Spotted this morning close to shore. Looks like an Irish Defence Force Frigate. Nothing out of the ordinary as they are often seen in the area. Plus there is a new marine security strategy being developed in EI so it might be part of that? Particularly given recent espionage surrounding undersea cables coming from EI and linked to DC’s and such.
I decided to pull over to take a snap and to see could I get an AIS ID on the vessel but when I checked the live tracking maps I saw zilch, nitto, nada.
I’m assuming these vessels don’t need to transmit their ID? At the same time I was cursing myself that I didn’t have my Uniden on me to see could I get any Close Call pickups.
Again though I would assume they may communicate on Marine band for public traffic, e.g. reporting position to lighthouses, other traffic etc but everything else is most likely TETRA.
I know it isn’t SOTA-related but thought to ask as there appears to be a few former service folks on this reflector who might know a bit more that they might be able to share.
Possible mystery solved (if anyone cares ). A patrol frigate has shown up near the Carlingford area that looks similar to the one spotted earlier. A look at the vessel details shows it appears similar aesthetically at least.
It isn’t the above ship as the departure time was 09:25, which is way off. The only other ship in the area that did make a pass, but not close enough to where the frigate I saw was spotted, is a Dutch combat vessel:
Johan De Witt - which is a NATO Combat Warship. Currently headed back towards Dublin. It made a pass up the east cost from Waterford, out towards Holyhead and is circling back.
If you were an Irish warship, why would you transmit your location? Especially when the Irish waters are the class A drug gateway to Ireland the UK, and the Irish navy and coastguard are only just starting to do something about it.
Oh 100%, I suppose it was a captain obvious statement though not the intention. If it was actively performing a task, I would understand why AIS would be switched off.
I just assumed though that AIS was mandatory for avoidance of accidents etc. Such as the three ships posted above. All are combat frigates of some sort, but three of them had AIS enabled this morning, yet the vessel I spotted was anonymous.
In retrospect what I should have done is stuck a VLF spike in the ground and recorded sferrics to try and decode any submarines pottering about in the Irish Sea this morning - of which there have been some (as well as ships) spotted recently having a little look at the undersea cables.
Also, I had a little look in to it and in the US, the navy take a different stance apparently:
That’s 2017 though so may have changed. Given their policy now states:
Quote s164.01:
Provisions of §§ 164.11(a)(2) and (c), 164.30,164.33, and 164.46 do not apply to warships or other vessels owned, leased, or operated by the United States Government
You cannot have a situation where a warship on some kind of ‘active’, duty must have its AIS switched on. You might not want others to know what type of ship you are, but they’d still be able to see you on Radar if they are within the radar’s range.
As far as I remember The Collision Avoidance Regulations still apply - it is up to each ships’ Captains, to avoid the the other. ID notwithstanding!!
In terms of radio, 99% of ships carry VHF sets capable of channelised frequencies, with channel 16 (156.800mhz) being the distress, emergency & safety channel and would also be the common calling frequency. Not knowing the name/s of other ships wouldn’t prevent the Officer Of the Watch, calling up an unidentified ship with something like;
"Ship bearing 190 from warship 1NM from Bishop sands light house, I wish to communicate with you on channel 20 please, Over’
Most warships will have it switched off for obvious reasons. It doesn’t form part of collision avoidance so there’s no issue there. Many moons ago one of the Brit carriers was told to lose themselves on the Scottish west coast, no emissions tomake it hard for other units to find them. After 36hrs they were told to break radio silence as no one had found them and people were getting worried.
I’m just re-reading this. The reality of it was knowing the name of the vessel and calling them up was absolutely no guarantee of not getting involved in a close-quarters or a collision. We would often refer to the hazard as a radio induced collision. The rules clearly states the definitive actions that each ship must take etc so it was better to stick to that and it kept you legally safe of course. There was also a story going about in the Gulf about 20 years ago with the US Navy actively searching for a phantom ship. It had a name I can’t remember let’s say it’s “ElectronicUnit”. The Navy would show up but find that it was no longer there and another ship was there. This went on for some months and I think it was the Aussie’s who boarded one of the ships in the location shown for “ElectronicUnit”. They quizzed the Master and he explained the company had fitted AIS and it lived in a cupboard. They were shown the unit when they asked and when it was fitted no-one had bothered to amend the settings with the name of the ship so it just showed “ElectronicUnit”. Much hilarity of course but it took them months to work it out.
I’m crewing on a boat delivery tomorrow from Granton, in the Forth, to Berwick.
I’ve asked the skipper and he said it’s ok to take the radio with me for some /MM QSO’s.
I’ll have a flowerpot for 2m and the spx100 loaded whip for HF.
I’ve never tried HF on the boat before so it will be a bit of an experiment to see if the vswr will be ok with all the rigging on board. The flowerpot worked successfully last time hanging from a 4m pole stuck in a fishing rod holder off the stern rail.
It will all be dependent on the weather and my watch keeping duties, but I’ll keep an eye on sotawatch for spots.
During the Falklands war HMS Endurance managed to remain totally undetected by the Argentinians near Georgia Island even though it was painted bright orange.,
). A patrol frigate has shown up near the Carlingford area that looks similar to the one spotted earlier. A look at the vessel details shows it appears similar aesthetically at least.
