I'm just not sure what the U.S. Coast Guard press release below means from a practical standpoint, but I'd sure welcome feedback from skippers.
U.S. Coast Guard, 17th District
Aug. 14, 2009
Coast Guard moves radio operations from Valdez to better serve the boating community
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — To better serve the boating community, Coast Guard Sector Anchorage is scheduled to move its VHF radio monitoring operations from Valdez to the Sector command center in Anchorage Saturday.
The move is the final step in a process that will centralize all Western Alaska VHF marine radio communications.
The consolidation will streamline communications between the Coast Guard and recreational and commercial mariners. Radio operators will now be located with Coast Guard search and rescue control personnel, allowing better coordination and communication during times of need.
“We want to assure the public there will always be someone listening,” said Senior Chief Petty Officer Jimmy Belcher, Coast Guard Sector Anchorage Command Center supervisor. “The mariners are not losing any communication at all.”
The first stage of consolidation occurred in late July when VHF radio operations were moved from Kodiak to Anchorage.
These transitions are part of a consolidation of personnel and mission responsibilities under the Coast Guard command center located in Anchorage.
Communications Station Kodiak will continue to monitor maritime radio communications on the HF upper sideband frequencies 2182 and 4125 kHz. The maritime operators and fishermen who use these bands will still be heard and should address COMMSTA Kodiak as they have always done.
Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons will not be affected by the consolidation. All EPIRB signals will continue to be heard by the Coast Guard Rescue Coordination Center in Juneau.
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Business as usual for the Coast Guard. Don't talk to constituents, the guys out there working the ocean to make a living, just make a decision to consolidate operations and put control in a urban setting for the sake of Coast Guard wives? BS to disconnect the CG from the community served. This disconnection is a military move to depersonalize the served population. Local control always serves the population more personally. Split the CG into 'black' and 'orange.' Black for law enforcement and military operations, like their new machine gun equiped 'rescue helicopter gunships' and orange for the rescue operations of the traditional CG. But the DC budget dollars goes for military bing, bang, and boom, and that is where the CG brass is going. Centralized control and the service degrades. This week a friend broke down with seine in the wheel. Anchorage could not hear him, nor he them. He would have been in VHF range of Comsta Kodiak. The CG continues to decline.
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