Coastguard Radio online ?
Author
Discussion

Getragdogleg

Original Poster:

10,191 posts

212 months

Friday 27th December 2013
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Is it possible to stream live Coastguard radio online ?

There is a Merlin up and hovering over Penzance at the moment and I am interested in what is happening. It is quite stormy here and I suspect a ship in difficulty.


ecsrobin

18,643 posts

194 months

Friday 27th December 2013
quotequote all
The coastguard don't have Merlin's, You have sea kings at culdrose and Chivenor?

Getragdogleg

Original Poster:

10,191 posts

212 months

Saturday 28th December 2013
quotequote all
We have Merlin Training at Culdrose, not sure if they also run them search and rescue or if they still use the Seaking ? the Coastguard will be the most informative channel to listen to because they would be involved with all the rescue services.

Slight update, the helicopter landed on Penzance Cricket field a little while after I posted my original question, sat there for a long time and then lifted off and went back out toward the bay, I did not see it but I know it was much much larger than the normal air ambulance we get landing there. I only live little way away so I get to see and hear it every time, last night it was too horrible to pop out and have a look.

There was huge storm last night but it was a curious affair, it would blow like hell for a bit and then go deathly quiet, then blow up again. Lots of sea swell and the waves on the North Coast were huge yesterday.

I used to listen in on lots of channels when I was much younger on my old radio set but that is long gone. You could get police too if you knew where to tune !

Edited by Getragdogleg on Saturday 28th December 09:48

Athlon

5,858 posts

235 months

Saturday 28th December 2013
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SAR is VHF channel 0 for coastguard/RNLI and choppers I believe, it is a private channel and very few VHF sets have access.

ecsrobin

18,643 posts

194 months

Saturday 28th December 2013
quotequote all
It is still seaking until 2015 when the contract gets civilianised and taken over by Bristow for a 10 year contract. They will operate a selection of Sikorsky-92 and AugustaWestland-189 aircraft.

In the case of your location it will be an S-92 out of Newquay.

Eric Mc

125,606 posts

294 months

Saturday 28th December 2013
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The Coastguard have not operated Sea Kings for quite a while. They used to operate a small fleet of S-61Ns (the stretched civilian version of the Sea King) but there have all been retired and mainly replaced by Sikorsky S-92s.

ecsrobin

18,643 posts

194 months

Saturday 28th December 2013
quotequote all
Ok I'll rephrase that the coastguard don't have Merlin's, the RAF and Navy have seakings that operate search and Rescue (SAR) from Chivenor and culdrose.

Also the current fleet is near enough evenly spread between S-92 and AW139

Edited by ecsrobin on Saturday 28th December 15:28

Eric Mc

125,606 posts

294 months

Saturday 28th December 2013
quotequote all
If you watch "Highland Rescue" on Channel 5, they feature the Scottish based Coastguard S-92 as well as the Scottish based RAF and RN Sea King units.

It's quite interesting to see the difference in the technology of the S-92 compared to the much older Sea Kings.

wildcat45

8,159 posts

218 months

Saturday 28th December 2013
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I know which I'd rather be picked up in....An old 7771 Sea King any day. The perfect SAR helo for the UK. Sadly they are very very old girls now, Downtime per hour of flight must be huge. I imagine stuff like tail rotor components must be getting harder to source.

The best thing to get if you want to hear the Castguard, ships and SAR helos is a marine band scanner.

I really ought to get one.

Channel 16 is the main distress channel I think. Ports in your area will have a working channel 12? Not much range on VHF though.

Getragdogleg

Original Poster:

10,191 posts

212 months

Saturday 28th December 2013
quotequote all
Update. It was a Seaking, it was from Culdrose and was doing an urgent patient transfer, the rough weather (and the fact it was dark) meant the Air ambulance was not able to do it.

The delay in landing was due to the ground cover not being available and the pilot would not land until there was a ground crew, last night it was Police in the end.

I have dug out an old broken Radio, I am going to fix it and see what I can pick up !

matchmaker

9,033 posts

229 months

Sunday 29th December 2013
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Coastguard VHF channels were 0,6,16,67 and 73. You can get VHF radios with ch 0 - I bought one when I was an RNLI honorary secretary, and also got the RNLI private chennels on it.

I don't know about scanners. I had one (a very old one!) and managed to get a ch 0 crystal for it.

gwm

2,390 posts

173 months

Sunday 29th December 2013
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You can get a "police scanner" type app that might let you listen in to SAR

Ginetta G15 Girl

3,220 posts

213 months

Sunday 29th December 2013
quotequote all
Athlon said:
SAR is VHF channel 0 for coastguard/RNLI and choppers I believe, it is a private channel and very few VHF sets have access.
It always used to be FM Channel 16.

matchmaker

9,033 posts

229 months

Monday 30th December 2013
quotequote all
Ginetta G15 Girl said:
Athlon said:
SAR is VHF channel 0 for coastguard/RNLI and choppers I believe, it is a private channel and very few VHF sets have access.
It always used to be FM Channel 16.
VHF Ch 16 is the distress, safety and calling channel. Channel 0 is an SAR channel used by maritime emergency services.

During an incident communication is on ch 16 and other traffic is moved to ch 67.