HOORAY - Its happened - at last!

[oldharry]

VHF having been defunct for a while, at now at long last sorted, tuned in for todays Solent CG forecast, to hear that at long last they got wise to it:

THEY NO LONGER ACCEPT 'RADIO CHECK' CALLS on Ch 16! - except from new or modified installations. They advise us to ask another nearby vessel.....

HOORAY!

So now its: " Ark Royal, Ark Royal, Ark Royal - this is Yacht 'Pesterer, Pesterer, Pesterer - Radio Check Please'!!!!!

Hmmm....

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[Chris_Rayner]

No more radio checks??

Not exactly. While they were making this announcement they were being persistently asked for radio checks, and giving them; along with someone sitting on the PTT in the Eastern Solent on 16, sundry requests for entry to marinas and harbours on 16, and all the usual rubbish.

The young(?) woman CG who was answering the calls in the afternoon seemed to be angling for a job with local radio. Very chatty and pert style she had. Put me in mind of a rather jolly pony club official. Half expected to hear her tell us all about Fiona's excellent round on Buttercup, and to ask us to commiserate with Caroline who bust her funny bone when Rumplestiltskin refused the five bar gate.

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[oldharry]

Re: No more radio checks??

Quite agree - either she is due for an award for PR, or charisma is now part of CG radio procedure training!

But at long last CGs top brass have seen sense and made a move towards stopping this particularly irritating problem in the Solent.

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[zefender]

Re: No more radio checks??

Quote from Solent Coastguard Saturday:

"Caller you were overspoken by dozens of others, by every man and his dog" or something like that. Made a change. It was good fun listening to her 'to protect the integrity of C16, no radio check on C16 " and then bet on how quickly someone would call up asking for a radio check!



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[vyv_cox]

VHF transmission characteristics

Don't know if there is something unusual in the atmosphere at the moment, apart from high pressure and sunshine, that is, but yesterday we could hear Yarmouth and Thames CG on Ch 16 while anchored at Middelharnis in the Haringvliet. This has never occurred previously, we normally need to be outside the Slijkgat before we hear Dover CG, some 12 miles or so closer to UK. I would think that both CGs we heard were about 100 miles from us.

Both were responding to radio checks.

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[Twister_Ken]

Good innit?

And about bl**dy time.

It was close to peaceful at one point on Saturday afternoon.

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