Canadian Coast Guard

PART 4

GENERAL

PROCEDURES

RADIOTELEPHONE PROCEDURES

General

In the interests of safe navigation, and especially during bad weather conditions, masters are asked to ensure that a conscientious continuous listening watch is maintained on 2182 kHz. Where practicable, and having due regard for Vessel Traffic Services and Seaway Control requirements, a conscientious listening watch should be maintained on VHF Ch16 (156.8 MHz).

2182 kHz AND CH16 (156.8 MHz) MAY ONLY BE USED FOR DISTRESS AND URGENCY TRAFFIC, FOR SAFETY CALLS OR, WHEN OTHER MEANS OF ESTABLISHING CONTACT ARE UNAVAILABLE OR UNSUCCESSFUL, FOR CALLING PURPOSES. J3E IS THE ONLY SINGLE-SIDEBAND MODE OF EMISSION PERMITTED ON 2182 kHz.

MCTS Centres will observe silence periods on the international distress carrier frequency 2182 kHz for three minutes twice each hour beginning on the hour and the half-hour. This practice will continue until into the foreseeable future.

Initial calls must be made directly on the safety and calling frequency 2182 kHz. This procedure is required because the MCTS Centres do not normally monitor MF working frequencies.

Initial calls should be made directly on any of the VHF working frequencies shown in bold type, in the “Receiving” column of the MCTS Centre listing, in which case the MCTS Centre will reply on the corresponding frequency shown in the “Transmitting” column. It is necessary on the initial call for the frequency or channel number (see listings) to be indicated. This procedure is required to provide MCTS Officers, who guard a number of frequencies simultaneously, with a positive indication of the correct frequency to be selected for answering the call. Before making a call directly on a working frequency, care should be taken to listen for a period long enough to ensure that the channel is not in use.

Requests for radio checks shall be made to the MCTS Centre in the same manner outlined above for initial calls.

If difficulty is experienced in establishing contact with the MCTS Centre, or if contact is desired with another vessel, the initial call may be made on the calling frequency Ch16 (156.8 MHz) in which case the station called will reply on the same frequency. As soon as communication has been established a change must be made to an agreed working frequency and all further communications made on that frequency.

Masters of radiotelephone equipped ships are reminded that a log of all radio transmissions should be kept onboard their vessels.

The following examples will illustrate the procedure to be used.

Initial call, when a vessel is attempting to establish communication on a working frequency with a specific station:

Item Spoken

Name of station called (not more than three times).TOFINO COAST GUARD RADIO

The words THIS IS.THIS IS

Type, name, radio call sign of vessel calling (not more than three times) STEAMER FAIRMOUNT CYLD

and channel.CHANNEL 26

Invitation to reply?OVER

Call, when a vessel wishes to establish communications with any station within range (or within a certain area).

Item Spoken

General call (not more than three times).ALL STATIONS (or ALL SHIPS IN JOHNSTONE STRAITS)

The words THIS ISTHIS IS

Type, name and radio call sign of vessel calling (not more than three times). TANKER IMPERIAL CORNWALL/VCVC

Invitation to reply.OVER

When a station wishes to broadcast information rather than to establish communication, it proceeds with the message instead of giving the invitation to reply.

A radio message from a ship consists of several parts, which shall be transmitted in the following order:

(a)Type, name and radio call sign of the originating ship.

(b)The number of the message, (Number 1 shall be given to the first radiotelegram sent each day to each separate station).

(c)The number of words.

(d)The date and time the message originated.* (Preferably in UTC. Daylight Saving Time shall not be used).

(e)The address.

(f)The text, or body of the message.

(g)The signature.

Note: Items (a), (b), (c) and (d) taken together, are known as the “preamble”.

*Date and time may be sent as one group, the first two figures indicate the date, the last four the time.

Example of a ship to shore radio message -

MESSAGE, FROM WEST WIND, CALL SIGN VC2222, NUMBER ONE, NUMBER OF WORDS ONE TWO, FILED ZERO SEVEN ONE TWO TWO FIVE COORDINATED UNIVERSAL TIME, BREAK, ADDRESS OCTERM MONTREAL, BREAK, TEXT, ARRIVING LOADING PIER 1200 LOCAL TOMORROW PLEASE ARRANGE BUNKERING, BREAK, SIGNATURE MASTER, OVER.

An acknowledgment of receipt of a message shall not be given until the receiving operator is certain that the transmitted information has been received correctly.

While it is not practical to lay down precise words and phrases for all radiotelephone procedures, the following should be used where applicable.

Word or phrase Meaning

How are you using your marine radio?

There are over 150 thousand licensed radio stations in British Columbia. Each of these stations are assigned specific frequencies to suit their unique requirements. For the most part, clear and unobstructed communications on the airwaves is possible because most observe the rules that govern radio operation.

But a serious problem has developed in the use of synthesized two-way radio on board vessels on the West Coast. Certain vessel operators are selecting unauthorized channels on synthesized radio. This is causing sever interference to land based municipal services. In such cases, Industry Canada intends to lay charges under the Radio Act and the Radio Regulations.

Your cooperation in using only assigned marine channels is very important. Your safety and the safety of others depends on it.

Phonetic Alphabet

When it is necessary to spell out call signs, service abbreviations and words whose spelling might be misinterpreted, the following letter spelling table shall be used:

Times

Times are expressed in four figures, the first two denoting the hour and the last two the minutes, the day starting at midnight with 0000 and ending at 2400. The standard of time (e.g. UTC) is stated at the head of the appropriate column, or against the figures involved.

Time Signals

Canada’s official time is the responsibility of the National Research Council’s Institute for National Measurement Standards, Ottawa, Ont. Its short wave radio station CHU, with transmitters located at 45 17 47N 75 45 22W is equipped with vertical antennas to give the best possible coverage to the maximum number of Canadian users. The signal is transmitted continuously on 3330kHz, 7335kHz and 14670kHz, upper sideband H3E (AM compatible). A cesium atomic clock generates the carrier frequencies (accurate to a part in 1011) and the UTC seconds pulses (accurate to 50 microseconds). The start of each UTC second is marked by the start of 300 cycles of a 1000 Hz tone, with certain omissions and identifications. Every half-minute is marked by omitting the preceding tone (for second 29). In the 9 seconds preceding each minute, the second pulses are shortened to “ticks’ to provide a window for the voice announcement, followed by a longer tone. The start of this tone marks the exact minute given by the announcement. This tone is one-half second long, except for the exact hour - when it is one full second long and in this case only is followed by 9 seconds of silence.

The bilingual voice announcement which is heard each minute takes the form:

“CHU Canada - Coordinated Universal Time -- hours -- minutes -- heures -- minutes” for even minutes,

and

“CHU Canada - Temps Universel Coordonné -- heures -- minutes -- hours -- minutes” for odd minutes.

A small number of the longer time announcements use the abbreviation “UTC’ rather than the full form.

Following international practice, Canada’s official time is based on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) which is kept within one second of UT1, the time on the Greenwich meridian as used for celestial navigation. Users interested in the ultimate accuracy of celestial navigation can determine UT1 with an accuracy of 0.1 seconds by decoding the difference DUT1 = UT1 - UTC, as transmitted by CHU in the Internationally accepted code. The number of tenths of a second of DUT1 can be decoded by counting the number of emphasized second pulses that follow each minute. If the emphasized pulses occur for any of the seconds 1 to 8, DUT1 is positive; if the emphasized pulses occur for any of the seconds 9 to 16, DUT1 is negative. CHU emphasizes second pulses by splitting them (0.1 s of tone, 0.1 s of silence, 0.1 s of tone) so that a double tone is heard.