Ofcom again!!

[Bunny]

Having recently bought a boat with a radio licence (Exp.sept.) I am now trying to get it transferred into my name. Having trawled through the ofcom site which I found very confusing to get around, it appears I have to submit a paper based application which is £20. Fair enough if thats how it is. I printed the form off (of347) but then found the form is not very "newbee friendly", all twelve pages of it. So after searching for of168a and of19a for further guidance iv`e decided to give up for now coz its frustrating me. Does anyone else find the whole ofcom situation overcomplicated or am i missing something?

 

[Anonymous]

[ QUOTE ]
Does anyone else find the whole ofcom situation overcomplicated or am i missing something?

[/ QUOTE ] I can't follow it, either. It is gibberish. The website doesn't work, either, unless you change all your security settings for it /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif and even then there are some quirks that some folks might find difficult - I did.

 

[philip_stevens]

I couldn't remember my password, so was sent a new one. Try as I might, I cannot change it to something I can remember. Now, I can't remember the temporary password they sent, as there was no way of going back to it.

It really needs someone to sort out their site to make it user-friendly (I was going to say "more" user friendly, but it isn't even as good as that).

At least I have printed off all 12 pages of the license - just in-case I can't get in again!

 

[VicS]

I agree the Ofcom site is far from the easiest to use but i did manage to get mine in December when the new scheme came onstreem withou too much difficulty.

I am not sure whether you can transfer the old licence to your name or not. The new type licences are not transferable between owners or boats but one expiring in Setember was issued under the old scheme. Mostly people have found them helpful on the phone so a phone call to determine the situation would be a good idea. It might cost £20 to transfer but it might not, I'm not sure about that either.

Alternatively begin by registering with them, but dont forget your pasword while waiting for your user ID to come through the post. Once registered try filling in the on line form putting in the existing callsign when asked for it. If it accepts that then press on and complete the form, down load the licence and print it. However it probably won't accept the old callsign against your name so then you have two choices. Either go back to the postal procedure and stump up £20 if required or just forget the old callsign and apply for licence on line as if it was something brand new and get a new callsign. I dont think that is what you are supposed to do but if Ofcom think people are going to fork out £20 when there is a way of avoiding it then they are in cloud cuckoo land. You can always claim you did not know the old callsign !

The difficulty I had with the online application was not realising that "save licence details" or was it "save application" was the way forward from the last page of the application to the downloading stage.

Since I did mine diffulties have appeared with the downloading itself. It seems that while there are no problems if using IE6 there are with IE7. To assist IE7 users Ofcom have produced some notes on down loading difficulties which you should read but it has recently emerged that there is a gremlin in IE7 that has "Enable" and "Disable" are muddled up in the security settings relating to file down loads, so you have to set "Disable" to enable it. That's in addition to the fact that they are disabled as the default. A way round the downloading problem is to temporarily lower your security setting to "Low" just while you do the down load.

I hope that helps a bit. The problems are not insurmountable but for the time being it looks as though we have to accept that Ofcom were sold a really crap bit of software not helped by what looks like a gremlin in IE7.

 

[Bunny]

I have registered and when i try to fill the online form in, when i get to enter call sign and mmsi (optional) Ienter my call sign but having no mmsi as have no dsc, i press continue but it just says you have not entered your mmsi /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif Thats as far as i can get online. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gifThere again it could be me, not being totally puter literate /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[VicS]

[ QUOTE ]
Thats as far as i can get online

[/ QUOTE ] It is rejecting the callsign because they do not have it registered in your name perhaps. i dont know why it is expecting you to enter a mimsi (I dont have one). Did the previous owner have a DSC set that he kept, leaving you with his old non DSC one.

If you say there is not an old call sign it should go ahead and issue you with a new one with the licence. Not what you are supposed to do though.

Worth a phone call I reckon.

The previous owner is probably having just as much trouble getting a licence for his new boat using his old mimsi number.

 

[Bunny]

Yes you are probably right vic, its rejecting me because of the call sign, not the lack of mmsi, i hadnt thought of that. A phone call it will have to be then! No doubt it will be a press 1 for, press 2 for setup and will probably cost a tenner to get through, (if i get through). Any way appreciate your help vic, thanks.

 

[Malcb]

Check it on the M.A.R.S. database under your ship name. That will give you the call sign and MMSI number allocated to your boat. This is not transferrable, and remains with the boat, even if the previous owner has removed a DSC set and replaced it with a non-DSC set.

Sorry, should have said it is (they are) transferrable from one owner to another, it is (they are) not transferable from one ship to another.

 

[VicS]

[ QUOTE ]
A phone call it will have to be then

[/ QUOTE ] That is the right thing to do i am sure but personally i would have just forgotten all about the old callsign (the previous owner did not tell you what was, did he, and you have not been able to contact him since!) and just gone ahead and applied for a licence saying that there was no previous one.

 

[Bunny]

I see where you`re coming from now. Will start again. Thanks.

 

[Malcb]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
A phone call it will have to be then

[/ QUOTE ] That is the right thing to do i am sure but personally i would have just forgotten all about the old callsign (the previous owner did not tell you what was, did he, and you have not been able to contact him since!) and just gone ahead and applied for a licence saying that there was no previous one.

[/ QUOTE ]

See my post

You can check whether a boat has a call sign and an MMSI number by checking the MARS database.

I do this often when new members of the Virgo Owners Association cannot find ther boats call signs.

 

[Bunny]

Thanks, just tried that, it also wants mmsi which i dont have,so," No results found". What if I just leave it untill september and see what happens then? Whats the penalty for a licence in the previous owners name? Keelhauled? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Malcb]

I checked the boat name sapphire and got lots of results. What you are looking for is the boat names that shows 'G' under the heading 'symbol' they are all the UK registerd boats. Then you trawl through each one, you are looking for one that says 'MTB' against the Ship Class. I assume that you have a MB and not a Ya(ch)t.

The previous, or current, Owners name is shown as 'Owner'

You don't have to fill all the fields in, at the stage that you are at, I would just fill in the Boat Name, then check through until you find the previous owners name. assuming that you know that.

 

[vyv_cox]

I struggled for ages to add a new MMSI to my recorded details. Probably my fault as others said they could do it with no problems. However, I gave up and telephoned, no waiting, no problems, very helpful lady sorted things out immediately. New MMSI number mailed to me and added to details by them.

A pity to have to resort to 20th Century technology with a 21st Century tool, but sometimes the way you know can be the best.

 

[Bunny]

Cheers malc, it worked when I just put in the name, But shows no mmsi. I suppose I could persevere with the paper one but I cant answer a alot of the questions like "port of registry" and a few others. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[jb2006]

If you're not on the part 1 or part 3 register you don't have a port of registry - if it wont let you pass the page without filling this field I would put your home port. Some fields can be left blank if I remember rightly

 

[Malcb]

If you've got the right boat, by finding the previous owners name, and there is no MMSI, then there is no MMSI and the previous owner hasn't taken away a DSC set (registered)

Most of the other questions, like Port of Registery, are only a problem if you are Part 1 registered. I assume you're not, so just answer them in a way that seems logical to you.

However, as Vics has said if you really get in a knot, then a phone call should sort it all out. You'll only need two bits of info to sort it over the telephone. First the boat name, and as its sapphire, there's a lot of them, and secondly the previous owners name.

Good luck.

 

[Bunny]

Many thanks to all who replied. I feel a lot better about the whole thing now and will have another attempt tomorrow. It got me so frustrated earlier, a combination of a poor site and a lot of naievity on my part i fear.Once again guys thanks for your input.

 

[MoodySabre]

That's what I did - Ofcom said call-sign was already registered so I told it I didn't have one and then they sent me a new one. Remember to change CG66 details if you have registered with the Coastguard.

When I got to the end it wouldn't register me as the very helpful lady told me "there are already 14 Smiths in your area and the computer is getting confused" Priceless /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[VicS]

[ QUOTE ]
I feel a lot better about the whole thing now and will have another attempt tomorrow

[/ QUOTE ] Regarding what info you have to fill in. You have to complete the fields that are marked with an asterisk (*). That is the normal convention but usually you are told that. In this case they don't tell you of course.
The only one that cased me any bother was the registered tonnage. Since the boat is not Pt 1 registered I dont have such a figure so I tried to leave it blank but in the end I simply put in the displacement. I think I have since seen it confirmed that that is the correct thing to do any way.