Wait.....if he was on 156.8MHz then it wasn't in any way related to amateur radio. Rescues at sea happen all the time on Part 80 (aka Maritime Band), ask the USCG. So why is this a ham radio news story? Why not a story about the rare EME expedition going on right now at 4U1ITU? That's pure ham radio.
Bonnie contributed a remarkable story about survival and rescue via a handheld radio. I, for one, will use this as an anecdote for my Boy Scout troop. I note that including this interest piece didn't increase my subscription fees on QRZ, so thanks to her for sharing it. If you'd like the EME expedition featured, perhaps you should research and post information about it.
1200 miles across the open Pacific ocean, on what is little more than a raft with a roof: he was meant to live. Good on the young fellow for working for his own survival and I hope that he is given employment on something that cannot drift away with him. I agree with the KB9CFH : if those commercial vessles had ONLY the digital alert system running - which is very common these days - they would miss FM (and HF SSB) calls for help. (a) 73 & GB this young man, Ray ..._ ._ (a) - As a ham/sailor I heard a call from a 60' Bahamian fishing vessel. Long story short, when he called on 2182 MHz SSB and other know distress calling frequencies it produced nothing, because it's a digital distress network now: no 'Sparkie' is monitoring distress frequencies anymore. So , he went to a popular marine weather channel where I heard him "Can anyone reach Coast Guard?!" I asked him the usual questions, then got things started via Maritime Mobile Service Network on 14300USB. It took a bit to get USCG in contact with him via marine HF SSB. I was able to monitor USCG HF SSB and the fishing boat captain after they made radio contact and the ensuing rescue. Happy ending. "Sea Warrior", if you're still out there captain - Good Job!
So...if it was you who was set adrift, would you limit yourself to amateur frequencies? The law (and common sense) dictates that any freq. is fine in the protection of life and property.
The caption reads: Illustration: "Adilang Rescued by Arpeggio" mashup by B. Crystal, 2018, entered into public domain Creative Commons CC0
The point is a marine distress situation being resolved by using a marine radio on marine frequencies is not really related to ham radio except that we are generally interested in radios. Free advice: Buy one of these. You can hit the distress button and scare the crap out of the bridge watch when the alarm goes off: Someone around here set off the DSC all ships alarm by accident and it is LOUD!
There are thousands of ships out there that continue to monitor marine VHF Channel 16. The cost of a VHF marine DSC HT is getting very "affordable" lately ($60 USD), but it is probably not yet low enough for extremely low income workers involved with ocean fishing vessels and small boats. There are a lot of marine UHF HTs carried by crews on many of the larger ships, for communicating with each other and with their ship's bridge. There's even UHF repeaters on some of the ships. Unfortunately, as far as I know, there's no standardized distress channel or mode (analog FM, analog narrow FM, digi, DMR, PL tone), for the UHF marine frequencies: 457.500 MHz 457.525 MHz 457.550 MHz 457.575 MHz 457.600 MHz 457.625 MHz 467.500 MHz 467.525 MHz 467.550 MHz 467.575 MHz 467.600 MHz 467.625 MHz 467.725 MHz 467.750 MHz 467.775 MHz 467.800 MHz 467.825 MHz 467.850 MHz These marine UHF channel frequencies are in process of being splintered. In other words, there are 3 new channels being added between each of these existing 25 kHz spaced channels, in 6.25 kHz increments. Many of the ships are converting over to DMR. So, the commonality of a simple "Distress" call on the high seas, is growing very complex in the 21st century.
I meant zero disrespect to Bonnie. She is a well experienced amateur radio operator and has done much to promote our fine hobby. If I became lost, I'd use any means possible to solicit a rescue. In fact, I own PLB and it take with me on adventures just in-case. My point was: I much prefer amateur radio related news stories on the Zed. I can find plenty of 'feel good' stories all over the web. But not so many places to read about amateur radio news. That's all. I'm glad the gentleman was finally rescued.
What kind of shocked me is that he didn't use the radio when he was trying to use the flashlight to signal them early on in his ordeal. When he saw a ship, he should have flashed the light, turn on the radio to VHF 16, and say "help" or "mayday" or something. Aside from traffic scheme areas under VTS, pretty much every commercial ship is monitoring VHF 16 24/7/365. VHF 16 is how we hail each other for passing arrangements on the open ocean. The whole idea of DSC fell totally flat and I can't remember once in the last decade that we got a DSC call instead of an open hail over voice VHF. DSC is used only when you hit the distress button or testing. Both of which are quickly silenced and pretty much ignored on the bridge as they are 99.9% false alarms or tests. If you do hit the DSC distress button and shift their radio to a working channel, you had best quickly follow it up with a voice "Mayday" before they silence it. It's your only hope. Even then, they might think that you're a pirate decoy and keep on moving, especially in Indonesia. As an aside, going through Indonesia there are tons of these little fishing boats, mostly unlit. When you are about to run them over, they shine their weak flashlight at you, and you swerve to the side to avoid them. The flashlights are not generally used as a distress signal. In the end, I'm glad he survived his ordeal, but it could have been over more quickly if he used his radio sooner. 73 Jeremy N1ZZZ
FM would sound like noise, and I'd be willing to bet he doesn't know CW, not everybody cares for that mode.
