Shipping forecadt

[pmagowan]

Are you not allowed to launch your nuclear weapons if you can not pick up radio 4? I thought that was the sign that London had fallen!

 

[RunAgroundHard]

Are you not allowed to launch your nuclear weapons if you can not pick up radio 4? I thought that was the sign that London had fallen!

That is one of the indicators, portents, that commanders will use to decide if they need to open the envelope from the Prime Minister with specific instructions, that only the PM knows. It could be anything: launch everything, launch nothing, surrender and don't escalate, go to USA and join them, do what the USA says, play wifwaff et cetera.

 

[capnsensible]

I think it's recognised that the number of leisure sailors that listen to the shipping forecast live was always small. Probably, for the beeb, not a consideration.

But how many.....could be a lot.....of commercial operators of all sorts listen in? Fishermen, coasters, work boats, dredgers, barges, yadda yadda?

 

[Sandy]

As an avid fan of the Shipping Forecast losing LW will be 'disappointing'.

Sailing By is available on Spotify, useful if you want an afternoon snooze.

 

[st599]

I think it's recognised that the number of leisure sailors that listen to the shipping forecast live was always small. Probably, for the beeb, not a consideration.

But how many.....could be a lot.....of commercial operators of all sorts listen in? Fishermen, coasters, work boats, dredgers, barges, yadda yadda?

Plus all the data services that piggy back on it, like economy 7 switching,

 

[lustyd]

It’s all very well to talk about DAB, FM and Apps, but they’re only fine for coastal sailing (and there are areas where even those are difficult to receive). When the technology becomes unsupportable then go it must, but why remove a resource whilst it’s still viable? Thank goodness for Navtex - for the moment…

Your apps might not work at sea, but mine do. Starlink gives broadband internet wherever you want it and can be made to run on 12V.
Most sailors aren’t at sea long enough for it to matter, and those that are either plan accordingly or take the risk. Realistically where would you be that the UK shipping forecast will make a difference? Geographically it only covers about two days sailing anyway and one of those will be within 4g and VHF range. Sure they give the location of weather systems but you’d have seen that two days prior anyway.

 

[franksingleton]

In the early 1970s, when I and Keith Best wrote the RTA Yachtsman’s Weather Map, the SF was, effectively, the only source of marine weather information available. Times have changed. Forecasts are immeasurably better now. There are far more sources of weather information. Terrestrial radio has had its day although parts, eg VHF, will remain for some time yet. Long distance sailors have long had the options of HF/MF/SSB with ot without a modem, satellite comes or, of course, nothing at all - shades of Joshua Slocum. The great majority of sailors, including professional small commercial vessels should, by now, have adapted to the modern world.

For most, that means a combination of the internet when on or bear the shore plus VHF. The alternative must be satellite. We/they cannot continue to live in the past.


Having said all that, there is still a place or GMDSS text forecasts, primarily as a warning system. It concerns me greatly the IMO/WMO have not yet accepted that the internet is a reliable communications system and that they should ensure that their websites should be operationally reliable. URLs should not change without adequate warning and re-direct mechanisms. The recent closure of the JCOMM site and the opening of the greatly improved WWMIWS sit was a clear example that WMO/IMO are out of touch with small vessels both leisure. and commercial.


PS. For some reason YBW began putting my text into italics. I cannot persuade it to revert.

 

[Juan Twothree]

Are you not allowed to launch your nuclear weapons if you can not pick up radio 4? I thought that was the sign that London had fallen!

I'd always thought that was the case, until I worked with a former submarine commander who told me otherwise.

A fact supported by the latest episode of this rather excellent podcast series:

The last voice you’d hear in a nuclear war