How often do you use the BBC Radio 4 shipping forecast?

The premise of the survey is that platforms other than BBC 4 are available for receiving forecasts.
In the location of my mooring I am effectively "at sea" as soon as I drop off the hill on the drive down.
Mobile phone reception is dodgy on any network... internet is painfully slow, if viable at all. The only radio signals available are BBC R4 LW and RTE2 on AM.
The nearest harbourmaster is in Rothesay which is an hour's drive and a ferry crossing away.
Get my point?
 
Gordonmc said:
The premise of the survey is that platforms other than BBC 4 are available for receiving forecasts.
In the location of my mooring I am effectively "at sea" as soon as I drop off the hill on the drive down.
Mobile phone reception is dodgy on any network... internet is painfully slow, if viable at all. The only radio signals available are BBC R4 LW and RTE2 on AM.
The nearest harbourmaster is in Rothesay which is an hour's drive and a ferry crossing away.
Get my point?
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So what do you plan to do when Radio 4 LW is off air?
 
Two points :-

Your survey does not always state 'R4 LW' and I have answered some questions about 'R4' assuming that you are including FM.
Perhaps you are not .....?

If R4LW is taken off the air a lot of yachtsmen and fishermen will be without a forecasting facility when they (we) are 200+ miles offshore, out of range of FM, Navtex and the like.
Not all of us can afford satellite equipment and this seems to be the only viable alternative.
The French have upgraded their LW why can't we ?
.......because this current government has effectively cut the Beebs money by cutting out the World Service grant and making that part of their bill internally funded.
A pox on all their houses !!!
 
The R4 forecast is a hangover from the early post war years and, maybe, pre-wa, when the only other way of getting a forecast when at sea was the W/T broadcast from Portishead. Now, we have NAVTEX, when at sea, the Internet near the coast, some shipping area forecasts on VHF and, for some, MF/SSB. There really is now no real need for the R4 shipping forecast. How many yachts do not have NAVTEX?

The Met Office questionnaire was a bit of a Met Office cock-up. For some reason that escapes me, it was really intended for such as surfboarders, swimmers, beach users in general rather than yacties. That was not obvious although some of the questions did seem rather odd.


Whether or not many of us use it for real, I guess that it will continue. How else will the BBC keep quiet those nutters who think that it is poetry? To hear some of them, you would think that it is part of our heritage rather than a 20th century construct.
 
franksingleton said:
How many yachts do not have NAVTEX?
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I don't have internet access on board, or have NAVTEX. I rely on VHF and LW.

Perhaps there is an assumption that all boat owners have reasonable size craft, well fitted out, and a budget to supply extras. LW can be had for £15 (and with no running costs) - NAVTEX £200+. Navtex needs to be installed, LW radios don't. LW and VHF can be carried on a dinghy with no need for a plumbed in 12v system. Some yachts run on a shoe string for budget, others just have to or want to keep things simple.
 
AngusMcDoon said:
You have a Nasa one then. The Furuno ones are nearly twice the price, but just work.
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That seems like a nasty cheap shot. I have a Nasa Navtex, which has worked perfectly since the day it was installed. It doesn't matter how much you spend on a Naxtex, if it is properly installed, and operated, they all give the same forecasts.
 
NormanS said:
That seems like a nasty cheap shot. I have a Nasa Navtex, which has worked perfectly since the day it was installed. It doesn't matter how much you spend on a Naxtex, if it is properly installed, and operated, they all give the same forecasts.
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Bet it's true though.

On boats I have delivered I have found Nasa ones invariably poor when getting further away from the coast, and Furuno ones always reliable. Nasa ones off the top of Scotland just receive wibble. Just reporting my experience. If you like them, that's fine by me, but I would never buy one.
 
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AngusMcDoon said:
Bet it's true though.

On boats I have delivered I have found Nasa ones invariably poor when getting further away from the coast, and Furuno ones always reliable. Nasa ones off the top of Scotland just receive wibble. Just reporting my experience. If you like them, that's fine by me, but I would never buy one.
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I have a furuno navtex and when installed I left it on auto. A big mistake I found out (received Iceland warnings at south coast), and it is now on manual settings to limit the amount I receive.
 
Boathook said:
I have a furuno navtex and when installed I left it on auto. A big mistake I found out (received Iceland warnings at south coast), and it is now on manual settings to limit the amount I receive.
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Just proves what a good receiver it is :)

Setting up the stations and message types you want to read should be standard practice, you can't fault a receiver for picking up transmissions that don't interest you.

Pete
 
I still like to listen to the Radio 4 Shipping Forecast at 00.45 (I'm not an early to bed type) newarly every night when out on the water. Whilst I use modern smartphones and the CG on VHF mainly, the R4 is a back up which is always there. 3G and WiFi is sporadic on the West Coast of Scotland and the R4 forecasts really come in to their own when the CG go on strike! Remember that not too long ago, R4 was our only forecast.
 
AngusMcDoon said:
The latest Furuno one has the option of taking a NMEA feed of GPS data and choosing your local stations automatically.
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The ICS Nav6, which I would probably buy if I needed navtex, can do the same. Not sure I really see the value though, it's not as if most of us flit between areas so often that it's a chore to change. If you do regularly sail in two different areas you probably want both sets of forecasts anyway.

Pete
 
HughJames said:
Thanks for that Elton, that question logic has now been fixed!

And the main reasoning for the research is that although there have been studies into the usage of the radio forecast for general mariners, none has been conducted regarding the yachting sector.

Being a young yachstmen, I have never utilized the Radio 4 forecast for.any passage planning, and have opted for more modern methods, such as the internet or word of mouth from the harbourmaster.
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Do you take your Harbourmaster with you everywhere, or do you just never leave the harbour for more than an hour or so?

Many anchorages are well beyond the reach of the Internet & some are even beyond the reach of VHF. If on a longer passage, the regular & predictable R4 broadcasts are a vital source of weather updates. Even if you call the CG for a forecast, they can only give you the last Shipping forecast for your sea area - if it wasn't available they could only look out of their window - & with the latest cost cutting reorg of HMCG they could easily be over 100 miles away.
 
HughJames said:
Being a young yachstmen, I have never utilized the Radio 4 forecast for.any passage planning, and have opted for more modern methods, such as the internet or word of mouth from the harbourmaster.
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I hope he quoted his sources. Sorry sad academic joke :rolleyes:
 
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