Ships Radio Licence

[BobE]

Just got a renewal notice £20.
Can anyone tell me what benefit we get from paying this?
Where does the money go?

Or is it just another goverment department ripping us off ?


Cheers Bob E..

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[snowleopard]

of the £20, 10p goes to maintaining the MMSI register so you can be rescued when you sink. £19.90 goes to paying for more civil servants.

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[bigmart]

Re: Youre a bit late mate.

We went through most of the arguments regarding this last week.

http://www.ybw.com/cgi-bin/forums/s...=480345&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=93&part=

Be very careful. You never know what your getting into when you post like this.

Martin

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[BobE]

Re: Youre a bit late mate.

Yep when I saw your post I went back a page and found the previous thread How embarassing !
Still I 'd like to see an official breakdown of where our monies go.

And for the record yes I pay my dues do the courses RADAR ,First aid, VHF , etc So I'm legal
But If I buy shares I get an annual report and statement of accounts... I know my cheque to the SSR is made out to the MCA ... so thats reasonable..

But why oh why don't these depts. comunnicate with their customers??
Cheers Bob E..

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[BobE]

Re: Youre a bit late mate.

Yep when I saw your post I went back a page and found the previous thread How embarassing !
Still I 'd like to see an official breakdown of where our monies go.

And for the record yes I pay my dues do the courses RADAR ,First aid, VHF , etc So I'm legal
But If I buy shares I get an annual report and statement of accounts... I know my cheque to the SSR is made out to the MCA ... so thats reasonable..

But why oh why don't these depts. comunnicate with their customers??
Cheers Bob E..

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[bigmart]

Re: Well I suppose

they do try a bit. I usually get a newsletter a year but lately it just seems like its mailshot just to tell me they've changed their name & what they're called this week.

Martin

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[Tekkie]

Re: Well I suppose

OFCOM is an agency R U sure ther'e civil servants???

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[bigmart]

Re: I couldn\'t

care less what they are. If I'm required by law to pay em money they're Civil Servants whether employed directly by snatcher Blair or by agency, quango or whatever else you might want to call them. Trinity House are a private company but if they get away with their theiving schemes regarding Light Dues its still taxation by one form or another. In my book that makes them Civil Servants.

Martin

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[brianhumber]

Which is why I never pay the b-----s until at least two red letters have been sent. At least they have to do something for my £20 then.

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[BobE]

I'm with you there Brian..
Glad to see we all don't just lie down and accept without question ( as the ??? said tothe ??? )


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[[3889]]

24/7 coastguard support with tidal and weather information and SAR helicopters for 40p a week, better value than Sky I think. The relationship between the license fee and services may be obscure but in the end the Govt. gets the tax and provides the service, would you do without the radio to save 8 bob?

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[MainlySteam]

Do you only get coastguard support on the 24 July?

John

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[JonBrooks]

One big thing to remember is if they were to deregulate it there would be no money for enforcement.
So us guys would pay no licence fee but everyman and his dog could then buy a marine radio and use it for what ever tey want.
Farmers, taxi drivers, security guards anybody.
There would be no one to police it and stop this happening.

The service would be come unusable in a very short space of time and your safety at sea would be in question.

Would you want that?

I for one would not, am happy to pay £20 per year for the right to have a safe radio system.

and in the great scheme of things £20 is not a huge amount of money.

Regards

<hr width=100% size=1>Jon Brooks Icom UK Ltd. 01227 741741

 

[MainlySteam]

Hi Jon

Your comment raises the question as to how everyone else manages. Abuse from inappropriate service use in other countries doesn't seem to be a significant problem (on a population basis) as far as I know, possibly because the appropriate services are also very easy to access and in the end much more convenient.

Regards

John

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[JonBrooks]

Hi John

I know from my counterparts in the USA that it is a probelm.
They have no SRL for domestic users, however if a boat leaves US Waters it must have a normal type SRL which will set them back about $200.

The only saving grace for them is that a number of these non boaty users are so far in land that it has little effect on the maritime users.

If it happened here it we woud not be a fortunate.

Solent coast guard recently had a problem with a taxi firm in Birmingham using Marine radio.
Thanks to our licence fees it was traced and sorted.
I aslo know of a couple of cases of farmers who have had thier collors felt for using marine radio.

I can't pass any comment on any other countries has have no info at this time but will have a chat to some of my counterparts around the world and see what the score is.

Which countries do you know of that don't pay for a SRL?
That will give me a head start.

Regards


<hr width=100% size=1>Jon Brooks Icom UK Ltd. 01227 741741

 

[Mike_Martin]

Re: Youre a bit late mate.

Before I jump in into this on specifics you might find it easiest to look here:

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/licensing_numbering/radiocomms/maritime_licensing/?a=87101

Go to the Sectionm entitled RA Archive there you will find the old Airwaves newsletter that i used to write for customers.

Mike

<hr width=100% size=1>No fixed JOB Title, something or other in Ofcom

 

[Mike_Martin]

USA SRL = $147

USA, New Zealand and Australia all have domestic class pleasure vessels. I think Canada may be thinking of joining in with the US.

Our last Marine radio prosecution was a coastal caravan site on the S.Coast that was using marine H/Helds.

M

<hr width=100% size=1>No fixed JOB Title, something or other in Ofcom

 

[Mike_Martin]

Re: I couldn\'t

Sorry but those of us who now work for Ofcom are not actually Civil Servants any more. Ofcom is a Statutory Corporation and has a far larger remit than RA had.

Mike

<hr width=100% size=1>No fixed JOB Title, something or other in Ofcom

 

[JonBrooks]

Re: I couldn\'t

I alway's say its best to get it from the horse's mouth,

Not that I am saying your a horse Mike ))))


Regards

<hr width=100% size=1>Jon Brooks Icom UK Ltd. 01227 741741

 

[MainlySteam]

As Mike has said, of the English speaking nations I know of USA, Australia and New Zealand - I am unsure of the situation in Canada.

Australia also has no callsigns for commercial vessels, I assume all non SOLAS vessels as I have been on 100 foot plus new vessels without them, but I am unsure if they pay a licence fee or not - will be back over there at end of the month so I will ask.

In respect to the USA I am sure they have many instances of abuse, but I am unsure how those numbers stack up when compared to the 20 million or whatever the very big number it is boats they have over there. I have seen but do not recall the number carrying VHF but it was many millions.

I have occasionally seen figures for malicious alerts for various USA states but the vast majority of those are from malicious use of flares rather than radio (but, of course there are those to). I know that in the USA, as here, and I would be quite confident the same in Australia, malicious or improper service application of marine VHF radio is treated very seriously and tracked down (though, of course, often not possible for single malicious use) even though there is no licence fee.

I must emphasise that in no way am I criticising the UK system nor claiming that they should change, just that I find it different to the developing practices of others - I think it is clear that I have an interest in radio and work in the marine industry and so am genuinely interested (even to the extent of telling forumites how nice your radios are /forums/images/icons/smile.gif.

Regards

John


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