Canada Coast Guard communication Centre Blackout

[JDCAVE]

Canada Coast Guard communication Centre Blackout

A controversy has been brewing in BC with the closing of coast guard bases in BC. "Higher than usual" call volumes and antiquated equipment to blame.

“All mariners are requested to maintain a listening watch on channel 16 that is south of Nanaimo that is due to Victoria Coast Guard Radio Marine Communications Channel 16 is experiencing technical difficulties. Any mariners hearing any “Mayday Calls” south of Nanaimo are to relay those distress calls to Comox Coast Guard Radio on Channel 16.”

Coast Guard communication centre has blackout at end of long weekend | Globalnews.ca



Jim
Sent from my iPad using Trawler Forum

 

[Old deckhand]

Jim,

Thanks for update. We plan to leave N Vancouver in the morning and head north to Sitka.
Ken

 

[Northern Spy]

Copied from a guy I respect:

I’m getting a bit tired of the political flailing and uneducated grandstanding associated to the closure of the maritime communications centres in Comox, Kits and Tofino. This does not mean I support the closures (I do not), nor agree with them (I do not), but enough is enough.

The good news is maritime based technology has finally hit a point where it’s inexpensive, easy to operate, informative and reliable. It’s made long-distance maritime communication possible and mainstream and has become the accepted norm, for commercial vessels and pleasure vessels. This communication provides automated vessel identification, incident reporting and two-way real-time navigational information to a network that’s used every day by everybody for everything.

The bad news is like so many areas before, this technology is forcing change to the historical way of doing things. It’s causing redundancy, it’s causing the elimination of special tasks and abilities and with that, comes the elimination of jobs and associated infrastructure. It’s this that we really lament.