Communications Plan

[AZ Sailor]

Continuing my study of the 2016 race documents, and coming up with random stupid questions. The documents talk about a Communications Vessel, but don't shed any light on who that is. Is that duty taken on by one of the racers? Or is there someone not racing who is sailing along with the fleet for that purpose? Or is that something that varies year to year?

Just curious for no real reason.

[OlyJeff]

I imagine that refers to the Race committee.

[The Smokester]

In SHTP2016 one of the race boats served as the Communications Vessel.

[Critter]

Correct; as best I recall, it's always been one of the racers, usually a bigger boat with a good SSB setup and enough comfort to do the job. In my year 2010 it was Dream Chaser.

[Sailronin]

Is the Iridium Yellow Brick acceptable for position check in? Seems like a good option as it can transmit short message and position on an hourly (or more frequent) basis to any email address.
Thank you
Dave

[AZ Sailor]

Go to the 2016 SHTP site and look for "Race Documents". One of them is entitled "Communications Plan", and it spells out the requirements for a daily check in with a manual activation of the DeLorme satellite tracker each racer was required to carry. Manual activation, rather than automatic, is required "as a sign of life aboard." I don't know if the 2018 race will require the same equipment, but it seems logical that they will want everyone on the same system to facilitate posting everyone's position on the tracking page during the race.

[Sailronin]

Hi AZ Sailor,
I understand the logic of a manual check-in, I guess having an Iridium just for tracking couldn't hurt anything.
Thank you

[pogen]

Delorme was selected for the race tracker (so people could follow at home) and also for sign-of-life check-in as described above. Some racers already owned them; they are fairly affordable. The rest got a group rental rate for the race or race + return.

Pretty much all races use committee provided or specified trackers.

[Sailronin]

Thank you, I see that Delorme is now part of Garmin so easy to find and purchase.
Best regards,
Dave

[The Smokester]

For the SHTP2016, racers were required to rent the race-specific tracker even if they already had their own personal tracker. The race specific tracker interfaced with the race tracking web page, satisfied the race requirements, was set up for ultra-low power useage and lasted the entire passage without recharging.

[AZ Sailor]

The Communications Plan lists the SSB frequencies to be used during the race. Most of these frequencies will have been pre-programed somewhere in the user-programmable channels. However, the channel numbers assigned to these frequencies will vary. On my ICOM M710, for example, the 4 mHz band USCG emergency frequency* is found at Ch. 18, and is called “4 SAFTY”. On the ICOM 802, however, that frequency is set by the factory as Channel 2, and is labeled “4 SOS”, or something like that, I think. I made up a quick reference card to post on the SSB, with where the channels are found on my radio, and what the display will now show as the names of those channels.

3407

Your channel number and channel names will likely be different, but you get the idea. Reprograming channels is not hard, just a little tedious. The instructions from ICOM are pretty easy to follow. These are 'simplex' channels, so remember to change both the RX and TX frequencies to the same listed frequency. You can print out this template and fill in the first and last columns with your radio's info. 3408

*BTW: the CG emergency frequency in the 4 mHz band is 4.125, and NOT 4.025 as stated in the 2017-12-13 version of the Communications Plan.

[brianb]

The updated comm plan is attached.

Questions, concerns, misspellings, logical incongruities, and legal or moral complications can all be discussed here. You can also access this doc on jibeset, and additionally it was emailed to all participants.


Brian

[AZ Sailor]

The updated comm plan is attached.

Questions, concerns, misspellings, logical incongruities, and legal or moral complications can all be discussed here.

Nice! On first read through, primary changes from the prior doc seem to be (1) correcting the 4 mHz band GC frequency; (2) adding the 6 and 8 mHz band CG frequencies; and (3) formally identifying Mounton Noire as comm's vessel. Thanks, Michael, for shouldering this duty again. Much appreciated.

Perhaps sometime on Thursday or Friday before the race we could have a time designated for testing DCS calls to RC's MMSI.

[brianb]

Yes, on the test Lee. I would suggest we do this soon, from our distant locations, at home, in cars. Etc.

We could pick a 24 hour period where everyone turns on their devices, places them in track mode, does a few checkins from Westmarine, Macy's, REI, Pt Lobos, Pt Bonita, or Bev Mo, wherever one may be during the test period. I could set up the test period with Jibeset and a map would be produced of the check ins.

Regards,

Brian


Nice! On first read through, primary changes from the prior doc seem to be (1) correcting the 4 mHz band GC frequency; (2) adding the 6 and 8 mHz band CG frequencies; and (3) formally identifying Mounton Noire as comm's vessel. Thanks, Michael, for shouldering this duty again. Much appreciated.

Perhaps sometime on Thursday or Friday before the race we could have a time designated for testing DCS calls to RC's MMSI.

[jamottep]

I couldn't find a place to provide my sat email address. I put it into the "Other" field, below the sat phone # field. Should I put it somewhere else?

And just to be clear ... because the plan says to check in "in the morning" ... the check in window is 1PM PDT to 1AM PDT, right? I can see how it's morning in HI ... and maybe I should adopt HI time ... but I may go slow then ...

[mike cunningham]

there is a typo in the e-mail address for the RC in the "key points of contact" table. It is correctly represented (I think) in the following prose. No biggie but perhaps a bit confusing.

[tboussie]

Is the e-mail address for the race committee "tranpacific@sfbaysss" or "transpac@sfbaysss" (or both)?

[DaveH]

The official email address is transpacific@sfbaysss.org

Note the insertion of the S... not tranpacific ; tranSpacific.

technically transpac still functions, but only as a legacy backup.

[DaveH]

Ok - to lessen confusion about which email address does what, here is a concise list:

transpacific@sfbaysss.org = general communication with the race committee -

tracking@sfbaysss.org = proof-of-life daily checkin's - this will be monitored by the RC for daily check in messages

racereporting@sfbaysss.org - submissions for posting to the website and other media - this is monitored by the "media team" who will edit anything extraneous (including inadvertent sailmail addresses and headers) and then post.

[brianb]

Comm Plan Test Day, Sunday June 10th. 1500 PDT, 2200 GMT, 1200 HST. We will conduct a test of the tracking system and the check in system. We would like to have everyone turn on their satellite tracker, engage it to ping automatically its location, once every 30 min, and then send a few check in messages to the locations specified in the Comm Plan. A dial up number has been established for discussion of issues anyone might be having. The dial up is: (see email from Jibeset) Guest Code: (see email from Jibeset) THis is a conference call number.

Hope to hear you all on.

Those using SSB might want to establish a call in frequency at the same time. I would suggest use of the 4 mHz frequency in the Comm plan .

Brian

[Rainbow]

Brian: FYI, not all may know this: even with the DT set to 30 minutes, it reverts to 4 hour intervals to save battery power if the unit does not see movement between pings. So for Sunday's test, we need to move a bit after each ping -- can't just turn it on and remain sitting still or the next ping will be 4 hours later.

How long do you want to run the test?

Also, the Comms plan gives "up to 12 hours" after 2000 to check in, but it also says the latest check in time is 0700 -- isn't that only 11 hours after 2000?

Cliff Shaw, Rainbow

[DaveH]

Freshly updated Comm Plan is attached here, and posted to Jibeset.
no significant changes, edited for clarity and typo's

DH

[brianb]

It was updated yesterday to ver 1.1, dated yesterday, emailed to all participants. The check in times have changed to accommodate wave propagation and squall propagation.