[Milsurplus] Outmoded radio procedures

[Hubert Miller]

While i'm puzzling over what i think are illogical C.W. signals, let me
mention:

 

This town is fishing and touristy supported. The Coast Guard comes on ch. 16
a numerous times each year during some 

emergency to announce, "PAN PAN, PAN PAN, PAN PAN, this is Yaquina Bay Coast
Guard Station. An emergency has been 

reported by.....", and so on. Or maybe it's a safety advisory; in that case,
"SECURITE' SECURITE' SECURITE', this is Yaquina 

Bay Coast Guard Station....."  This town is maybe 20% hispanic, and in
Spanish, "pan" is bread. Even if you don't give a damn 

about Spanish anything, why still use French?  Maybe there's two people in
Newport who speak French. 

Yes, i know about the radio laws of 1934 and all that, but the "PAN PAN" bit
is just so dumb and slavishly outmoded.

We get NO foreign ships here; all the shipping is local-based fishing and
pleasure craft, and this is  on VHF radio, good for

about 50 miles. English works well here; surely some English word could be
found that has more meaning to

listeners; ditto "SECURITE' ".  I notice also that their periodic bar report
broadcast, the announcement is very formulaic and 

the speakers apparently aren't allowed the leeway to simplify the message to
something like "Yaquina bar report follows on

channel 22." *

It also appears the local Coast Guard has no vhf-DF equipment. Since there's
several emergency hoaxes each summer, open

mics and that sort of thing, it seems it might be worthwhile, even if it
only gave a bearing, not a triangulation.  I myself could

buy a vhf-DF for my own fun, but it appears the USCG can't, and so they
spend a day repeating an alert about a hoax call. 

Even with just directional info, a bearing would eliminate some hoax calls
claiming to be somewhere else. 

I'm NOT down on the Coast Guard. The save a number of people each year, and
without billing even the most foolish of 

the misadventurers. Just wondering about the point of some of these outdated
radio practices.

Newport, out.

-Hue Miller 

( * This 'bar report' is different from the nightly NWPD 'bar check' )

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