A coast (or coastal) radio station (short: coast station) is an on-shore maritime radio station which monitor radio distress frequencies and relays ship-to-ship and ship-to-land communications.
A coast station (also: coast radio station ) is – according to article 1.75 of the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) ITU Radio Regulations (RR)[1] – defined as «A land station in the maritime mobile service.»
Coast Radio Station had an important role in the history of wireless radio communication as well as in maritime and war history.
Recent costal radio station provide medical advice services for ships, transmitting meteo messages and navigational warnings (NAV-Notice) on a regular base and all of them do a distress chanel watch (DSC-Watch) on VHF Chanel 16. Not all station monitore 2182 kHz shortwave anymore.
- ^ ITU Radio Regulations, Section IV. Radio Stations and Systems – Article 1.75, definition: coast earth station / coast earth radio station