How often do you use DSC or Ch16...?

How often do you

  • Every time I go out

    Votes: 28 20.7%

  • Once in a while

    Votes: 43 31.9%

  • Very rarely

    Votes: 64 47.4%
  • Total voters
    135
Have VHF-DSC radio. It's always switched on at sea, monitoring CH16. Often is on dual watch for appropriate port/harbour stations, near land. Use it to call marinas, harbour masters, customs etc on their advertised channels. It is linked to my AIS receiver, move the plotter mouse over an AIS target and you can 'dial' the ship directly: I have done this more than a few times to check a big ship has seen me, and to negotiate avoidance. Quite often local radio 'nets' are on VHF rather than SSB- a good source of information and entertainment, a selected channel is used for about half an hour with the opening statement ' This is the blah blah cruisers net- anyone who objects to the use of this channel for the next half an hour, come now.....'
I am a bit of a stickler for proper radio procedure, but I did break my own rules at 2 minutes past midnight on Christmas Day, halfway between the Canaries and Cape Verdes- a 'Merry Christmas one and all' was met with quite a few replies.
So, basically, use it constantly, but only use the 'direct dialling' from AIS contacts bit of the DSC capability.
 
prv said:
Dunno about the flags, but they probably like the discounted DIY tools and cheap unfamiliar-branded foods as much as the next person :D

Pete
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Not if you know the MOD, they were keen to spend £5,000 on oxygen bottle trolleys in the 1980's !

Food for people at the sharp end may be a different matter though.
 
I think you'll find that any (UK) MN deck officer will have to have passed a Morse exam at 6 words per minute by lamp and have a working knowledge of flags; the International Code of Signals is a compulsary book to be carried on all flagged (commercial) vessels; the RN still use lamp and flags for signalling to each other and other vessels.
 
Ariadne said:
I think you'll find that any (UK) MN deck officer will have to have passed a Morse exam at 6 words per minute by lamp and have a working knowledge of flags; the International Code of Signals is a compulsary book to be carried on all flagged (commercial) vessels; the RN still use lamp and flags for signalling to each other and other vessels.
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French regulations require all pleasure boats to carry a copy of the International Code of Signals, but only require boats to carry the N and the C flags.
 
michaelchapman said:
French regulations require all pleasure boats to carry a copy of the International Code of Signals, but only require boats to carry the N and the C flags.
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Yes, the N & C distress flags, who's going to know those little things or even see them ?

When I did night school nav' we learned morse, but nowadays all I remember is SOS - probably a petter prospect of getting rescued would be eating beans and lighting ones' farts !

PS the Jersey flag, diagonal red cross with small crest on a white field, looks so much like the distress flag V I began to disregard it, I think it takes more than a small flag to get attention nowadays, more like a flare or radio job.
 
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Seajet said:
Yes, the N & C distress flags, who's going to know those little things or even see them ?

When I did night school nav' we learned morse, but nowadays all I remember is SOS - probably a petter prospect of getting rescued would be eating beans and lighting ones' farts !

PS the Jersey flag, diagonal red cross with small crest on a white field, looks so much like the distress flag V I began to disregard it, I think it takes more
than a small flag to get attention nowadays, more like a flare or radio job.
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Yes such as DSC which you are proud of ignoring.
 
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