Imagine picking up the microphone of your VHF radio from wherever you
happen to be fishing and effortlessly placing a telephone call
to any number in the world. Imagine further that this phone call
is digital, private, and available 24 hours a day, even far from
sight of land, beyond the reach of other technologies like cellular
telephone service, and all at a surprisingly affordable cost.
Sound far-fetched? Not hardly. It's actually right around the
corner.
Unless you live in some
sort of self-imposed media isolation, you've no doubt read about
the future of information retrieval and dissemination. Those who
envision such things for us say that soon we will get all of our
communications services, including news, internet connection,
shopping services, telephone service, banking, etc., from one
provider, probably through our television sets. We will all be
connected to one another through one giant information web, and
our old methods of gathering information will go the way of the
dinosaur. It's the digital revolution.
What's this got to do
with your VHF? Well, just as technology has transformed television
and computing from basic tools into essential communications devices,
so will it transform your VHF. Yes, the VHF is about to go digital
and become a truly high-tech piece of communications equipment.
The DSC Option
We've written a lot about
Digital Selective Calling (DSC), which is the internationally
mandated protocol for transmitting a variety of message formats
between SOLAS convention (International Convention for Safety
of Life at Sea) ships and shore stations. For the recreational
fisherman, DSC translates into dedicated channels that are reserved
for emergency purposes. A distress call sent out on the appropriate
DSC channel, from a DSC-equipped VHF, will automatically summon
help.
But on the horizon are
new advantages that DSC will bring. A couple of years ago, we
wrote about MariTel, the company that was buying up all of the
local marine operator systems around the country to form a new,
consolidated network. That operation is ongoing, but MariTel has
subsequently jumped into the DSC business with both feet, and
plans to offer an incredible range of services to boaters in the
next couple of years.
The MariTel Network
MariTel is building a
communications system that will allow you to make the types of
phone connections described earlier by building a series of tall
towers (nominally 330 feet tall) and base stations that will connect
future-generation VHF radios to America's phone system automatically!
Using technology much like that found in cell phones, you
will be able to place digital phone calls, or send emails and
faxes if your boat is equipped to do so, on specific DSC channels
programmed into your VHF.
How It Works
Here's how it will work:
MariTel has formed a team to build a system called MariNet. Members
of the team include the American Tower Corporation, which will
build 286 towers around the coastal United States and the inland
navigable waters of the U.S. for seamless, contiguous coverage.
MariNet also includes the Harris Corporation, which is designing
the base stations, including equipment and software that will
provide overall system integration. Harris will also design, test,
and certify procedures for VHF manufacturers.
Williams Communications
is in charge of designing an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
backbone that will connect the MariNet coast stations, control
centers, and other related facilities. This backbone will provide
completely independent and redundant fiber optic pathways, and
the whole thing will be tied into the Public Switched Telephone
Network (PSTN) at multiple locations by MCI-Worldcom.
The MariNet system will
consist of intelligent nodes located along the coastline which
will be able to communicate with properly equipped vessels by
voice or data over VHF at 14.4 kb, and then at network speeds
from node to node over the ATM. All MariNet base stations will
be digital and capable of simplex or duplex operation. The main
thrust of this system is towards commercial vessels and the transfer
of data. Fleet operators will be able to send huge amounts of
data over MariNet efficiently and quickly, and can even establish
fleet monitoring and tracking systems.
For those of us who simply
want to stay in touch, phone service will be available at the
touch of a button. Jim Tindall, MariTel's Vice President of Sales
and Marketing, uses a land-based analogy to explain his company's
vision. "What we're doing is essentially the same thing Nextel
did with the land mobile SMR (special mobile radio) system in
the 1980s. Nextel starting buying up all of the small, independent
mobile radio systems in the 800 MHz range and consolidated them
into a seamless network that is now the Nextel system we all know.
We are trying to accomplish the same thing in the 156 to 162 MHz
marine VHF market. It's really a reinvention of the marine VHF
radio. We're taking a tired 1970s technology and breathing new
life into it."
New Radios to Come
The radios that will support
this new service are decidedly not your father's VHF. They will
obviously have to be equipped with circuitry to handle the new
DSC channels, and will no doubt be more expensive than entry-level
radios. And the number of manufacturers willing to invest in this
new technology may depend upon the amount of demand for these
types of services. Some VHF manufacturers are already working
on sophisticated radios which will offer true duplex, digital
DSC service. This will make talking on DSC channels like talking
on an ordinary telephone. And the FCC's move to allow 12.5 kHz
channel spacing (current radios have 25 kHz spacing) will make
even more DSC channels available to handle all of the traffic.
Even if you don't want
to invest in the new-generation VHFs that are coming, it's important
to note that MariNet's system emulates today's analog, half-duplex,
and simplex radios. And the company still maintains its staff
of marine operators so you can access the system with non-DSC
radios, which will be available indefinitely. The operators probably
won't be there forever, though, as automation makes service faster
and more efficient 50 NM Range.
An obvious question that
arises is why you wouldn't simply use a cell phone to make these
calls. After all, most of us own at least one already. The answer
is range. MariTel says that its towers will provide seamless,
overlapping coverage out to 50 nautical miles from shore, a feat
that cellular phones can't touch. Cellular coverage remains spotty
in many coastal areas, and reception is hardly reliable offshore.
MariTel says that MariNet's Public Coast Station towers will each
have a Radio Direction Finder (RDF) antenna on top that will obtain
a line-of-bearing on a one-second voice transmission from a marine
channel 16 transmitter with one-watt effective radiated power
and an antenna height of two meters, at a range of 20 nautical
miles or more. Translation: they can lock in on a handheld VHF
signal, on low power, six feet above the water's surface, 20 miles
away. That's impressive reception.
Like cellular providers,
MariTel will offer different airtime plans, but long distance
is included in the pricing, and the rates will be extremely competitive.
It all adds up to more communication options for those of us who
fish offshore, and the convenience factor alone will be phenomenal.
These developments will let us stay in touch as never before.
Of course, many of us fish to get away from phones, but that's
the beauty of a VHF: it's there when you need it, but you can
always turn the darn thing off!
For more
information on the MariTel system, contact: MariTel, 16 East 41st
St., New York, NY 10017; (888) MARITEL. www.emaritel.com
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