Recycling of Ship Radio Callsigns

[LadyInBed]

Surprise surprise, the RCA are running out of callsigns. When I changed my boat, I asked if I could transfer the callsign from the old boat, but 'no can do' came the reply.
Their solution is to reuse any callsign that a licence hasn’t been issued against in the last five years. Two years after 1 Apr 2003.
I would have thought a better solution would be to issue the callsign to the person registering the ships radio rather than to the ship, as it's the person who it is sent to and pays for it, not the ship. That way the callsign could be transferred when a boat is changed.

 

[JMM]

Issuing the callsign to the person registering the radio would be fine for our use, but would it also meet the needs of commercial shipping?

Jon M.

 

[claymore]

This just arrived with the oatcakes.
I suppose the day cannot be far away when we will be able to buy personalised ones just like you can from the DVLA. Nice little earner!

regards
Claymore

 

[Guest]

It's a good thought, but would it solve the problem? Presumably when the individual stops sailing they won't renew, so with new people coming into the sport they could still run out?Unless they reissue.

Our local council provides us with a green box for recycling of paper and cans, which they then collect each week. I await the small grenn box from the RA in which I can recycle my callsign.

"If a job's worth doing...it's worth paying someone to do it for you!"

 

[tony_brighton]

Suppose you have 2 people on board with a call-sign; which one do they use? Linking the call sign to a person doesn't seem pragmatic. I've got no issue with them re-using call-signs that have in effect been 'dead' for 5 yrs. In effect it does form another license check; but that shouldn't be a problem cos we've all got them haven't we.

 

[Guest]

It is not possible to register the call sign to the applicant per se. The vast majority of British Shipping, alas not pleasure craft, are applied for on behalf of the vessel by the registered owners. What we have here is not the problem of registered vessels under, for example Part One and to a lesser extent SSR, but those which are just not registered but where the law states that they must have a licence.

 

[jollyjacktar]

In NZ they do just that. As well they do not have to have a licence only need to be able to demonstrate that they are a competant radio operator. Seems to work for them, where 1 in 3 people own a boat.

 

[WayneS]

Does that mean that there are 3 million sheep on each boat?

Sorry, had to drop that in...

 

[dafteddy]

Yes indeed,

What am I bid for

MGY ?

(R.M.S. Titanic, I think!)

dafteddy

Red to red and green to green, all is safety, go between!

 

[Mike_Martin]

Hi Nigel,

We can't issue a callsign to a person as that is not what they are for. The callsign is intended to be a unique identifier for a Maritime Mobile Radio station (ie a boat), in the Maritime service internationally the particular person is irellevant for SAR purposes.

The point is that the callsign (and now the MMSI number) identifies vessel particulars on the MARS database which are useful to SAR services during a Distress situation. If we issued them to persons (in the same way that we do in the Amateur service) they would be of no use whatsoever as some people can (and do) get through several boats in a year.

Just to clarify, from 01/04/03 we will assume that every callsign and MMSI that has not been supported by a licence for 5 or more years was issued to a vessel that has either been lost or re-flagged and we will re-use them. On 01/04/05 that unlicensed period will reduce to from 5 to 2 years. This will (hopefully) remove the shortage.

Mike.

Manager,
Aeronautical & Maritime Section,
Radiocommunications Agency

 

[Mike_Martin]

Hi JJT,

The situation is a little more complex than that but the "Jungle Drums" rarely carry the full picture. NZ has a system similar to the US, wherein because of their geographic situation they are able to relax the requirements of the international Radio Regulations. The situation is this:

Vessels that only carry VHF equipment and DO NOT leave their Territorial Waters are not required to be licensed. However once you leave those waters or fit long range comms equipment you are required to be licensed as per the Radio Regs. Unfortunately, here in the UK as we are within VHF range of foreign administrations from the shore-line we are unable to relax the requirements.

Mike

Manager,
Aeronautical & Maritime Section,
Radiocommunications Agency

 

[Mike_Martin]

That's a nice thought but again unlike car registrations these are registered and recognised World wide. Which leaves no real room for manoeuvre.

Mike.

Manager,
Aeronautical & Maritime Section,
Radiocommunications Agency