Australia floats plan to phase out HF radio monitoring by 2022
Marine safety watchdog believes distress and urgency call technology has moved on from long-distance voice callsThe Australian Maritime Safety Authority is seeking feedback on a proposal to stop monitoring high-frequency radio for distress and safety calls.
If the move goes ahead, it means any boats venturing outside VHF radio range beyond January 1, 2022 will need some other means of calling for help or assistance.
“In Australia, the states and Northern Territory marine agencies or volunteer marine rescue organisations monitor the HF radiotelephone distress and safety calling frequencies,” AMSA said in a statement that marked the release of a consultation paper spelling out the reasons behind the call.
“However, the use of HF radiotelephone as the first and only means of distress and safety calling has steadily declined, especially given the prominence of HF DSC [Digital Select Calling] equipment.”
DSC is a means of automatically transmitting a distress signal to all boats and rescue services within about a 200nm radius for HF frequencies, including identifying the boat in distress and its location.
The move would spell the end for the National Coast Radio Network, established in 2002 and tasked with listening for HF distress broadcasts via nine separate stations on the 4125kHz, 6125kHz, 8291kHz, 12,290kHz or 16,420kHz wavebands.
Warnings, weather to remain
Under the proposal, AMSA said navigation warnings and weather information – it is estimated that three out of every four HF radio users still used this service – would still be broadcast over HF channels.
According to AMSA, voice-based calls for help have rarely come via HF frequencies; it says over the four-year period to March 2018 it had received only two distress (mayday), and six urgency (pan pan) messages via HF-based radiotelephone.
If the proposal goes ahead, it means boaters will need to think about other ways of calling for help, such as updating to a HF DSC radio (from around a $3200 investment), a satellite phone, or an EPIRB (from around $250 for a manually activated one, or from around $750 for a float-free automatic one).
Boaters can also consider a VHF radio with DSC, although VHF’s reach is limited to about 17nm compared with HF radio.
AMSA said about 15,000 boats had HF radios – 2930 with DSC – on its beacon register.
Anyone who wishes to provide feedback to the proposal can do so before Friday, November 29.
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