Selcall

[Moose]

I have just bought a secondhand HF radio in the hope of putting it on my yacht (when I get it!) as we will probably do a little more long range stuff. No1 got it going while I was away using a 70ft aerial going down the drive and I must say that it gives superb reception, far better than we get on the aircraft going across the pond! We haven't transmitted on it for obvious reasons as it is a teeny little thin wire aerial and I don't want to have a flash of lighting in the garden! Anyway, it isn't DSC and I can't find any hint of it having Selcall although it seems to support the protocol. We use Selcall (4 letters) HF on the aircraft and I couldn't do without it. So, do marine HF radios have Selcall and how do I go about applying for a code?



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Moose

 

[Mudplugger]

Prior to day's of DSC, had Sailor RT on old boat, which came with relevent Selcall number. On paying lic. fee automatically renewed each year. Assume that you just apply from Radio Agency?.... HTH regards Tony W.

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[VicMallows]

From what I recall, SelCall on VHF used tone-bursts to communicate to coastal radio stations (BT) that used to handle ship-to-shore traffic. These have all now shut down. I believe it was also implemented on HF by a few shore stations ......but most of those have now closed also. Essentially it just instructed the shore station to dial a landline number, avoiding the operator, and billed you accordingly.

Vic

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[Moose]

Yes, it is a tone system. On the aircraft we have a four letter Selcall callsign which Gander or Shannon use to call us so we don't have to maintain a listening watch on HF (easy on the ears!) When we are called we get a bell in the flightdeck and then we put the headphones on. To my knowlege selcall is not used for connection to the phone line. We would call Portishead and ask to be put through, if there was any delay then they would call us back using Selcall but it wasn't necessary.

Pity the shore stations have shut, it is a great system.

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Moose