Coastguard Announcement

tome

tome

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From 22 September CG will no longer maintain a dedicated headset watch on channel 16, see <A target="_blank" HREF=https://mcanet.mcga.gov.uk/public/news/release.asp?mcga_news_id=2334&month=9&year=2003>MCA</A>

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Thanks tome, interesting reading .Glad to read that they will keep the speaker on and will use headsets at times when required so shouldn't cause a problem.Thats untill they pull the plug in a couple of years anyway./forums/images/icons/crazy.gif

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Just an excuse to cut the service, manpower and thus staff costs. These savings will then be swallowed up and more by Whitehall penpushers churning out more stupid uninforceable laws such as the booze limit legislation for private craft.

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No problem with this, as it is falling in line with GMDSS and the use of DSC. Those that have problems with this, should take up golf!

Unless you have taken SRC or LRC with DSC you will not know what is about to take place. Much has been published in the media about this in a global context. These forums are used in a global context and, no doubt, there will be those that have the same views as some.

Although there will only be a listening watch, spare a thought for your fellow sailors who, just may be, who will come to your aid because they are listening, as the law of the sea obliges them too. But don,t knock the lack of listening as the buzzer will be far more effective and the results put into practice in a more economical and time saving fashion.

<hr width=100% size=1>http://www.mpcee.co.uk/katoema.html
 
Not sure I concur with you - they will still be listening but not with a dedicated headphone watch for the time being ('cos they can't hear the people ringing in on mobiles when they have their headphones on!)
Would love some stats on the incoming calls from leisure craft to Portland and Solent via mobiles recently - bet they are pretty significant numbers in the summer now.

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So how can we be sure that the dsc function works? Have heard recently of some faulty sets, if still on 16 you would call again and then know there was a problem.

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Put in a normal (non urgency) call on Ch70 on your DSC set to Coastguard. Coastguard will respond and you'll be taken to a working channel where you can speak to them.

Alternatively, do the same with another boat with DSC

Or am I missing the point?

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Its my choice, but I will only buy a DSC when my present VHF becomes faulty and not before MCA or no MCA.
The day when the penpushers dictate you cannot swim/sail/go to the toilet without a GPS tracker armband/DSC or whatever is the day I shove off eleswhere.

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But you always follow up the red button call with a conventional distress or urgency call, so in one sense there is always a backup. Intriguingly last Saturday was the first Channel crossing we have had without the DSC siren going off, despite two sinkings (one some east of Littlehampton, one off Poole) that took place whilst we were approaching the Needles.

It was certainly unusual to hear no DSC originated mayaday calls, and it was noticable how much of a reflex action it was register a mayday over the other traffic - even with much less useless background chatter for Solent Coastguard.

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Thats not actually quite what they said, Tome. The MCA notice says in effect that because there are now a number of different ways in which people are alerting CG to emergency situations, their operators will not be running a continuous headphone watch on Ch16, although when the operational situation demands, they will do so. The same press release points out that their latest system records continuously ALL VHF channels with an instant replay ability.

Far from reducing the watch coverage, it seems to me that this actually improves it, and allows them more flexibility in dealing with distress call monitoring.

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Errr - sorry Mike - thats not what MCGA say....

Pedantic or not, but the MCGA press release 08 Sept, No 279/03 says that headphone watch will cease from 00.01 on 22nd sept 03. See the MCGA website news section.

So I don't know who told you it was not until 01/02/05 -- maybe the journos from 'Sailing Today' ?

Do I get a rebate on my licence fee for telling you?
Or will the CG quietly sink my boat for telling on them...?

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Oldharry

I really don't see how this improves matters when the dedicated ch16 headset watch was supposed to end in 2005. Nor do I see that my post was misleading. A dedicated headset watch is very different from a lodspeaker watch, which is all they are guaranteeing from 22/9.

Tom

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OK, but being aware that a lot more distress calls are now being passed by means other than CH16 (according to the CG), freeing up an operator to deal with operational realities seems to me a more efficient use of available (i.e. cash limited) manpower - which is what the press release claims it will do.

Having never been in a CG control room, I cannot comment on the relative merits of a dedicated headphone watch against a running recorded system which can give an instant replay of anytransmission however garbled, broken or overspoken it may be. The press release indicates that they feel this will give better coverage.... it just seems to me to be a better use of available manpower - which is inevitably down to a matter of cash at the end of the day.

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One should indeed listen on Ch16. Problem is that the Solent is full of people who demand radio checks all the time. This means that Ch16 is always 'there'. It was lovely in Holland where we spent 2 months. None of this idiotic calling all the time so one could keep Ch16 on. There is no need to keep calling the Coastguard and one also gets idiots trying to raise Marinas on 16 and having long conversations. Hence one turns the radio off or turns the volume down so that DSC calls still arrive.

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