Radio Checks...

[bedouin]

Heard Sunday Morning

Portland Coastguard, Portland Coastguard

this is

Solent Coastguard, Solent Coastguard

Radio Check please

Over

 

[Guest]

Did you detect a note of desperation?

 

[LadyInBed]

What CH did they call on, and did they get a reply?

 

[bedouin]

I think it was channel 10 (the VHF was on dual watch) - and yes they did get a reply - the usual "You are good and readable"

 

[Twister_Ken]

>"You are good and readable"<

How did Portland know that Solent had been good?

 

[Rob_Webb]

Radio Check - Answer

It was because Solent CG had trouble with their equipment transmitting on Ch10 on SUnday morning. They announced their routine weather bulletin at 0840 UTC on Ch16, switching to Ch10 for Solent-based boats and Ch86 for others. After a long, silent wait on Ch10 and a follow-up question to Solent on Ch67, it became apparent that they had become aware of the non-broadcast on Ch10 and were now looking into their 'technical diffculties' - hence the call to Portland CG was probably part of their troubleshooting. By Sunday afternoon it was sorted.......

Rob Webb

 

[david_e]

Re: UTC

What do the initials stand for?

 

[bigmart]

Re: UTC

I think you will find that it stands for Universal Time Constant.

 

[LadyInBed]

Re: UTCoOrdinate not Constant - nm

 

[Rob_Webb]

Re: UTC - Correct

UTC indeed stands for Universal Time Constant. It's the time used for planning all shipping and aircraft movements the world over. Here in the UK we are lucky because it also equals GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), so for half the year (during the winter months), UTC = our own local time, which makes things easy. However, during the summer when most of us do our sailing, we move onto BST - this puts us an hour ahead, so 0840 UTC = 0940 BST. Clear or confusing?!

Rob.

 

[HMCG]

co-ordinated universal time

Here is the definitive answer -

UTC = Co-ordinated Universal Time - The initials are back to front due to the fact that it is a french standard. See this link http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/fs-1037/dir-009/_1277.htm

It is used by all international maritime authorities including coastguard services. If you walk into any coastguard MRCC or MRSC you will find that all the clocks are an hour out dueing the summer. We constantly work in UTC. This means that if we isse a broadcast at a set time (EG maritime Safety Information) it will be broadcast in UTC so that vessels who are in transit from one timezone to another know the time to listen in. It also prevents confusion between international coastguard stations.

A UK Coastguard Officer





Remember a VHF can save your life.