United States Coast Guard

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.

• Asset Guide by M.Cleary (linked on MT Website)
• USCG Maritime Communications Page
• USCG Allocations on the Mississippi River (and others)

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 01
140.4750	CG 02
140.7250	CG 03
141.6125	CG 04
150.7250	CG 05
141.5500	CG 06
150.3000	CG 07
162.0500	CG 08
162.1250	CG 09
162.2500	CG 10
162.3250	CG 11
163.0500	CG 12
163.1375	CG 13
164.3000	CG 14
164.3125	CG 15
164.5500	CG 16
164.5625	CG 17
164.9000	CG 18
164.9125	CG 19
165.2625	CG 20
165.3125	CG 21
165.3250	CG 22
165.3375	CG 23
166.1875	CG 24
167.9000	CG 25
168.8625	CG 26
171.2375	CG 27
172.3125	CG 28 

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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