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United States Coast Guard

From The RadioReference Wiki

The USCG are heavy users of the Marine VHF band; Channel 16 is reserved for distress, safety and calling, while channel 22A is utilized for special warnings, Marine Safety and other announcements. Other frequencies utilized vary from sector to sector.

Air Operations

New nationwide United States Coast Guard frequencies, as of January 1, 2005, are listed below. The frequencies were changed due to the mandate to vacate 380-400 MHz so that the spectrum could be used for military trunked radio systems.

345.0   Operations Primary       AM Mode
237.9   Operations Secondary     AM Mode
326.15  Air-to-Ground Primary    AM Mode
379.05  Air-to-Ground Secondary  AM Mode

Marine VHF Channels

Reserved for Coast Guard use only

157.050	CH 21A
157.100	CH 22A
157.150	CH 23A
157.075	CH 81A
157.125	CH 82A
157.175	CH 83A

Land Mobile Channels

Listed in Monitoring Times May 2008 issue

139.9750	CG 101
140.4750	CG 102
140.7250	CG 103
141.6125	CG 104
150.7250	CG 105
141.5500	CG 106
150.3000	CG 107
162.0500	CG 108
162.1250	CG 109
162.2500	CG 110
162.3250	CG 111
163.0500	CG 112
163.1375	CG 113
164.3000	CG 114
164.3125	CG 115
164.5500	CG 116
164.5625	CG 117
164.9000	CG 118
164.9125	CG 119
165.2625	CG 120
165.3125	CG 121
165.3250	CG 122
165.3375	CG 123
166.1875	CG 124
167.9000	CG 125
168.8625	CG 126
171.2375	CG 127
172.3125	CG 128

HF Operations

The US Coast Guard uses 4 different types of mechanisms for HF Radio Communications.

The first method is the use of the Dept of Homeland Security HF COTHEN ALE Network. This network supports most normal flight operations and flight following for US Coast Guard aircraft and helos and is the primary HF communications method for USCG assets.

The second method is the use of a backup USCG HF Radio network that primarly supports aircraft and helos that do not have ALE capable HF radios. The following frequencies are typically used:

5696
8983
11201

Third, the USCG uses a set of HF frequencies for tactical radio communications between aircraft, base stations, and USCG Cutters

8337.6
10993.6
11197.4  (Mobile AL)

And finally, the USCG has a network called TISCOM which operates on the following frequencies:

3053
4730
6709
8057
8859
8980
9034
11196
13221
15082
17988
20135.5
23072.5

Also see the the Oct 2006 Milcom column edited by Larry Van Horn in MT which describes USCG communications in detail.

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