Shipping forecast

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Gwylan

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Anyone else tried to follow, let alone record the shipping forecast on R4?
The reading speed seems to have little to do with dictation speed - the speed that may make it possible to actually note the forecast.
 
Yes, with a bit of practice it's possible. You'll never manage it if you try to write it out in full. You need to have your own shorthand and abbreviations and it helps to have a printed pro-forma with the sea areas and coastal stations. I had to do it a number of times as part of my YM training, followed by drawing a synoptic chart from the data. (It was usually a nice simple scenario like a depression over Northern England).
 
I haven't done it for years, but I still listen to it and I don't think the reading has been speeded up at all. On Hoshi we had an enlarged copy of the Met Office/R Met Soc form and weather chart blanks under a sheet of talc and firmly fixed to a board. We wrote down the details using a chinagraph pencil which could be easily wiped clean ready for the next forecast. I think you can still buy the forms in pads of 100 A4 size.
 
like your previous respondents, I did the whole business of decoding met forecasts onto a METMAP, and then drawing up a synoptic chart.

The MCA has a standard list of abbreviations

http://www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/mcga07-home...ther/navtex.htm

as used in NAVTEX.

If you use these, or perhaps your own truncated versions, then you will have no difficulty in taking down the Met forecast. The BBC is very strict on the speaking rate - though it may not always seem like that.

The use of the "solidus" (sloping line, or slash, / \) can be used for showing "increasing" or "decreasing" wind strengths, and made steeper or flatter to indicate e.g quickly or slowly.

It's not easy to start with, but if you down load the shipping forecast areas , and the form (or make up one on larger paper for more writing space), by the time you have done it twenty times, it becomes automatic.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/marine/shipping_forecast.html
 
when I went to do my RYA course with Geof [Gordon,I believe] in his Hustler 35 in the late 60s he was selling an A4 size melamine board with the sea areas printed.
we would plot the forecast with the conventional symbols with a 2b pencil ,join up the bars for an instant weather chart.
it is a systm I have used ever since with the same board
 
I use my MP3 player (has a dictaphone thingy) close to the radio speaker to record the weather forecasts. Especially useful to understand foreign forecasts.
 
I remember a girl on 'Not the nine o'clock news' who played a Sloane newsreader. One of her contributions was-

"To all our viewers in the North, we're terribly sorry [for you]"

Of course it is very unfair of us down South to hog the best of the weather. Even John Prescott wasn't able to put a stop to that abuse.

I come from Wigan, which I consider wise.
 
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I use my MP3 player (has a dictaphone thingy) close to the radio speaker to record the weather forecasts.

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A wise old skipper I once sailed with had a nasty trick. He recorded a really evil shipping forecast, all 9s and 10s, during the winter. When sailing with an inexperienced crew he played it back just before the forecast was due, waited for the crew to turn white, then said "I don't like the sound of that, let's see if we can get a better one" and turned on the radio.
 
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I use my MP3 player (has a dictaphone thingy) close to the radio speaker to record the weather forecasts. Especially useful to understand foreign forecasts.

[/ QUOTE ]

You do not need an MP3 player. Almost all mobile phones can record sound. I always record the weather forecast in Mallorca as the quality of english varies and is sometimes difficult to understand. If necessary I can play back the recording at my leisure.
In addition I can get web pages on my little SonyEricsson too, so I have the weather page set as a favourite and can read it on my phone if I miss the radio forecast - or they simply do not broadcast as happens on occasions. Costs very little.
TudorSailor
 
I am trying to obtain a recording of the BBC shipping forecast during February 2014, when the wave height was described as "phenomenal". Unfortunately the BBC website only holds recordings that go back 20 days and I missed it at the time. Any help would be very much appreciated.
 
BurnitBlue said:
I use my MP3 player (has a dictaphone thingy) close to the radio speaker to record the weather forecasts. Especially useful to understand foreign forecasts.
Click to expand...

I don't suppose you might have a recording of the forecast during the storms in Feb this year? I've been searching some time for this without success...
 
asorti6 said:
I don't suppose you might have a recording of the forecast during the storms in Feb this year? I've been searching some time for this without success...
Click to expand...

You could always ask the Met Office for a copy of what they sent to the BBC. They should keep them for a while. Of course, that just may not be what was broadcast. The BBC very occasionally gets it wrong
 
You can get a small Roberts radio/cassette which has a timer one can set to record the forecast in case one misses it; the only snag is I've found it fiddly to set up; it's about £45 from Force 4.
 
drawkins said:
he was selling an A4 size melamine board with the sea areas printed.
Click to expand...

I've made up exactly the same sort of thing by printing out a shipping forecast map and laminating it in a matt finish laminate. You can then write in pencil on it. It doesn't wash off but you can either use an ordinary eraser or something like Cif (other products are suitable!) to clean it.
On the reverse I have a standard pro-forma for tide calcs.

A similar sheet is also sometimes useful for pilotage notes.
 
Many years ago (1970s) I wrote a training manual for the RYA - The Yachtsman's Weather Map. It had A4 pages of maps of sea areas and a table for taking down the forecasts and actuals.

These pages are still available at http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...xE5dB5fz4xw_aW6nBP7P2pQ&bvm=bv.70810081,d.d2k.

Of course, with NAVTEX it is all there to read, although only twice a day. The Met Office website has text only pages of all its marine forecasts - see http://weather.mailasail.com/Franks-Weather/Northwest-European-Marine-Weather-Forecast-Texts. If you worry about cost of downloading even these, say when using a satphone, then use the Saildocs text retrieval system.

To do this, send an email to queru@saildocs.com. Message to read -
send http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/marine/shipping_printable.html, or whatever you want. The reply will come within the minute in a 2 kb email. Great when you do not have free or cheap browser facilities.
 
Seajet said:
You can get a small Roberts radio/cassette which has a timer one can set to record the forecast in case one misses it; the only snag is I've found it fiddly to set up; it's about £45 from Force 4.
Click to expand...

Iplayer is free. And usually available on your phone. Maybe less useful in very remote areas but very rare that I cant get internet somehow.
 
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