Hi All,

I just received the following on the VHF DSC frequency, it was decoded using
DSCdecoder, so at least we now know that it does work, and that there are
occasionally signals transmitted on there:


209952000;(VTS);from;002320019; Polling REQ;22-10-01 18:36:20;[ 0Hz]


A search of the various mmsi databases shows that it was Holyhead Coastguard
in North Wales using the former (and now closed and relocated there) Liverpool
Coastguard mmsi number of: 002320019 to contact a vessel called the Ulysses
which has the mmsi number of: 209952000, and was in the harbour at Dublin
after having arrived there from Holyhead, which is located on the island of
Anglesey.

I must admit that I was a bit surprised and was half expecting it to be some
yacht at a local marina giving it a quick test! :-)

Alan.

Emacs!



Emacs!

At 11:55 02/10/2022, you wrote:


Hi Peter,

When they closed Liverpool they moved its coverage area to Holyhead, but they kept a
number of their remote aerials, so possibly they still use the old MMSI number when one
of those is in use.

Interestingly, an old copy of the Admiralty List of Radio Signals Volume 5 from when
Liverpool was active, shows that they had antennas at several remote locations, with
one of them being at the top of Blackpool Tower of all places, so it would be interesting
to know if that is still in use by Holyhead now. Holyhead is shown as having four remote
locations: Rhiw, South Stack, Holyhead and Great Orme, and having visited the latter, I
suspect that could be a suspect, as it's a more open path to there from my QTH, though
at 70 miles/116km it's still a fair stretch. I hear the Holyhead MSI and other broadcasts
without any problem though, mainly because I am about 850ft/280m above sea level, so I
have a good take off in that direction. Blackpool Tower is a lot closer at 37 miles/59km,
but there are some very large hills in between us. Mind you, Blackpool Tower is 518ft/158m
above sea level, so you never know.

The other Liverpool VHF antennas shown are at: Moel-y-Parc, Spanish Head and Caldbeck.
I have heard Holyhead CG mention that they were on the Moel-y-Pack transmitter at times,
and the ham repeater on that site is well heard here, so that would be also be a good
suspect for working Ireland I would think.

The book shows VHF transmitting antennas for MRCC Dover at West Hougham, but the list
is very old, so it would be interesting to see what is shown in a more recent copy. That's
pretty good going to hear Falmouth and Humber, I must give Multipsk a try, I always forget
that I have a copy of it on my pc, but I could run both programs at the same time.

My receiving antennas is my Moonraker SQBM1000P MKII TRIBAND 6/2/70 transmitting antenna
which works quite well on the Marine Band, though it would be nice to have a dedicated
antenna with a bit of gain for that band.

Let's hope we have some good T/A propagation for the next few months, with the UK and Irish
DGPS beacons now off it might be our only chance to hear some of the Canadians that were
previously masked before they disappear.

Alan.

Hi Alan,

Glad to hear you had success on the VHF Channel 70 with MMSI 003230019. Looking back in my VHF records I see 002320019 was logged here 5 times between 2015-2018 but none since then - possibly that has been due to closures/rationalisation which have taken place.

Normal received VHF activity here in Hastings from UK stations are Dover(obviously!) plus Solent and of course the French CROSS stations Gris Nez. On slightly less frequent basis are Falmouth, Humber, Thames Radio and various other UK/IRL  stations. On 'good' days further afield stations pop up. I have the DSCdecoder programme and Multipsk working working in parallel on VHF and find that Multipsk  just has the edge at times.

I wonder how far you are from the nearest active DSC CG station and what type of antenna you have in use?

On your earlier message you mentioned the forthcoming Canadian DDGPS closures  - end of another era!!

Best regards,

Peter

At 17:21 08/10/2022, you wrote:


Hi Peter,

I have been looking at getting a dedicated antenna and receiver so I can
leave it running all the time, with so little traffic it's all too easy to
miss these.

I was looking at some of the antennas that are available on the Moonraker
website, they do some nice beams that cover 155-175 MHz in 2, 3, 4 and 6 element
format, so would be handy for ham use as well. The 6 ele offers about 8.5dbd
gain over the Marine Band, which would be good, it's not like I would need
a rotator though, as west is pretty much the only direction that I would
likely hear anything. It would be possible to cut down an old 2m beam as
well, though the hard part might be optimising it for 156 and 160 MHz.

They're not cheap, but may be well worth the cost with that much gain:
https://moonrakeronline.com/sirio-wy-155-6n-155-175-mhz?___store=default

As I recall you are the only person in Europe to receive a Brazilian DGPS
beacon, so maybe you'll have a chance of more now that there are a few more
gaps in the band!:-)

73 for now, Alan.

Hi Alan,

Interesting about the old Admiralty List books, I have a Volume 5 from 2005/06 and have tried keeping it up date from NOTAMs reasonably well over the years - even printing out important bits then cutting/pasting them into the book, which means it has grown somewhat in bulkiness!

You sound like your location would be very useful for Channel 70 VHF and an antenna cut for 156525 KHz should help considerably. I have modified a 2M "Slim Jim" type - a verical folded dipole and I also use VHF/UHF discone and the Slim Jim always has the edge with the more distant stations. I leave the VHF setup monitoring 24/7 and find activity drops off noticeably in early/late evenings with early mornings to lunctime giving most traffic and of course generally when the pressure rises things are better all round.

Yes I must try and catch some of the Canadian DGPS East coast stations their closures come into effect, though I must admit my location is not very favourable for the Northern Atlantic paths. I remember from my NDB  DXing I had much more success down SW to Brazil etc..  All good radio fun!

Peter