Marine Radio: use on land?

FishyInverness said:
I dunno, there's a guy down my road who continually insists on practicing bagpipes by the canal and no-one's knocked his door yet - I'm fairly sure he isn't employed by the BBC - perhaps he's got a Base Station Pipe Licence? ;)
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Maybe he's just got some girt big mates hiding behind a tree, just hoping some visiting Englishman will tell him to "shut the muck up"?
 
nigelmercier said:
I've just bought a handheld VHF from Standard Horizon. The manual warns that the use of marine radios on land is prohibited by law, but surely one can use them for communication with a boat?

Are there any special licences required, or specific channels to use or avoid?
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You will need to register the radio on your Ships Licence, or obtain a Ships Portable Radio Licence ( T number licence), anyway. ( The latter is necessary if the Radio is a DSC one but it is valid only in UK waters )

You will have to use a single frequency ( simplex) channel. That includes the intership channels, which Id think the most appropriate and Channel M

Avoid channels used locally for port operations etc.
 
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If you do use it unofficially on a pontoon, don't use channel 67 in uk as the coastguard will be onto you in a flash. Channel 67 as we all know is the small ship safety channel!
 
It’s a strange one isn’t it. I came across this problem whilst registering for my ofcom vhf licence or whatever its called and rang them to seek clarification on the law and was basically told that I would be breaking the law if I used the radio on shore.
The reason I asked was because my house overlooks the sea and I can see quite a large area.
One evening I had been rebuilding the battery pack on one of my handheld radios and after charging up decided to leave it on test monitoring channel 16 to see how long the battery pack would last.
Whilst doing this I heard a mayday call go out for a small boat which reported his position to be ½ mile south of St Mary’s island it was a clear summers evening and flat calm and Humber coast guard called out Blyth lifeboat.
When I looked there were no boats in the area south of the island but there was one ½ a mile north of the island.
So what should you do radio Humber coast guard and admit to using radio illegally or say nothing and waste the lifeboats time.
I decided as I could see the lifeboat coming out of the river he would probably see the boat and if not I would call on 16 and relay what I could see from my higher vantage point.
The lifeboat found the guy who I understand was drunk and towed him to safety.
Thing is I had always assumed that I was not doing anything wrong if anything being a good citizen by monitoring Ch 16 from a good high view point which is not usually visually monitored.
This is not the only time I have seen rescues from my home.
I know I could have used a phone but if this had been a more critical situation time would have been of the essence and we are always being told not to use the phone for multi participant rescues.

Geoff
 
Geoff Enigma said:
Whilst doing this I heard a mayday call go out for a small boat which reported his position to be ½ mile south of St Mary’s island it was a clear summers evening and flat calm and Humber coast guard called out Blyth lifeboat.

Geoff
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Ooh:eek: Common sense Vs rules again;)

I vote common sense every time, but mainly because I can't remember rules.:D
 
It's a shame that common sense didn't prevail before DSC was forced upon us all by inappropriate use of VHF,now we all have to follow the 'kin rules.:(
Geoff Enigma-due to your good position,and spotting more than one rescue,have you considered becoming a voluntary member of your local Auxilliary Coastguard?That way you could also be legally entitled to Tx on Ch 0 and have direct comms with the Lifeboat.:cool:.
I'm a bit confused by 'we are always being told not to use the phone for multi participent rescues',could you elaborate please?
Cheers
 
I have not applied to the coastguard or TVLB due to the usual excuses of work and a bit of ill health but may look into it.
What I meant about using the phone in emergency situations was that I was always told that on VHF you can simultaneously speak and be heard by multiple participants in a rescue but on the phone your message has to be relayed. When I have seen rescues its been after the helicopter or coatgaurd have arrived on scene.

Geoff
 
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Geoff Enigma-sorry to hear about your health.The Auxilliary Coastguard is a very worthwhile organisation and would probably like to have you onboard as an asset.
I now see what you mean by not useing the phone,but that is for a Mayday/PanPan situation where you want the maximum amount of people to hear you.When Lifeboats are on service,they will be working the Coastguard(normally) on 0.The CG will be 'guarding' Ch16 for any calls to the LB,and will initially answer any calls on the LB's behalf.The CG will relay any relevant info to the LB on 0,or may move the caller to another working channel for direct comms with the LB.
Cheers
 
nigelmercier said:
I did my VHF course years ago, they may have mentioned it, but at the time it wasn't relevant. All I really need is to talk to my boat when performing a local manoeuvre, such as filling the water tanks from a distant tap. So I guess low power and an M channel are the best way ;)
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And it would be an awful shame if you forgot your boat name and callsign and used something one off instead :D
 
Its many years since I read the Amateur licensing conditions but I'm almost certain there is a clause that effectively says in an emergency anything goes.

There is no reason hat I am aware of why they cannot patch landline to vhf, although I have never heard it done, at least not since the long gone days when you could make a link call.

PS Where are you parked in RQ - I'm on F pontoon
 
Beadle said:
There is no reason hat I am aware of why they cannot patch landline to vhf, although I have never heard it done, at least not since the long gone days when you could make a link call.
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I have - phone patch to a duty doctor at Portsmouth hospital because someone was seasick. I'll admit to listening in and have to say the whole exercise seemed pretty pointless - took ages to set up and to get hold of the doctor, presumably dragging her away from something important, and then she had no particular specialist knowledge of seasickness (why should she?) and just gave some fairly banal and obvious advice. Sure it can be very important in some cases, but this one just seemed like a waste of everybody's time.

caiman said:
It's a shame that common sense didn't prevail before DSC was forced upon us all by inappropriate use of VHF,now we all have to follow the 'kin rules.:(
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OK, you're going to need to untangle that one as I have no idea what you're getting at. :confused:

DSC wasn't invented or adopted because of "inappropriate use of VHF", and having been adopted I can't see what it has to do with following or not following the rules

Pete
 
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