This Day in U.S. Coast Guard History – November 22
1906-At the second International Radio Telegraphic Convention, which was held in Berlin, the attendees agreed to adopt the wireless signal "SOS" as the internationally recognized signal for distress at sea. Their thinking was that three dots, three dashes and three dots could not be misinterpreted. 1953-A great boon to ocean navigation for aircraft surface vessels was the completion of four new LORAN stations in the Far East. The stations were built at Mikayo Jima, Ryuku Islands; Bataan and Cantanduanes Islands, Philippines; and Anguar, Palau Island in the Carolinas chain. Now replaced by the more accurate LORAN-C network, these stations on sparsely-populated, remote and typhoon-battered islands.
Mobilarm Launches Crewsafe
Australian marine safety specialist Mobilarm launched Crewsafe, a unique onboard wireless network with Man Overboard functionality at the 2008 International Workboat Show, Dec. 3-5. Mobilarm Crewsafe is a wireless safety network that provides marine employee safety and security through crew location monitoring and by automatically initiating a network-wide alert to all personnel within seconds of an incident occurring. "Each employee carries a palm-sized transceiver - a Tag - whose wireless signal keeps them connected to the network via a series of wireless routers.