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Broadcast Notice to Mariners

These are effectively live notices or charting discrepancies or hazards, being then updates to the Local Notices to Mariners. They are twice a day announced on VHF channel 16 and then given on channel 22a.

There is a new system underway to put these online but only one district has it so far. See
https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/bnmmessages/index.html

The actual broadcast times and channels should be in Pub 117, Radio Aids to Navigation.

https://msi.nga.mil/api/publications/download?key=16694477/SFH00000/Pub117bk.pdf&type=view

Check for USCG VHF 22a navigation warnings in the USA section. Each state or district has slightly different times. So headed down a coast, you could make a list of these to know when to listen.


The US Coast Pilots discuss these (without listing broadcast times) and also point out the many cases where special unscheduled broadcasts are also made, as for example about unscheduled bridge closures.


With all that said, there is a new, modern aspect to the question of chart updates. Namely, electronic navigational charts (ENC) are now updated every week, and these are updated automatically in many enav programs. See this recent note on this: http://davidburchnavigation.blogspot.com/2020/11/how-to-report-nautical-chart.html

These charts, unlike paper charts and RNC, include most Light List data right in the charted object descriptions. So in essence, having an updated ENC is the same as having all chart info updated to the present week. We have a book on how to use ENC at this link: https://www.starpath.com/catalog/books/1996.htm


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