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Season's Greetings
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IN THE HEART OF THE ALAMEDA ESTUARY!
man Fortarina M
• Sheltered Alameda Location • Competitive Rates • Home of the Alameda Yacht Club 1535 Buena Vista Ave., Alameda, California
(510) 522-9080 For directions and rates go to:
www.fortman.com Page 52 •
Latitude 38
• December, 2005
LETTERS — he shows up about every three months — maybe he can be caught sooner. Here are some factoids about this loser: • His reported 'sinking' locations change from incident to incident, but are generally between Monterey Bay and Cabo San Lucas. • His reported lat/long positions are never correct. Most recently, he said he was near "Pedro, Mexico" — which doesn't exist. At first he reported his position as "6 North 32 South, by 122 West 22 East", which he confirmed to me twice. When he heard us making fun of the nonsensical position, he changed it to "16 North decimal 22, by 122 decimal 22 West". This placed him 800 miles to the southwest of Cabo San Lucas. • His reported locations never agree with radio propagation conditions or beam antenna positions. In the most recent case, all stations could have copied him at his reported position, but I was the only one who could hear him. Our best hearing stations couldn't hear him at all. I heard him on backscatter propagation pointed away from him, but heard nothing while pointed at his location. His reported distance from me was ideal for that night, and other stations were loud at that distance. For this reason, an attempt to get beam headings on this guy is a must from all who are capable. We can’t pinpoint him, but we can get a general idea of where he is. From past experience, we think he is somewhere between Los Angeles and San Francisco. His transmissions are pretty short, so operators have to get on it as quickly as possible. • His "distress situation” always develops at an unrealistically fast pace. One time he said he was sinking, then he saw a boat a few miles away, and then five minutes later he said he was being rescued by the same boat. The whole thing only took about 20 minutes from beginning to end. So beware of impossibly fast-developing situations. In every case, he reports that his boat is taking on water and sinking fast. • He often gives bogus Ham call signs and boat names. Sometimes he doesn't give a call sign at all. • He refuses to change frequency from the net frequency — even though he usually comes to our 14313.0 frequency from 14300. He changed to our frequency, but after disrupting our net, refuses to be taken off. • His signal is light, suggesting he deliberately reduces his power output. • He is easily agitated. Most distress vessel operators are very open to complying with requests. This guy is not agreeable to most requests. • He usually ends his last transmission by saying, "I’m leaving the boat!" After hearing his voice a few times, you will be able to recognize it easily. • He hoaxes on Thursdays and Fridays, with three of them occurring on the Fridays of long holiday weekends. It's gotten to the point where I will tune into the MMSN 14.300 on the Friday afternoon of a long holiday weekend just to try and catch this hoaxer. • His Maydays have been made between 3-5 p.m. Eastern Time. • To my ear, he's an old gentleman, already lacking voice resonance from age, which throws his voice a couple of octaves higher. • On more than one occasion I got the distinct impression that he was manipulating the output power to create a fade while "taking on water." He always says "Mayday" and always says he's taking on water. Of all the legit maritime emergencies I have worked, I've yet to hear anyone else use the term "Mayday." In closing, we need to treat all distress calls seriously, but