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USCGC Frank Drew
USCGC ''Frank Drew'' (WLM-557) is a Keeper-class cutter, Keeper-class Buoy tender, coastal buoy tender of the United States United States Coast Guard, Coast Guard. Launched in 1998, she is home-ported in Portsmouth, Virginia. Her primary mission is maintaining over 300 aids to navigation in lower Chesapeake Bay, the rivers that flow into it, and a potion of the North Carolina Coast. Secondary missions include U.S. Coast Guard environmental protection, marine environmental protection, light icebreaking, search and rescue, and security. She is assigned to the Fifth Coast Guard District. Construction and characteristics On 22 June 1993 the Coast Guard awarded the contract for the Keeper-class vessels to Marinette Marine Corporation in the form of a firm order for the lead ship and options for thirteen more. The Coast Guard exercised options for the 5th through 10th ships of the class, including ''Frank Drew,'' in February 1997. The ship was launched on 5 December 1998 into the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maritime Call Sign
Maritime call signs are call signs assigned as unique identifiers to ships and boats. All radio transmissions must be individually identified by the call sign. Merchant and naval vessels are assigned call signs by their national licensing authorities. History One of the earliest applications of radiotelegraph operation, long predating broadcast radio, were marine radio stations installed aboard ships at sea. In the absence of international standards, early transmitters constructed after Guglielmo Marconi's first trans-Atlantic message in 1901 were issued arbitrary two-letter calls by radio companies, alone or later preceded by a one-letter company identifier. These mimicked an earlier railroad telegraph convention where short, two-letter identifiers served as Morse code abbreviations to denote the various individual stations on the line (for instance, AX could represent Halifax). "N" and two letters would identify U.S. Navy; "M" and two letters would be a Marconi station. On Apr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
