Mayday call off Coromandel

[DrWatson 244]

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/436624/search-on-after-mayday-call-from-yacht-off-coromandel-coast
 

 

[eruptn 41]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/search-under-way-after-mayday-call-from-sinking-yacht-near-coromandel-peninsula/LDS2XEDGOL6HE4HHELSXK3U7T4/

Sent from my iPad

[Fish 661]

Just saw this on Stuff.

2 people, sinking, call at 6:30 last night. Coordinates said Waiheke, but verbally said east of Coromandel. Very big search area.

Navy going full noise on top of CG. Frigate searching through the night by the sounds of it. Not often our warships are used for coastal SAR...

 

 

 

https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/124283586/search-continues-for-yacht-missing-off-coromandel-coast-after-mayday-call-sent

[waikiore 75]

We are asked to keep an eye out for the yacht ? No name or description though and the Wellington team unsure between Ponui and Pauanui .

[Dagwood 38]

12 minutes ago, waikiore said:

We are asked to keep an eye out for the yacht ? No name or description though and the Wellington team unsure between Ponui and Pauanui .

Heard a rep from the RCCNZ being interviewed in the radio this morning. That's essentially all the info they're working from.

Minimal info from the very broken radio call, no call sign heard.

Conflicting info re location, Waiheke was stated, location given east of Coromandel and VHF call came through repeaters on Barrier and BoP.

[Fish 661]

There is two threads on this, but this one is leading so lets use this one.

Other thread here

 

[weap10 5]

Anyone know how the repeaters work? We just sailed from Nelson to Boi and I struggled to keep skeds with Taupo zlm on the vhf, we were off Cape  Egmont and ended up talking to Wellington in the morning and Cape  Reinga in the evening. They could hear me but I was struggling to read them and wondering why i wasn't getting cape egmont on 71. The coastguard nowcasting however was crystal clear most of the way even 60nm off. Did most skeds on the cell phone in the end.  

[Dagwood 38]

Found: https://www.maritimenz.govt.nz/public/news/media-releases-2021/20210218b.asp

The yacht missing off the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula has been found and both people on board are believed safe.

Maritime NZ’s Rescue Coordination Centre NZ (RCCNZ) began coordinating the search yesterday evening after a brief and partial Mayday call was received.

Senior Search and Rescue Officer, Chris Henshaw, said that a short time ago a vessel advised that it was the one that had broadcast the Mayday call.

RCCNZ is standing down the search aircraft and vessel.

More details to come.

[CarpeDiem 31]

12 minutes ago, weap10 said:

Anyone know how the repeaters work? We just sailed from Nelson to Boi and I struggled to keep skeds with Taupo zlm on the vhf, we were off Cape  Egmont and ended up talking to Wellington in the morning and Cape  Reinga in the evening. They could hear me but I was struggling to read them and wondering why i wasn't getting cape egmont on 71. The coastguard nowcasting however was crystal clear most of the way even 60nm off. Did most skeds on the cell phone in the end.  

Channel 16 (and 71) is a SIMPLEX channel - so when you transmit on Channel 16 - everyone listening on Channel 16 hears you on the same frequency that you transmitted on (which is 156.8 MHz)

In isolated areas around NZ, when you transmit on Channel 16, a repeater station hears you on 156.8 MHz and rebroadcasts your message in realtime on another private frequency that is not in the normal marine VHF range - it could be anything - digital over fibre, VHF, UHF, etc - it's not designed for the public to receive the repeated transmission - I used to have a VHF radio that had a Channel 115 (iirc) and this picked up all the Channel 16 transmissions for the entire Auckland area, we could hear both sides of a conversation no matter where we were.

That repeater is then delivered to a Maritime listening station directly, again delivery could be on the frequency used or could be via some other intermediate repeater, or even bundled up and sent over a private IP network.  They know which repeater it came from.  That listening station can then reply to you by transmitting back via that private repeater channel, that channel will rebroadcast on Channel 16 - 156.8 MHz so you (and anyone else in range) can hear it.

This is different to DUPLEX channels, eg Channel 04 in Auckland - you transmit on 156.2 MHz but receive on 160.8 MHz - you don't need to do anything special for this, the radio is automatically programmed to do this.  A repeater hears you on 156.2MHz and retransmits (with more power) on 160.8MHz.  Everyone now hears your message.

Thus Channel 16 will work anywhere with line of sight - but you will not be able to talk to a boat 100 feet away using Channel 4 in the middle of the pacific because there is no repeater nearby.

 

[Fish 661]

31 minutes ago, Dagwood said:

Found: https://www.maritimenz.govt.nz/public/news/media-releases-2021/20210218b.asp

The yacht missing off the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula has been found and both people on board are believed safe.

Maritime NZ’s Rescue Coordination Centre NZ (RCCNZ) began coordinating the search yesterday evening after a brief and partial Mayday call was received.

Senior Search and Rescue Officer, Chris Henshaw, said that a short time ago a vessel advised that it was the one that had broadcast the Mayday call.

RCCNZ is standing down the search aircraft and vessel.

More details to come.

Well that is good that they are safe. Very sketchy on details, but I guess for me that is a symptom of a fully connected world, wanting to know every detail when it doesn't actually affect me.