USCG 430 Direction Finding System
Coast Guard Technology Allows Crews to Better Find Emergency Signals
Direction finding equipment developed by Rockwell Collins will make detection and tracking of emergency radio signals more reliable for Coast Guard rescuers.
A C-130 Hercules from Clearwater, Florida recently demonstrated the potential of a new technology to be used in search and rescue (SAR) operations borne of the Coast Guard's Integrated Deepwater System - Rescue 21 Program. On the evening of April 11th, aircrew from Air Station Clearwater used advanced radio direction finding equipment to track down the location of a sailing vessel, S/V Paradox that was in distress.
EPIRB Equipment - Many safety minded skippers equip their craft with Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRB) that transmit beacon radio signal on 406 and 121.5 MHz. The 406 MHz signal is detected by satellites belonging to the COSPAS/SARSAT Program and aircraft up to 100 nautical miles from the source. Signals broadcast on 121.5 MHz frequency are used to home in on targets in the water located within fifteen nautical miles of the receiver.
A Successful Rescue - Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Douglas E. Williams, the C-130 Aircraft Commander involved in the Paradox search details use of the Coast Guard's new 430 Direction Finding System, “In this case we had a large catamaran, 35–40 feet long, that had completely turtled. The skipper had a battery powered saws-all and had cut an escape hole through the hull. They had the EPIRB inside the hull, transmitting straight up from that hole. We got a solid hit on the new DF-430 multi-mission direction finder and got over the top [of the rescue] quickly. District Seven Command Center was able to vector in an HH-60J helicopter from CGAS Clearwater to complete the rescue.”
Earlier in the day, a Coast Guard HU-25 Guardian (Falcon Jet) equipped with conventional direction finding equipment was unable to locate the S/V Paradox. Aircrew estimate that the HU-25's radio gear can only detect legacy 121.5 MHz signals twenty percent of the time, which requires aircraft to perform extensive search patterns to pickup a signal.
Rockwell Collins DF-430 - Installation of DF-430 equipment is a consequence of the Coast Guard's Integrated Deepwater System Program (Deepwater) that provided $2.6 million to eventually equip all of the Coast Guard C-130 aircraft and HH-65 helicopters used in SAR missions. The Collins equipment can receive radio signals in the range of 30 to 410 MHz and is designed to work well with equipment used by other government agencies. The Hercules stationed at Clearwater is one of the first platforms to be used in testing the capabilities of the new radio gear. A second C-130 has been equipped with the DF-430 equipment and is undergoing evaluation in Elizabeth City, North Carolina at the Coast Guard Aircraft Repair and Supply Center (ARSC).
“Ultimately this is about expanding the SAR mission capability, surface assets, satellites, aviation assets. We want to save lives and the [DF-430] is an electronic advancement that allows us to do that. We are going to reap a number of benefits, such as savings on fuel and time. That means SAR is going to be safer for the people we are looking for, and for the air crews doing the mission.”, says Lieutenant Commander Joseph E. Deer of the DF-430 equipment expert for the Integrated Deepwater System.
