Sea Kayaking, Kayak Fishing: The VHF Radio and Channel 16 when You Make a Mayday Call

Hi sea kayakers and kayak fishermen. Welcome to another episode of Notes from a Local, your online resource for tips tools and pointers useful to sea kayakers and kayak fishermen around the world. I'm your host, Adam Bolonsky, broadcasting on the web via Twitter@Sea Kayak.

Today' s topic: vhf radio mayday calls and Coast Guard watchstander backwards ten counts.

One of the more confusing aspects of making a vhf radio call to the Coast Guard is the sometimes lengthy number of requests the Coast Guard may have once they answer your call. And of those requests, perhaps none is more disconcerting than being asked to count to ten, and back down again.

The reasons for the ten-count request are numerous.

First, the watchstander may be having a hard time figuring out your position from the triangulations the radio crew are taking from your call.

Second, the Coast Guard may have reason to suspect that your mayday call is a hoax and, in classic trace-that-phone-call tactic, want you to keep talking so they can trace where your call is coming form.

Third, the Coast Guard may have a search and rescue boat out on the water looking for you, and they want you to keep talking so the rescue crew can get a fix on your location with portable RF gear.

So one of the methods they'll use -- and it can be a confusing, potentially exasperating one if you're the caller -- is the slow ten count. The watchstander will ask you to count slowly to ten, then back down again, and likely have you repeat the task several times in succession.

In a recent vhf radio channel 16 exchange between a boater making a mayday call off the coast of southern California - the boat is hard aground on a sandbar after dark - the watchstander who picks up her call repeatedly asks her for a ten-count.

The reasons for their lengthy exchange are numerous.

One is that until the Coast Guard fully implements the Rescue 21 VHF radio/search and rescue system -- which will help the Coast Guard trace vhf radio transmissions to their source--- and even until after, the Coast Guard will always need to know where you are are. Although the Coast Guard can roughly triangulate your position via their high site antennas, the method is inexact and gives the Coast Guard just a rough assumption of your location.

And if you don't have a firm grasp of latitude and longitude coordinates, either because you don't carry a GPS or because your GPS is broken, or because you can't provide your latitude and longitude by looking at your chart, both you and the Coast Guard are in a pretty untenable situation.

You mayday call is going to take a whole lot longer than you may have thought and it will take much longer for the Coast Guard to arrive at your destination than you may have assumed. You may end up talking on the radio for a lot longer than you'll have anticipated. If your situation is dire, the time delays will only make your situation whole worse.

So what's this gradeschool counting exercise all about? By asking mayday callers to count to 10 and back, the watchstanders and other Coast Guard stations will triangulate your position via your radio signal. In some cases, your call may be transferred from one Coast Guard station to another, simply because the second station is in a better position to pinpoint your location.

Also, the second station may be have the more appropriate resources - surf boat vs. motorized lifeboat --to send your way. That boat will have a radio receiver onboard. The crew will use it to home in on your signal. You'll likely have to repeat your ten count several times again.

So if you're a sea kayaker, kayak fishermen or small-boat user who finds himself in enough trouble that you need to make a channel 16 vhf radio mayday call, be prepared to give your latitude and longitude, a precise description of your location. Otherwise be prepared to endure the elaborate and laborious, time-consuming task of maintaining radio contact with the Coast Guard via ten counts. Not only will your mayday tie up Channel 16, it may do so at a time when other boaters who know their location are in more serious trouble than you are.

Well that's it for today's installment of Notes from a Local, your online resource for tips tools and pointers useful to see kayakers, kayak fishermen, and small-boat users around the world. I'm Adam Bolonsky, writing on the web on Twitter @seakayak.Thanks for stopping by. And until next time, see ya 'round!