bother following up and trying to find anything that might have been related to what I was watching.

Does the coast guard use other frequencies aside from the normal vhf marine band in the Seattle area? I know they're on the 380 DoD . I didn't hear them there yesterday either .

 

[Stavro35]

Hi Bill, thanks! I have programmed in most of those into my Radio shack Pro96 and some into my PSR 500 .. I will be sure to post my findings should any frequencies come to life.

 

[kennyblues]

Might also be worth checking out Chris Parris Blog for 400MHz activity at;
MT Fed Files: More Coast Guard UHF Activity!

 

[Stavro35]

Hi Kenny,thanks I will be programming those into my PSR 500 and Pro96.. thanks

 

[ecps92]

There was also RUMOR that some of the Federal Agencies were using IWIN out that way as well......

Hi Kenny,thanks I will be programming those into my PSR 500 and Pro96.. thanks

 

[Stavro35]

I know a lot of federal agencies must be on the JIWN up here. They're not on the normal frequencies they were on when we first arrived in March of 2006. I have some of those systems programmed into my PSR 500.I just never hear anything on them at all.

 

[ctadam12]

Just so you know, the Coast Guard can, and does, go secure on the VHF Marine band freqs, like 21A,23A,81A, AND 83A. The CG also has a whole different set of VHF working frequencies we can use for operations. Most of the time, comms will be secure when conducting LE and other operations that do not pertain to SAR. SAR cases will almost ALWAYS be non-secure and will be worked on one of the CG freqs on the VHF marine band. Also, 22A is a good freq to listen to the CG talk to boaters on. Hope this helps.

 

[Stavro35]

Of course I know they can, and do go secure on working channels .I was used to hearing that dreadful noise from DES encryption in Saint simons island/Brunswick Georgia. I haven't heard that on any coast guard working frequencies,here, yet.

I lived in southeast Georgia,on an island, most of my life prior to March of 2006.I am by no means new to monitoring the coast guard.

 

[xjf79]

Stavro35

try CG-105 and CG-112 for uscg comms in your area

look at the RR wiki for freqs

Ive heard them active up here around the bellingham area and maybe used in the seattle area too

 

[Stavro35]

Stavro35

try CG-105 and CG-112 for uscg comms in your area

look at the RR wiki for freqs

Ive heard them active up here around the bellingham area and maybe used in the seattle area too

Very cool. I have those programmed into my Pro96 and will make sure I have those in my PSR 500.

 

[Stavro35]

CG Sector Seattle confirmed to be on 163.050.

 

[Mbk127k]

CG Sector Seattle confirmed to be on 163.050.

How did you confirm they were on that Net? Did you listen to them or did you ask them?

 

[Stavro35]

163.05 in use by Sector Seattle

How did you confirm they were on that Net? Did you listen to them or did you ask them?

I heard them on that net a few days ago. I just parked my Pro96 on that frequency, and waited.

 

[hesperiaFIREexplorer]

Yesterday, here in Bainbridge island Washington our community hosted a boating safety fair. In addition to local police and fire . The coast guard was on hand. A water rescue demonstration was part of the show.

I couldn't find the communications from the coast guard boat with the helicopter. And I know from monitoring communications in Saint simons island, Brunsiwck Georgia, the coast guard DOES communicate by radio when doing these training operations.

I asked one of the coast guard auxiliary on hand where they were on the radio. They were talking to them on 21a. I HEARD them on 21a. And when they started the demonstration my radio went silent. Not a peep on that channel. I asked again where they were. One of the coast guard guys said they went to a secure net.

I was too busy taking pictures by then to even bother following up and trying to find anything that might have been related to what I was watching.

Does the coast guard use other frequencies aside from the normal vhf marine band in the Seattle area? I know they're on the 380 DoD . I didn't hear them there yesterday either .

The USCG in the Puget sound area uses a frequency called CG-150 (172.0375 MHz) and in the Port angeles area we use CG-151 (165.4625 MHz). Most of the time, these frequencies are encrypted using AES encryption, however, time to time, you may catch some unencrypted comms. These frequencies are CG-CG comms. For CG-Public comms, we use marine VHF channels 16, and 22A. Channels 21A, 23A, 81A, and 83A are primarily used to communicate with the CG Auxiliary, and other units that do not have Encrypted comms capabilities.

 

[hesperiaFIREexplorer]

Just so you know, the Coast Guard can, and does, go secure on the VHF Marine band freqs, like 21A,23A,81A, AND 83A. The CG also has a whole different set of VHF working frequencies we can use for operations. Most of the time, comms will be secure when conducting LE and other operations that do not pertain to SAR. SAR cases will almost ALWAYS be non-secure and will be worked on one of the CG freqs on the VHF marine band. Also, 22A is a good freq to listen to the CG talk to boaters on. Hope this helps.

FYI: As of recently, the USCG is no longer authorized the use encrypted comms on Marine Band channels. We now have our own working frequencies. Also, as of recently, District 13 policy states the the Coast Guard in District 13 shall use encrypted communications whenever possible. This is due to an incident that occured on the east coast during the presidential inauguration. The Coast Guard was conducting a drill, simulating the response to a terrorist attack, when the local media heard it on a their scanners, which then made the news... Since then the USCG has really pushed towards always using encrypted comms. I know 1st hand