[CW] Coast Guard Radsta Westport, Washington...NMW

[John Barnwell]

Coast Guard Radsta Westport (NMW), was closed in 1971 at which time the communications responsibilities were transferred to the Coast Guard Air Station Astoria, Oregon. The physical location of the Airsta was actually Warrenton, Oregon which was just outside of Astoria proper at the local airport. So you had a Coast Guard Airsta located at the local airport, along with the National Weather Service. As 500khz was guarded 24/7 we maintained the call NMW for that purpose. We also maintained a 24/7 guard on 2182khz and CH16 VHF FM. We made weather broadcast and special notices to mariners via both 500khz and 2182khz. Other forms of communication consisted of landline teletype circuits to District 13 Headquarters in Seattle, and another teletype circuit dedicated to SARPAC (search and rescue pacific). SARPAC was dedicated to all search and rescue facilities along the entire west coast of the U.S. including Alaska. 

I was assigned to Airsta Astoria upon graduation from RM “A” school in 1975. Prior to RM school I had been stationed at CG Base San Juan, PR. Radio Station San Juan (NMR) was located on the base as a stand alone command, separate from Base San Juan operations. Early on in my 1 year in San Juan, the Radsta was suffering a shortage of radiomen. The radsta requested 2 volunteers to be trained in voice communication and become “non rated” watch standers. Having RM buddies that worked at the Radsta and fiercely jealous of their watch stander schedule, I volunteered. After several weeks of supervised training, I was pulling RM duty without actually being an RM. I knew not the “code”. Even though I was a sort of “step child RM”, I fell for the job in a big way. Left San Juan for RM school a year later. 

Arriving at NMW after RM school I was plunked down to stand watch on 500khz. The “seasoned” RM’s would avoid having to sit 500 as it was dedicated with a log requiring an entry every 5 minutes. If nothing was heard in that 5 minutes you simply annotated “nothing heard” and the time. Besides listening for the proverbial SOS, much of our time was spent accepting weather observations (OBS) and vessel movement messages called “AMVERS”. AMVER was a computerized data base with merchant vessel movements kept current by constantly updating the data base. The system allowed rescue coordination to establish who would be in a position to render assistance to any given vessel in distress. Occasionally, vessels would request emergency medical assistance (MEDICO), whereby we would coordinate medical assistance through a US Public Health Service doctor.

AMVER messages could come any time, night or day. WX OBS were sent during scheduled time periods. If memory serves me well, I believe we had OBS sched’s twice each 12hour watch. The Soviet fishing fleet was fishing 12 miles offshore at this time. The 200 mile limit came later. Soviet RM’s were known for sending very fast, 40-50wpm and faster. Intimidating to a new RM fresh out of school and used to perfect pre-recorded code. A WX OBS consisted of groups of 5 numbers, about 10 groups per OBS. As a new RM I had to concentrate to accurately copy these. As time passed, so to did any feeling of intimidation from Soviet RM’s. Really, it was just a simple act of intimidation by the Soviets. Later, I learned that these guys that would send blazing fast, were not necessarily equipped to copy at these speeds. It was for show. At any rate, during OBS schedules, we would stack up 10, 20 or more, shift them to 466khz and work them one at a time until finished with the list.

500khz activity during the day was localized to hundreds of miles simply due to atmospheric conditions. However, the night was very interesting. DX was not uncommon. Listening to COMSTA Guam very common at night. I can recall copying an SOS from somewhere deep in the western pacific, specifics slip my mind, but we simply logged these events and sent the information to District headquarters to act upon.

One winter night, a Coast Guard 40ft patrol boat was conducting routine helicopter hoist training near the mouth of the Columbia river bar. At some point, the patrol boat took a freak wave capsizing the boat. If I recall the helo called mayday on the air to ground frequency we guarded at the airsta. I believe there were 6 crewman on board the patrol boat. 3 of the crew members escaped from an air pocket in the boat, but 3 crew members were trapped and hesitated to evacuate the overturned vessel, opting to remain in the “air pocket”. One crewman who had escaped actually swam back under, and into the wreckage and attempted to talk the others out. By this time, hypothermia was hitting them and they all refused to exit. As this was all evolving, my supervisor handed me a message and said “send this now”. It was a DDD SOS giving the position of the sudden disaster. My adrenaline really kicked in as I took a deep breath and sent the initial 5 second alert tone on 500, followed by “DDD SOS SOS SOS DDD CQ CQ DE NMW NMW NMW A 40FT COAST GUARD VESSEL HAS CAPSIZED IN POSITION …….

Immediately after sending the SOS, 500KHZ was for a moment very quiet, then all hell broke loose. Vessels were calling from everywhere to acknowledge the SOS. Most if not all were in no position to render any assistance, but the merchant RM’s were doing what they do best. This went on for quite some time and then I sent the DDD SOS again and received the same response. It truly is a chilling experience even though we were not the vessel in distress.

It was not long before the patrol boat sank below the surface taking the lives of 3 Coastguardsmen that night. A rescue simply could not be orchestrated fast enough to effect a rescue that night. These are events which one never ever forgets. Simply describing it here summons the same emotions from that night. 

After my tour at NMW, I requested and received a transfer to Radsta San Juan, PR (NMR). This is where I learned the craft of CW. Just asked David Ring about the RM’s at NMR. Truly the best CW ops in the Coast Guard or any other military branch. 

Oh how I loved being an RM. Going to work and doing what you love is not work. Like Dustin Hoffman said in Little Big Man, “We was not only playing Indian, we was living it”.

God bless you all and Very 73

John Barnwell