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Loggings => Peskies => Topic started by: R4002 on October 29, 2018, 2217 UTC

Title: 6 MHz Marine SSB Logs 2200 + UTC 29 Oct 2018
Post by: R4002 on October 29, 2018, 2217 UTC
6 MHz maritime mobile marine mobile ITU SSB channelling band HF-SSB marine band 6200 kHz - 6525 kHz (officially) 

I know this is under the Peskies forum and not Utility but there's a pretty big gray area between the two...but I digress..

6215.5 kHz USB (6215 kHz is the 6 MHz marine distress frequency) - unknown language, too weak to ID
6244 kHz USB - sounds like an African or Caribbean language
6249 kHz USB - Portuguese, suffering from extreme QRM from the carrier on 6250 kHz
6254 kHz USB - Portuguese, sounds like the pescadores heard in the 6700-7000 kHz range
6262 kHz USB - Spanish, distinctly heard "estoy buscando" - "I am searching for" at 2205 UTC
6292.6 kHz USB - Spanish, one of the stations seems to be on 6292.7 kHz
6300 kHz USB - Spanish language, weak but busy
6421.5 kHz USB - Spanish or Portuguese, not 100% sure

While these frequencies do fall within the 6200 kHz to 6525 kHz 6MHz HF marine band allocation, the ITU channeling isn't exactly followed...6215 kHz is the 6MHz distress frequency, and the traffic heard was not distress traffic and was also on 6215.5 kHz not 6215.0 kHz. 

6244 kHz - in between 6242 kHz and 6245 kHz recommended SSB 3 kHz channel spacing
6249 kHz - in between 6248 kHz and 6251 kHz recommended SSB 3 kHz channel spacing
6254 kHz - actually on one of the recommend frequencies according to 3 kHz channel plan
6262 kHz - in between 6260 kHz and 6263 kHz recommended SSB 3 kHz channel spacing
6292.6 kHz / 6292.7 kHz - closest 3 kHz channel is 6293 kHz so I could easily call that "fine tuning" :D
6300 kHz - in between 6299 kHz and 6302 kHz recommended SSB 3 kHz channel spacing
6421.5 kHz - this part is a little bit murky, as the channeling doesn't actually match up even according to the ITU documents

The ITU only officially designates 8 "duplex" channels (often used as simplex) - ship TX frequencies 6200 kHz to 6221 kHz and shore TX frequencies 6501 kHz to 6522 kHz, including the 6215 kHz distress/calling frequency and the 6501 USCG weather broadcast frequency.

So, aside from the official ITU simplex/duplex channel plans, I think the remaining portions of the MF and HF marine bands are use whichever frequency you want.  I know that FAX and other data modes use "in between" frequencies as well as out of band frequencies too.