Stop Radio Checks

[Daydream believer]

My 2 friends radio checked each other whilst on the moorings. They also managed to call up Ramsgate when approaching port. However, they did not relise that when the rest of us in the cruis could not contact them at over 5 miles. Both had poor aerial wires. So radio checks over short range is useless. Doing a radio check with Dover from Bradwell marina - which I have heard- is pointless because their aerial is only 100 yds away.
A radio check needs to be with another vessel a reasonable distance away. But it does not have to be done every trip.

 

[capnsensible]

I might do it if I spent more time out of mobile range I guess. But til recently we were tied down in uk by kids, then elderly parents. That era is over, we just have an elderly cat. Though that hasn't affected us this year, we’ve been limited by Mrs C’s new hip.

Mrs S had a new hip a while back. She is keeping her sailor hand in by driving small fast motor boats.....

 

[obmij]

You almost never hear professionals asking for such a check unless it is on newly installed equipment.

GMDSS checks are made daily, weekly and monthly. For radios, daily is an internal test & weekly is a DSC test call which is acknowledged automatically. Voice test calls are also carried out using DSC rather than a broadcast on 16. This is why you rarely hear test calls from commercial vessels, but it doesn't mean they are not carried out.

My personal view is that it is important to carry out these checks, especially if venturing outside of mobile coverage, but obviously there are better ways of doing this than belting out on CH16. Given that almost every radio is now capable of DSC and will also have a test call function it can only be lack of knowledge & awareness cause the chaos on 16 in busy areas like the solent,

Perhaps there should be a concerted effort by the RYA and / or MCA to publicise these functions?

 

[RunAgroundHard]

... Perhaps there should be a concerted effort by the RYA and / or MCA to publicise these functions?

Indeed. In the meantime a YouTube video on DSC test calls and loop tests. Recommended watching if you wish to test the VHF.

 

[franksingleton]

Why in the Solent and South Coast is there a plague of yachtsmen who find it necessary to call for a radio check every time they go out on their yacht?
You almost never hear professionals asking for such a check unless it is on newly installed equipment.
French yachtsmen have not been afflicted by this habit. In the Solent it only needs one boat to request a check and a succession of calls are made.
Can we please persuade all our boating friends and acquaintances to call a marina or a friend if they really doubt if their radio is working.
The National Coastwatch Institution on Ch 65 will respond if you really must make a call.

I no longer routinely monitor Ch 16 or 67 because of the constant demands for radio checks.

Perhaps you do not understand French. Along the Brittany coasts and southwards to La Rochelle you hear countless replies by CROSS radio stations, “Fort et clair”. This abuse of Ch16 is widespread although it is some years ago when we were in the Med and even longer in Normandy. From St Malo to Ile d’Oleron, it is just like the Solent Maybe worse.

 

[B27]

Personally, my radio gets tested talking to my club or a harbour master when I'm looking for a mooring.
Calling my club at a reasonable range is a much better test than calling the CG who has the best aerials in the business.

But I wonder if the objection to radio checks is mostly in the minds of yotties who think they are above that sort of thing?
I've never heard the coastguard whinge about the practice.

I've seen a few duff VHF aerials and aerial leads on yachts.

 

[wonkywinch]

Speaking of solent phenomenon, at the eastern end of the solent i hear a lot of french radio traffic, i hear cherbourg, dover and even falmouth coastguard. Ive also heard the cg helicopter at some crazy distance away. How is this possible ?

It's called ducting and affects VHF frequencies. In the old days of 405 line TV, you could even pick up European TV stations in SE UK.

https://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_eur.html

 

[Rappey]

lack of knowledge & awareness cause the chaos on 16 in busy areas like the solent,

I think a big problem is the complexity and endless features and menus in many electronics. Unless your using it every day its hard to remember how to find various functions.
Its not as busy on 16 as some would think. Khm on 11 is far more busy with half of the communications being requests to cross the harbour.

 

[LittleSister]

Almost as annoying as radio checks . . .

. . . is the repetitive Forum threads complaining about radio checks. They come around every few months, and the same complaints, rationalisations, examples and excuses are rehearsed yet again.

According to my research, such threads haven't made a blind bit of difference to the problem, but may provide some benefit to sufferers in getting it off their chest, helps pass the time as the evenings draw in, and may avoid sufferers rioting in the street demanding government action on the issue.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

... but may provide some benefit to sufferers in getting it off their chest, ...

There is a stress managing methodology called "Journaling", where writing down thoughts and feelings has been proven to reduce stress and anxiety. It is particularly useful for rationalising stress caused by situations that one can not control or influence.

 

[Biggles Wader]

Never 'ad vhf when I were a lad. Tell that tut youngster nowadays and they warnt believe it.

 

[LittleSister]

There is a stress managing methodology called "Journaling", where writing down thoughts and feelings has been proven to reduce stress and anxiety. It is particularly useful for rationalising stress caused by situations that one can not control or influence.

How thoughtful of the likes of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerburg to provide social media where people can write down their thoughts and feelings, and thus reduce stress and anxiety!

 

[franksingleton]

But I wonder if the objection to radio checks is mostly in the minds of yotties who think they are above that sort of thing?
I've never heard the coastguard whinge about the practice.

From my experience in France, which is where we have spent several moths each yea, the annoyance of CROSS radio staff is palpable and clear in the brevity and curt “Fort et clair” responses.

 

[jac]

Did one earlier this season but I had had my mast out and also a new VHF in so a call to Calshot NCI was appropriate.

I suspect that a large amount is the sheer amount of training and charter boats. In the past I have been on courses where the Instructor advised making a call to check VHF worked so if every charterer and training boat does one a week…..

this season though I have not heard Solent CG suggest using 65 and directing to NCI or even pushing their “historic” rule of using 67 to call so I wonder if there is some strange incentive for them to want more calls

 

[doug748]

From my experience in France, which is where we have spent several moths each yea, the annoyance of CROSS radio staff is palpable and clear in the brevity and curt “Fort et clair” responses.

I'm guessing the UK coastguard has an incentive to look busy, whereas our French cousins are not noted for cutting jobs to the bone.

 

[Seven Spades]

I am amazed at how many people nthe Solent call up on VHF and then ask their friends to move to a working channel except they are not working channels, I even heard one boat call the other and tell them to go 67. Another said go C22, I don't understand my the coast guard does not reproach them.

 

[westhinder]

Perhaps you do not understand French. Along the Brittany coasts and southwards to La Rochelle you hear countless replies by CROSS radio stations, “Fort et clair”. This abuse of Ch16 is widespread although it is some years ago when we were in the Med and even longer in Normandy. From St Malo to Ile d’Oleron, it is just like the Solent Maybe worse.

That was my experience too during two months in France this summer. It got worse when we had passed the Pointe du Raz. As far as I know this is a recent development in France. I wonder if it is influenced by hearing the U.K. Coastguard replying to the ceaseless requests for a radio check. You can hear these transmissions along most of the French Channel coast. At least the French can call their semaphore stations and don’t have to trouble Cross.

 

[MADRIGAL]

GMDSS checks are made daily, weekly and monthly. For radios, daily is an internal test & weekly is a DSC test call which is acknowledged automatically. Voice test calls are also carried out using DSC rather than a broadcast on 16. This is why you rarely hear test calls from commercial vessels, but it doesn't mean they are not carried out.

My personal view is that it is important to carry out these checks, especially if venturing outside of mobile coverage, but obviously there are better ways of doing this than belting out on CH16. Given that almost every radio is now capable of DSC and will also have a test call function it can only be lack of knowledge & awareness cause the chaos on 16 in busy areas like the solent,

Perhaps there should be a concerted effort by the RYA and / or MCA to publicise these functions?

This is correct. Voice and DSC functions are REQUIRED to be checked on vessels for which GMDSS is compulsory, and IMO guidance states that voice checks are not to be carried out on 16. A DSC test call can be made to a shore station, which automatically (and silently) sends out a DSC response. Voice transmission checks should be carried out on a shore station's working frequencies (67 for Solent Coast Guard, 65 for NCI Calshott) to reduce traffic on 16, the international distress and calling channel.

 

[Roberto]

Indeed. In the meantime a YouTube video on DSC test calls and loop tests. Recommended watching if you wish to test the VHF.

It should be stressed that tests ought to be made with a sufficiently distant station, while onboard I tested DSC between my portable and fixed stations both **without** their antennas and it went through flawlessly, which does not tell a lot about the stations performance when used at normal distances.

 

[franksingleton]

That was my experience too during two months in France this summer. It got worse when we had passed the Pointe du Raz. As far as I know this is a recent development in France. I wonder if it is influenced by hearing the U.K. Coastguard replying to the ceaseless requests for a radio check. You can hear these transmissions along most of the French Channel coast. At least the French can call their semaphore stations and don’t have to trouble Cross.

I do not know how you define “few”. We got back to W France from the Med in 2011. Many French calls for radio check ever since. There might be more now or we just notice them more. Given that for most of the area St Malo to La Rochelle, there is nowhere near the Solent density of boats, it follows thst their strike rate per 100 boats must be considerably higher than the Solent!