Obsolete RYA VHF Handbook

[Momac]

...who don't HAVE a Ships Radio Licence

Don't tell me they don't exist. I know at least three of 'em.....

I suspect quite a few have not bothered to do the vhf course . There are probably many who have done the course and dont know things like AIS and RADAR should, if fitted, be on the ships radio license.
Has anyone ever been prosecuted for not being compliant with the requirements?

 

[zoidberg]

Has anyone ever been prosecuted for not being compliant with the requirements?

Perhaps it's a bit like those Fastnet racers who try to clip the corner at The Bishop on the way back, find the tide sets them strongly NE-ward towards the maze of rocks and reefs down around there, and have to start the engine for 15 minutes to get clear. Do they declare it? Do they bloggery!

You won't find them boasting about THAT little omission, either, around the yacht club bar......

However, expect the French and the Irish to be rather more interested in one's proper documentation, next year.

 

[Robert Wilson]

I suspect quite a few have not bothered to do the vhf course . There are probably many who have done the course and dont know things like AIS and RADAR should, if fitted, be on the ships radio license.
Has anyone ever been prosecuted for not being compliant with the requirements?

Thanks for the prompt - I'll be checking I comply.

Boat coming out of the water today (baring unforeseen problems) so I have a few months to get it checked and updated (if necessary...)

 

[JumbleDuck]

Hands up all those who DON'T have a 'Certificate Of Competence and a License To Operate', who have radio equipment installed /fitted on their boat which is NOT in their Ship Radio Licence, who don't HAVE a Ships Radio Licence, and who wouldn't know an OfCom if it bit them.....?

I have - somewhere - a VHF operator's licence from 1990. I suppose I should get the DSC version sometime, but legality aside I can't see the point. Which may be Dunning-Kruger in effect, of course.

Presumably if there have been 30+ safety-critical changes between the last two editions of the RYA handbook, anyone with a licence older than the previous one is, like me, dangerously out of date.

 

[NormanS]

My "Authority to Operate" VHF licence was issued in March 1980. I subsequently upgraded to the "Short Range Certificate", for DSC, in 2005. In spite of having had a DSC set for about 15 years, I have never used, or seen the benefit of using, DSC. When DSC was introduced, one of its main points was that vessels would no longer be required to listen on CH 16. At the time, I thought that this was a dangerous and retrograde step, and I still do. Fortunately the vast majority of both commercial and recreational vessels still do listen on, and use CH 16.

 

[[70521]]

The point was if a DSC message hasn't been sent. Agree if it has, there's some value in giving the MMSI to tie the voice and DSC calls together.

The DSC message is more likely to be sent, and received, that a voice call. All to do with burst transmissions.

I am sure if you pressed the transmission button and said help someone would respond! I know somebody who dialed 999 and was only able to mutter help because of the enormity of the situation (a murder/suicide) and had a very fast response because the operator realised by the tone of her voice something was far from right!

 

[[70521]]

My "Authority to Operate" VHF licence was issued in March 1980. I subsequently upgraded to the "Short Range Certificate", for DSC, in 2005. In spite of having had a DSC set for about 15 years, I have never used, or seen the benefit of using, DSC. When DSC was introduced, one of its main points was that vessels would no longer be required to listen on CH 16. At the time, I thought that this was a dangerous and retrograde step, and I still do. Fortunately the vast majority of both commercial and recreational vessels still do listen on, and use CH 16.

Gosh, DSC is great. Find a few chums and go and have a play one day. Calling them on a channel of your choice, getting their location (if switched on) from the radio without them even knowing. Setting up a Group code so you can call a bunch of vessels when sailing as a group to arrange who is first at the bar knows what to order (I understand "Spoons" have an App that does this as well, but you need a table number").

I'd like to know if the CG would respond to a call on Ch67.

 

[snowbird30ds]

I suspect quite a few have not bothered to do the vhf course . There are probably many who have done the course and dont know things like AIS and RADAR should, if fitted, be on the ships radio license.
Has anyone ever been prosecuted for not being compliant with the requirements?

Hands up time here, both me and my other half have done the src dsc course and passed and the boat is licenced for dsc vhf, portable vhf, and I did add the ais transponder when I fitted it but I hadn't considered the aged radar needed to be on it, it is now......

 

[NormanS]

Gosh, DSC is great. Find a few chums and go and have a play one day. Calling them on a channel of your choice, getting their location (if switched on) from the radio without them even knowing. Setting up a Group code so you can call a bunch of vessels when sailing as a group to arrange who is first at the bar knows what to order (I understand "Spoons" have an App that does this as well, but you need a table number").

I'd like to know if the CG would respond to a call on Ch67.

Honestly, none of that appeals to me. If I want to call someone, I'll do it on 16 (initially) or more likely nowadays, I'll use the phone, if I have a signal.

Why, other than in the Solent, would you expect the CG to respond to a call on 67?

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Does a Sea-Me transponder have to be on the ship's license? I never thought of it.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I am sure if you pressed the transmission button and said help someone would respond! I know somebody who dialed 999 and was only able to mutter help because of the enormity of the situation (a murder/suicide) and had a very fast response because the operator realised by the tone of her voice something was far from right!

When my crew was very small I covered how to make an emergency call on Ch 16. I didn't bother with any procedure except "over", just said to start "I am five years old and ..." with the assurance that anyone hearing it would appreciate the issues and give appropriate guidance.

 

[Hot Property]

It's Ch16 in the Solent too. If anything it changed *back* with the introduction of Fareham Coastguard, who seem to have abandoned the old Solent's local arrangement of initial routine calls on 67.

(They still use 67 as a working channel, but only after being directed there from 16)

Pete

I used to call Solent coastguard directly on ch67 as they published guidance to do just that rather than block up Ch 16 with endless radio checks.

Now, however, I contact NCI Calshot on Ch 65 for a radio and sea state check as I slip my mooring on the upper Hamble.

I appreciate their help and always make a point of slipping some folding money in their collection box whenever I see one!

 

[[70521]]

Honestly, none of that appeals to me. If I want to call someone, I'll do it on 16 (initially) or more likely nowadays, I'll use the phone, if I have a signal.

Why, other than in the Solent, would you expect the CG to respond to a call on 67?

Each two their own. We have a huge amount of fun with it. Sadly the mobile phone is rubbish 25 miles offshore, but we did get a WhatsApp message 10 miles offshore.

 

[zoidberg]

Does a Sea-Me transponder have to be on the ship's license? I never thought of it.

According to the OfCom Portal, it does. See manage-your-licence/radiocommunication-licences/ships-radio

It costs nothing to add kit like this to your Ships Radio License. All that info will eventually be published in the updated ITU_MARS database, which may be referenced by S&R authorities when needed.

 

[ghostlymoron]

I know it's nice to follow the letter of the procedures but the CG isn't going to ignore your distress call if you deviate or omit something. If they need some information you haven't given them, they'll ask for it.
I've often communicated with them and found them courteous, friendly and helpful.

 

[Ohlin Karcher]

According to the OfCom Portal, it does. See manage-your-licence/radiocommunication-licences/ships-radio

It costs nothing to add kit like this to your Ships Radio License. All that info will eventually be published in the updated ITU_MARS database, which may be referenced by S&R authorities when needed.

Guilty! Whoops, I will add my Echomax. It never occurred to me. I bet 90% of RTE's aren't on the database?

 

[zoidberg]

I know it's nice to follow the letter of the procedures but the CG isn't going to ignore your distress call if you deviate or omit something. If they need some information you haven't given them, they'll ask for it. I've often communicated with them and found them courteous, friendly and helpful.

The reason given for 'following procedure' is nowt to do with the courtesy of Coastguards, but rather that a large number of the matelots out there DO NOT have English as their first language - are not English - and have slavishly to follow a procedure-card in terms of what you expect them to hear, understand, and respond to - not least by writing down the given position and the problem.

That perhaps does not apply in Lac Solent, but it does everywhere else beyond where England has shrunk to a thin grey line on the horizon. For my money, if I have need to punch out a Distress Message ( other than wanting a cheap tow back to Lymington ), I want it understood Right First Time. The Lithuanian or Singaporean standing watch on that great grey container vessel 25 miles away who hears your/my ragged and feeble transmission may be required to effect a Distress Relay to the nearest Coastal Station - or RCC - that they can raise..... and that also may not use English as their first language. Should they hear a weak, unclear transmission that does not come even close to what they've been trained to expect IN ENGLISH, there's a good chance they'll just ignore it as 'too difficult' and get on with their day.

IMHO there's no room for a fumbled and garbled DM, and no room for pretending that any ould cobbled-together transmission will do the biz. That's simply gash and cavalier!


As for ensuring you have all your radio-frequency kit on your OfCom Ships Licence, again that's not for 'policing' or charging a fee, but so that any Rescue Coordination Centre or other national/international organisation providing assistance can discover from the ITU-MARS database - which is fed/updated daily with OfCom data - more about your vessel and what kit it has, assisting in the decision on what resources to deploy.

The RYA's SafeTrx does a part of the job, but that's quite limited and isn't immediately available beyond our local shores.

 

[Robert Wilson]

I know it's nice to follow the letter of the procedures but the CG isn't going to ignore your distress call if you deviate or omit something. If they need some information you haven't given them, they'll ask for it.
I've often communicated with them and found them courteous, friendly and helpful.

+1
Last October I was having a very wild beat into Ullapool, only craft out, and making very heavy weather of it in freezing temperatures.
All of a sudden the SAR helicopter was above me. A Ch16 conversation ensured them I was OK.
A minute later Stornoway CG called me up on Ch16 to check on me, wanting all usual info about the boat, myself, destination ETA etc.

That evening, when safely and snugly back at home I telephoned the Stonoway CG to thank them for their involvement and to sort of apologise for any inconvenience I might have caused by being "out " there.

They said they were pleased to help, to ensure I was safe and insisted that I hadn't caused a nuisance.
"That's what we're here for Mr. Wilson and we're glad you were managing the conditions and were aware of them."They even congratulated me, then added that I'd bet I wished I hadn't been out in it!

So Ch16 was all that was used on that day a year ago.

P.S. A lesson learned - don't try Loch Broom in a strong Southeasterly with snow well down the hills and wind-against-tide

 

[zoidberg]

+1
.
All of a sudden the SAR helicopter was above me. A Ch16 conversation ensured them I was OK.
A minute later Stornoway CG called me up on Ch16 to check on me, wanting all usual info about the boat, myself, destination ETA etc.

They said they were pleased to help, to ensure I was safe and insisted that I hadn't caused a nuisance.
"That's what we're here for Mr. Wilson and we're glad you were managing the conditions and were aware of them."They even congratulated me, then added that I'd bet I wished I hadn't been out in it!

That'll be 'cos you're a local, there was nowt else going on, the helo crew needed some Monthly Continuation Training..... and you can speak 'cheauchter'.

Had you been a foreigner - from Glasgow, say - it might have been different.

 

[[70521]]

That'll be 'cos you're a local, there was nowt else going on, the helo crew needed some Monthly Continuation Training..... and you can speak 'cheauchter'.

Not a word I've heard in a long while.