ghostlymoron
Well-Known Member
Thats the beauty of the DSC button
boat use without a vhf license?
- Thread starter symondo
- Start date
prv
Well-Known Member
They wouldn't need CG66 to get the boat name, though of course it's a good idea to register the additional information. The station license should have put the basic information like boat name, owner name, etc into MARS.
Presumably this boat didn't have a station license (particularly daft since it's free online) - perhaps a secondhand radio with the MMSI from the old boat and the old license cancelled?
Pete
chanelyacht
Well-Known Member
Because the course covers a lot more than that.
What knowing how to send a mayday doesn't tell you, for example, is how to respond to one, or indeed to keep quiet. We have to tell people to do that enough times to suggest there is very little knowledge of general radio procedure out there.
chanelyacht
Well-Known Member
One of our biggest problems is boats with unchanged records from house moves / sales / renamings / etc.
chanelyacht
Well-Known Member
It can't "not be used" because the DSC system auto looks-up as the call is received.
ricky_s
Well-Known Member
You can still gain that knowledge in the RYA book though. Does anyone ever fail the course?
colingr
Well-Known Member
If more people did the course you'd get a lot less idiots calling Solent for a radio check on CH16 every time they turn the radio on.
And the Yacht 2 are you receiving chatter.
And the Yacht 2 are you receiving chatter.
prv
Well-Known Member
That's good to know - I'd heard that in general your systems weren't as integrated as they could be.
I'd be interested in your guess as to why a CG station would be calling an MMSI number without giving the vessel name. To get an MMSI there must be a license so one would expect an MMSI to always resolve to a name, even if it's the wrong name because the radio was sold or the license not updated.
Pete
chanelyacht
Well-Known Member
Number of reasons -
The database is not realtime - can be about a month between you sending off your licencing form and it appearing on ITU,
The link may have been down at the time,
There may have been a fail in the lookup.
chanelyacht
Well-Known Member
Yes, I've failed people a couple of times for sheer inability.
FishyInverness
Well-Known Member
This wasn't covered in the course when I did it (4 years ago), hence my understanding that coastguard would be happy to confirm your radio check - they always have to me, cheerfully and enthusiastically, but since the recent memos, I have ceased asking for it.
prv
Well-Known Member
In my course five or six years ago the instructor pointed out that there is no need to do a check every time you turn the radio on, recommended that when we did do a check we do it with another vessel or a marina etc, and informed us that Solent Coastguard want routine traffic on channel 67, not 16.
I can understand the last point not being taught in Inverness, though
Pete
colingr
Well-Known Member
The Solent seems overburdened in this respect despite repeated responses from the CG for people to use CH67 for routine traffic when calling them.
FishyInverness
Well-Known Member
.
I can understand the last point not being taught in Inverness, though
Pete
Aye, I can see the logic - I just feel a bit more secure on the sea kayak knowing that they heard me once, so they'll hear me if I really need them. Our instructor on the course just never mentioned radio checks at all (Other than having us practice doing them, vessel to vessel on the paired training radios). It is odd being all the way up here and trying to even imagine the sort of chatter that must fill the airwaves in the solent - Channel 16 is ghostly quiet around 80% of the time in these parts.
Oh, and I did my VHF course on the Forth & Clyde canal - in a narrowboat(!)
prv
Well-Known Member
Midweek or after dark it can be relatively calm, but on a sunny summer weekend the chatter is almost continuous.
Pete
Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
Falmouth coastguard remind people several times a day ( at same time as weather transmissions) that one should NOT use 16 for radio checks & that one should not be asking them for a check
sailorman
Well-Known Member
wot is a radio check, my icom 59 euro looks ok from here & it was turned on last week & worked
Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
Does not mean to say you have been doing it correctly though!!!!
As an example, ( i stress Example) an RAF fighter pilot came to our yacht club for a while & always used the wrong terminology etc when on the rescue boat
Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
That piece of paper is to say that you have demonstrated an ability to achieve a certain standard at a particular time.
Just because you have read a book & THINK you know, it does not mean you actually DO, & quite often it is those self opinionated types that actually do not know how.
A reason for those to gibe at the exam that they cannot pass
Having been on the course & listened to some of those at the course I am amazed how difficult some find it
Some of them were quite happy that having read the RYA booklets they could do it but actually made a total pigs ear of it
they certainly needed the 10 hours- most admitted that
chanelyacht
Well-Known Member
It can be variable, depending on the instructor. When I teach, I cover the syllabus, but I also try and make it scenario based using x years of coastguard experience, which I like to think brings a bit more to the students.
With a good instructor, you'll go away knowing a lot more than a pure listing of items covered would show.
Sometimes it's explaining little things, like folding down a 2m whip because the helicopter above you has asked you to won't mean you can't speak to him!
With a good instructor, you'll go away knowing a lot more than a pure listing of items covered would show.
Sometimes it's explaining little things, like folding down a 2m whip because the helicopter above you has asked you to won't mean you can't speak to him!
