Boat U.S. - May 2008 - (Page 20) Rescue Radio The promise of a high-tech radio system providing a nationwide safety net that would save mariners in trouble has long seemed like a pipedream. But don’t tell that to the 32 people whose lives have already been saved because the Coast Guard’s Rescue 21 VHF radio system was up and running in their waters. As installations of Rescue 21 pick up speed to one per month through the rest of 2008, it is already paying dividends in bringing search-and-rescue cases to a happy ending. In fact, one rescue was possible because the $550-million system was able to home in on mere radio static after the vessel lost voice communication. “That’s probably one of the saves we’re most proud of,” said Thomas McKenzie of the Rescue 21 office at U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, DC. “The boaters didn’t have enough radio power left but they ‘keyed’ the mic and we were able to direction-find just using the static of the transmission.” The four lost boaters were reported overdue and the Coast Guard’s Atlantic City, NJ, station located and rescued them 30 miles offshore. Atlantic City was the first Rescue 21 sector to go “live” in 2005, along with Group Eastern Shore, VA. The list of successful Rescue 21 cases reads like a typical weekend’s mishaps in the world of Coast Guard SAR: two adults and a child lost in the fog, a hoax call emanating from a marina, a swamped vessel in an inlet with three people in the water, an offshore fishing vessel taking on water in deteriorating weather, an overturned vessel in freezing temperatures with three fishermen clinging 20 BoatU.S. Magazine May 2008 to the hull. Each is dramatic in its own way but successful because the new system was able to locate them much faster via radio than if vessels and aircraft had to visually search hundreds of miles of ocean. The capabilities of the new technology were apparent within the first 90 minutes it went live in St. Petersburg, FL. The station there picked up seven radio calls from offshore in the Gulf; only one of them was heard by the old radio system. “Rescue 21 is one of those things where the general public cannot touch and feel it but they’ll get the direct benefits of vastly improved communications with the Coast Guard,” said LCDR Brian Anderson, technical officer at Rescue 21 headquarters. In addition to receiving distress calls with GPS coordinates, Anderson said the higher coastal radio towers can “pinpoint” the origin of a call with their advanced direction-finding capabilities. In a case where flares were reported 18 miles offshore from Mobile, AL, the Rescue 21 station got no fewer than eight fixes on a location by means of direction-finding which placed the “flares” at a marina. While the Rescue 21 specifications call for a coverage range of 20 miles at one watt of power at one meter above the surface of the water, calls have been received from as far as 66 miles out. Doubling Coastal Coverage As of presstime, Rescue 21 was operating over 12,787 miles of U.S. coastline based in 10 Coast Guard sectors, but by the end of this year that coverage should increase to 25,000 miles and at least eight new sectors. Vessel operators large and small will have a higher level of safety in: Miami, Key West, Baltimore, New Orleans, Houston/Galveston and Astoria, North Bend and Portland, OR, through the fall of this year. The Oregon sectors should complete coverage for the rugged Pacific Northwest coast. Rescue 21 in Hampton Roads, VA, was scheduled to be up by presstime in late March. California is on the schedule for 2009-10 as well as New England. The Great Lakes follow in 2009-11. “Educating our mariners is going to be key,” said Anderson. “DSC radio has been around for awhile but is fairly new to a lot of people who haven’t needed it. Over time it will be an invaluable tool for the Coast Guard finding people in distress.” What Boaters Need to Do To benefit from Rescue 21, boaters can still use any VHF marine radio to call for help in a distress situation. However,
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