Deadliest Catch Continued....

[blantonl]

Watching a Deadliest Catch episode this evening... they rebroadcast a Mayday call from one of the fishing boats which was definitely over HF. They rebroadcast it from one of the other boat's bridge. and the call was very faint over HF/USB

The most interesting thing was that an ALE call went over the channel right after the Mayday call.

Was it an improperly programmed ALE equipped radio, or a private ALE network between the crab boats?

The Captain of the boat who heard it on the video actually referred to the ALE sound as something creepy sounding (I can't remember his actual response to hearing it, something about aliens or something like that.)

Anyone know anything further?

[stateboy]

I think you are reading into the F/V Northwestern captain's remarks a little bit too much. I think he was referring to the mayday in general, not the ALE squawk. Sig is not the most profound skipper in the fleet, esp. when he's tired.

Most of the boats use SATCOM phones to talk bridge-to-bridge or bridge-to-home, as this is a competitive industry and the crews don't really want their hotspots known to the rest of the fleet. All/some of the boats have HF for comms with USCG when out of VHF range, but I have no idea how many have ALE-capable rigs. For all the antennas on the roof of the wheelhouse's, I'd hope that comms are not a problem.

[Hooligan]

Originally Posted by blantonl

Watching a Deadliest Catch episode this evening... they rebroadcast a Mayday call from one of the fishing boats which was definitely over HF. They rebroadcast it from one of the other boat's bridge. and the call was very faint over HF/USB

The most interesting thing was that an ALE call went over the channel right after the Mayday call.

Was it an improperly programmed ALE equipped radio, or a private ALE network between the crab boats?

The Captain of the boat who heard it on the video actually referred to the ALE sound as something creepy sounding (I can't remember his actual response to hearing it, something about aliens or something like that.)

Anyone know anything further?

Seems like a lot of the Bering Sea crabbing fleet likes Stephens Engineering Associates (SEA) brand radios, & while some have Digital Selective Calling as part of GMDSS, they don't have/use ALE.

As perhaps you have the eyes & ears to notice but some others apparently do not, HF/SSB is actively used by the guys on the TV show. They have & use Inmarsat as well, but anyone with good ears and good eyes, aided perhaps by seeing the show in high-definition & being able to freeze the images will notice that HF/SSB with or without DSC is used a lot.

The episode last week (filmed in September/October 2008) showed one captain talking to another on 14500kHz. I'm not going to look it up to see if it's a legit ITU Maritime channel or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was one they were bootlegging on.

The episode airing on 4 May showed the F/V Northwestern's SEA 222 MF/HF radio tuned to ITU Marine channel 45# (looked like 450) as he got a DSC call from the crab processing base. The samje footage showed the FCC callsign -- WDE 5198. But I either copied it down wrong, or it's an anomaly, as that callsign comes back to a voluntarily HF equipped recreational vessel out of San Pedro CA.

If I recall right, the episode airing last week showed a captain getting an HF DSC call from another captain who was desperate for I think a spare part (grappling hook?). It showed the incoming DSC code on the LCD control head on the microphone, but the captain decided not to respond.

Inmarsat is mostly used for internet access -- email & weather info, or business/personal calls to regular phone #s but air time ain't cheap like it is for HF.


Tim

[ka3jjz]

Definitely bootlegging on 14500. That's not a marine allocation - and certainly not unexpected. Here on the East Coast, it's not all that uncommon to hear Latin American fishing fleets using freqs way outside the marine allocations (some Japanese, too)....73 Mike

[caylorman]

Originally Posted by Hooligan

The episode airing on 4 May showed the F/V Northwestern's SEA 222 MF/HF radio tuned to ITU Marine channel 45# (looked like 450) as he got a DSC call from the crab processing base. The samje footage showed the FCC callsign -- WDE 5198. But I either copied it down wrong, or it's an anomaly, as that callsign comes back to a voluntarily HF equipped recreational vessel out of San Pedro CA.

Tim

Pretty close. An FCC search shows the callsign for the F/V Northwestern as WDE5199, licensed to Northwestern LCC out of Seattle.

Caylorman

[k9rzz]

I just came across this article in Satmagazine - FOCUS: The Deadliest Catch : SatMagazine

FOCUS: The Deadliest Catch
by Heather Eagle, Marketing Manager, SkyTerra


The situation — there are many lines of work that are considered dangerous or at the very least risky to some extent… police, firemen, miners, oil riggers and ‘crabbers’ to name but a few. However, according to the Discovery Channel’s sources, Alaskan ‘crabbers’ are top of the list in the business of... risky business.

Wavestream Ad SM Feb09 “Crabber” is the name applied to those who challenge the high seas north of 60°, risking their lives for a two-to-five week period once a year in pursuit of the Alaskan king crab. Alaskan crab fishing is considered to be one of the most dangerous jobs in North America.

Every year, hundreds of seemingly fearless crabbers endure 20+ hour shifts for days at a time, in extreme weather conditions: 40-foot waves, 80-mph winds and sub- zero temperatures, all with the hope of netting their share of one of the most desirable seafood delicacies in the world – the Alaskan king crab. Approximately 10 to 15 million pounds of crab are estimated to be caught every year by the crab fishing fleet of just over 300 boats.

The challenge is to obtain a reliable satellite communications system for operation north of 60° that operates successfully in extreme environments.

The Solution
For a week prior to the start of the fishing season, crabbers flock to the small town of Dutch Harbor, Alaska on the island of Unalaska. There, the crabbers they retrieve their pots, food supplies, fuel, and bait as they ready themselves for the upcoming, rigiorous weeks at sea. There are a number of satellite carriers offering service north of 60°; however, SkyTerra’s dispatch radio is the service of choice for the Pacific fishing community.

Using dispatch radio service for its flat rated, one-to-one, and one-to-many, service allows for an easy to use, push-to-talk, voice service in the most remote corners of North America. In fact, the ship captains refer to the SkyTerra dispatch radio phones as ‘TAG’ phones – a label they use in reference to their talkgroups. A captain of one ship might say to another captain “I’ll call you on TAG 1”.

For the crabbers, this service is often the only means of communication. In these remote ocean regions, where being ‘on the edge of the world’ is truly a reality, the ability to simply push a button and hear a voice can often mean the difference between life and death. For most crabbers, this is a capability they simply cannot live without having available.

With seasonal fishing quotas to fill on crab, cod, halibut, pollock, hake, and squid, the Pacific fishing fleet now numbers more than 1400 MSAT units. From the Pacific Mexican Coast to the far reaches of the Aleutian Islands, the MSAT ‘TAG’ phones have become as popular as the common cell phone.

Radio w caption Whether using dispatch radio, circuit switched data to download maps and weather reports, catching up on emails, or simply making a voice call to a loved one back home, the SkyTerra Network has become part of doing business for those who dare to challenge the seas of the northern Pacific Ocean.

[Hooligan]

Great er, catch!

HOWEVER, the article uses the TV series to grab your attention, but doesn't cite any specifics about the ships featured on the series as using the MSAT products -- it suddenly switches to generalizations about the "Pacific fishing community." The Bering Sea crabbers, at least based on what we see on the TV show, seem to be independently owned & controlled vessels, not part of a fleet that'd best benefit from some of the MSAT capabilities the 'infomercial' in that magazine article advertised.

This web page gives a good idea of the communications electronics gear aboard the F/V Wizard:

Crabwizard - Tour


Tim