An infuriating national obsession- radio checks

[photodog]

Its sooo hard I dont know how I will ever cope those buttons are sooo big and soooo far away those horrid people and their naaasty noises pah.

Cmon dudes I bet you can sit in yer front room at home with the telly on and not get frantic about it all the time. background blah. Yes, channel 16 should not be abused. But it is.

How about having to re take your radio licence test every 5 years to remind everyone not to do that?

Well I for one haven’t upgraded to dsc...

 

[capnsensible]

Well I for one haven’t upgraded to dsc...

Just think of the advantages. With all that extra money, the RYA could go to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to demand that British Boat Owners have an inalienable right to change the fanbelts on their engines. Yay. Win, win.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Its sooo hard I dont know how I will ever cope those buttons are sooo big and soooo far away those horrid people and their naaasty noises pah.

My radio is down below and there is - as far as I am aware - no means of silencing a DSC alarm other than (a) listening to the call or (b) turning the damn thing off. I go sailing for peace and quiet, not for a klaxon to tell me that a mark fifty miles away is switched off for a bit.

Cmon dudes I bet you can sit in yer front room at home with the telly on and not get frantic about it all the time. background blah.

I don't have a telly. Bet you wouldn't like it if yours randomly set off the fire alarm every so often.

 

[Robin]

My radio is down below and there is - as far as I am aware - no means of silencing a DSC alarm other than (a) listening to the call or (b) turning the damn thing off. I go sailing for peace and quiet, not for a klaxon to tell me that a mark fifty miles away is switched off for a bit.



I don't have a telly. Bet you wouldn't like it if yours randomly set off the fire alarm every so often.

I once had a Navman set where DSC could be toggled between it and ATIS,effectively switching DSC off when not in an ATIS area.Thank goodness for modern RAM options with full remote capability.

We are currently mobo owners with lower antennas so not driven as crazy by(especially) irrelevant and repeated French CG DSC alarms from hundreds of miles away as we used to be with a very tall mast on south coast.

 

[Birdseye]

We returned to Poole from Alderney yesterday, the last leg of a fine 4 week summer cruise, which took us to S Brittany

As we came into VHF range of Solent Coastguard I quickly lost count of the number of radio check responses broadcast by the overworked, and very patient, coastguard. For the previous few weeks I had not heard a single radio check request to the French coastguard.


So why do the Brits have this curious obsession

They dont. Its a Solent thing. I guess they feel a bit lost once clear of the London suburbs and home..

You rarely hear radio checks in the Bristol channel where the sailing is a bit more serious than the Solent.

 

[Baddox]

They dont. Its a Solent thing. I guess they feel a bit lost once clear of the London suburbs and home..

You rarely hear radio checks in the Bristol channel where the sailing is a bit more serious than the Solent.

Nor up here on the NE coast of England.

 

[capnsensible]

You rarely hear radio checks in the Bristol channel where the sailing is a bit more serious than the Solent.

Im surprised. I thought that the extra finger would be quite useful operating the set.