radio checks

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gjgm

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comment about CG on another thread prompts me to ask.. is there any difference between the validity of checking your radio with the marina on low power, and calling the CG ? OK, not everyone is in a marina, but who are all these people, calling up, in the Solent. And what do they do when CG answers, cant hear/all broken up? Do they keep going, or return to base? If the former, quite what does the check achieve?
 
In Aviation 'Radio check and taxi instructions' is a mandatory call , if the controller can't hear you , radio failure or what ever then you stay put. In boating its good practice I would suggest to call the Marina ( if Marina based) and let them know you are leaving , POB and where to and approx time of passage. If the radio is inoperable then you will know while still berthed and delay your departure until it is fixed or alternative radio sourced and checked.
I agree that the practice of calling the CG for a radio check seems to be on the increase but it is unclear if these boats are already at sea or not. If at sea and they do not get a confirmation reply from the CG that all is ok then I would hope that they would return to base.
Ian
 
"If they do not get a confirmation reply from the CG that all is OK?"

All they're getting in the Solent is a reply stating that due to industrial action they won't get a reply.
How do you feel about that?

And the Marina Manager certainly isn't concerned about my getting 'lost on passage'!
 
<span style="color:red">And the Marina Manager certainly isn't concerned about my getting 'lost on passage'!

</span>

He will be when your next bill remains unpaid!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Interesting....

My fixed radio stopped working last weekend and my portable icom has destroyed another battery so I went out without a radio (Chichester to Yarmouth and back)

Does this make me a bad person?
 
[ QUOTE ]
Interesting....

My fixed radio stopped working last weekend and my portable icom has destroyed another battery so I went out without a radio (Chichester to Yarmouth and back)

Does this make me a bad person?

[/ QUOTE ]



/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif all that open water and no VHF - my my. How did you feel? Does it make you a bad person? Well, let me think about that one for a while /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif Nah, I'm sure you had a barrel of tar ready on the foredeck should it be needed,
 
If they get a reply then its obvious the radio is working. Surely its safe practice to let somebody know where your going etc and the best choice is your point of departure , which obviously is not always your home base.
 
ok. I m lock -bound, so I have to use the radio to get out at all! Still,I m curious as to who makes all these CG calls. And quite why.. do they expect the radio (which presumably has been working for the last days weeks months years) to have suddenly broken?
 
No, not a bad bad person. Other more colourful adjectives come to mind /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I'd personally feel uneasy at not being able to contact the CG if there was an emergency on board my or a.n.other's boat.
Unfortunately I don't have room for the alternative barrel of burning tar.

I suppose a mobile phone would have to suffice and in any case the Solent is so busy you could just call across to passing boats to ask them to pass your message on. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
appreciate CG's are really badly paid, & they are a serious front line emergency service, so its not fair.

But all this announcing they are not doing anything but emergencies, rather does them out of the job they have, we've all had to find ways round this & we have.

I answered a radio check guy who was getting cross at no CG reply, said think they are on strike so not replying, but I can hear you, but we are probably both on the same marina !
 
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i have never had a Radio Check from the CG what ever is the point.
the radio worked the last time you used it /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
I finally called the CG for a radio check one quiet wednesday in July....about 14 months after fitting it...I knew it received ok but as I had never transmitted with it before, knew it made sense to check that it did, so finally plucked up the courage to key the mike...and probably (I hope) never will again!
 
Heard two radio checks this last Saturday....

One from "Nothing Doing"

Brixham Coastguard, Brixham Coastguard, Nothing Doing , Nothing Doing......

there was a pause and you could almost hear the CG laughing in the background...

2nd was from a boat named "Top Banana".....


Which if you've ever been to Antigua airport...
 
If I ever ask for a radio check, which is very rare, I do at least try to make tha call interesting for the coast guards.

Last time I said. Brixham CG Brixham CG, the dogs just wrecked the radio, I got it back together again, but does it still work.

There was a laugh from the other end and we agreed it did. But the dog needed a serious reprimand. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Photo Dog, 'Nuffink Dubhing' around Plymouth (pronounced nothing doing) is our boat, it was me calling and it wasn't a radio check (I didn't say it was on air either). We would never call Brixham Coast Guard for a Radio Check. If needed we would (and do ) call Long Room on CH14. Now that you point it out however I can see the funny side of our boat name and the coast guards being on strike.

Just to add to this discussion, just before setting out on Saturday, I asked a friend who works for the CGs what his opinion on radio checks and passage plans was. In my VHF course I was advised to always call in a passage plan for anything other than bimbling around the Sound or up river. He said catagorically that the guys in Brixham have absolutely no problem receiving and answering radio checks and passage plan logs. Infact he said they prefer that people do so. In strike action they may or may not reply but under normal circumstances, no problem.
 
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