VHF 16 Radio Checks
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prv
Well-Known Member
Well, enough to sustain a thriving flotilla business all around the world. Experienced sailors do go on flotillas for the social aspect, but the majority are relatively new and some have never set foot on a yacht before. As a teenager our family holiday every year was a Sunsail flotilla, and there were always several boats who were complete beginners, with Dad having done a three-morning course at the Beach Club (like a casual hotel with dinghies) the week before.
I'm not so much talking about people chartering from Sunsail in the UK, but people who started their sailing at a Mediterranean Beach Club where you call the beach shack before taking out a "dayboat" (retired flotilla yacht stationed at the clubs for daysailing).
Only if they know to do that. But if they turn the radio on and hear someone calling Solent Coastguard on 16, and Solent giving a reply, why would they not follow suit?
If you believe that then you'd really spit your dummy on hearing the VHF traffic in flotilla areas
. It's often the kids delegated to work the radio while Mum and Dad are busy on deck, and they don't always realise that it isn't a telephone. We still joke about the two eight year olds we heard rambling on and on trying to work out where each other were, culminating with -
"Nimble Nimble Nimble this is Nimrod Nimrod Nimrod, can you see us now? We are signaling with our teapot lid!"
Pete
aussi
Well-Known Member
Somewhere in the menus on your new DSC set, you will find something like 'send DSC test' or 'send MMSI test'. You select this option and then enter the MMSI number of your local CG station. On my set, I can also set up favourites so I don't need to enter the MMSI each time.
A short time later, you will receive an automated message back from the CG. This proves that your VHF is both sending and receiving. The message itself is digital (not voice) and sent over channel 70 so a human isn't involved (except you!).
bedouin
Well-Known Member
Thanks for that - sounds as if it will give a pretty good level of confidence (provided the CG station is an appropriate distance way). Calls to the Marina etc will be enough to ensure the voice part of the set is working
aussi
Well-Known Member
Yes, with a local marina conversation you know your microphone and speaker are working too.
Bru
Well-Known Member
It's a few years since I did my VHF course but I do not recall any suggestion that one should not use Ch.16 for radio checks - quite the opposite in fact because Ch.16 is the Distress, Safety and Calling channel and it is entirely appropriate to initiate a call on Ch.16 and then move to a working channel if it's anything other than a very brief exchange
Outside of the Solent, as far as I'm aware, it is not routine practice to call the Coastguard directly on their relevant working channel (and indeed in our neck of the woods, since the reorganisation, I'm far from certain what working channels are actually in use! I probably ought to look it up, if indeed it's lookable up)
And outside of the Solent, radio checks don't seem to be that much of a problem anyway.
Outside of the Solent, as far as I'm aware, it is not routine practice to call the Coastguard directly on their relevant working channel (and indeed in our neck of the woods, since the reorganisation, I'm far from certain what working channels are actually in use! I probably ought to look it up, if indeed it's lookable up)
And outside of the Solent, radio checks don't seem to be that much of a problem anyway.
Blue Sunray
Well-Known Member
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jwilson
Well-Known Member
Thank you or this info: I have done a DSC radio course and this was definitely never mentioned. I don't recall seeing it in the Simrad or Cobra manuals either. I will look in the menus tomorrow!
Personally I am a very minimal user of VHF, often leaving it switched off in benign and/or crowded waters. I have made just two Coastguard radio check calls in 40+ years sailing, both times when dubious about a radio.
l'escargot
Well-Known Member
My experience in the Solent is that the "problem" is very much over stated - almost to the urban myth status - very much like the talk of endless DSC alarms...
aussi
Well-Known Member
Mine's a Simrad RS90 and it's the last item in the 'DSC MENU': titled 'DSC TEST'. I don't think anyone mentioned it in my Short Range Certificate course either.
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Bru
Well-Known Member
It didn't come up on my course either until some smartarse trainee (I'll give you one guess!) told the instructor about it!
ShinyShoe
Well-Known Member
The DSC Test wasn't available on early kit, which may explain its absence from the course. It also only tests the DSC elements not the speaker or mic as someone else commented. Down in Solenty-land you wont have too many issues testing the speaker with that constant babble ;-) That just leaves the mic. As pointed out you could test that with the marina. If you are on the West Coast you might not have a handy marina and certainly not much routine traffic either.
The other point not made was that you need to talk to a MMSI that knows what to do with the test message - so contacting a friendly mate's MMSI may not get a response if his DSC isn't equipped to respond to test messages. So as the poster suggested - use the CG MMSIs - their masts can all respond.
Its been policy for at least 20 years that Solent handled routine traffic on 67. Yet people don't seem to know that. That doesn't feel like it should be that tricky to get the message out to every sailor in the Solent area with a poster campaign at slipways, harbours and marinas and regular announcements on CH16 and with the MSI bulletins. Since they aren't doing that - I suspect it annoys sailors more than the CG...
I've always taken the view that I can pretty much live without my VHF if I needed to (I do carry a PLB if the SH17 is really hitting the fan, plus mobile phone(s), and possibly multiple HH VHFs depending who's aboard) so other than for a new fitting/fault diagnosis I wouldn't routinely do a RC. For a major passage I do provide a passage plan to CG (on 67) and so have achieved the outcome of a radio check without saying thats what I was doing. Of course a major passage to me would be a walk in the park for those doing ocean crossings every other day...
The other point not made was that you need to talk to a MMSI that knows what to do with the test message - so contacting a friendly mate's MMSI may not get a response if his DSC isn't equipped to respond to test messages. So as the poster suggested - use the CG MMSIs - their masts can all respond.
Its been policy for at least 20 years that Solent handled routine traffic on 67. Yet people don't seem to know that. That doesn't feel like it should be that tricky to get the message out to every sailor in the Solent area with a poster campaign at slipways, harbours and marinas and regular announcements on CH16 and with the MSI bulletins. Since they aren't doing that - I suspect it annoys sailors more than the CG...
I've always taken the view that I can pretty much live without my VHF if I needed to (I do carry a PLB if the SH17 is really hitting the fan, plus mobile phone(s), and possibly multiple HH VHFs depending who's aboard) so other than for a new fitting/fault diagnosis I wouldn't routinely do a RC. For a major passage I do provide a passage plan to CG (on 67) and so have achieved the outcome of a radio check without saying thats what I was doing. Of course a major passage to me would be a walk in the park for those doing ocean crossings every other day...
Giblets
Well-Known Member
In Solentia I have been know in the past to call either QHM (11) or VTS (12) and ask for a tide gauge reading which solves the radio check problem and checks the echo sounder reading! Both stations appear to be more than happy to oblige.
capnsensible
Well-Known Member
Weeell. I have had the great good fortune to sail in a great many places. I have never heard a radio check to a coastguard in the last 20 years of not sailing in the Solent, where I heard huge ammounts of them.
Where I sail, most days, now, there are an endless stream of DSC alerts.
Channel Sailor
Well-Known Member
There are rare occasions when I have done a radio check in the past which was after fitting a new radio or repairs to the radio, but that has been only once every few years. Also when I did it last year for a new radio I used a dsc call to CG anyway, so left chan 16 clear. On a modern radio if it works on 67 then it will work on any channel. So calls to the harbour master launch, water taxis, shop to ship or to a marina occasionally would give you confidence the VHF including the microphone and speaker was ok. I would say "radio checks" on the south coast of England to the CG on 16 are completely unecessary, even on a charter yacht. I suggest that if in the Solent the CG announced every few hours at peak times at the weekend they would not be answering radio checks requested on 16, then over a period of weeks they would reduce considerably.
Occasionally you might have a concern that your radio does not have the range it should do e.g. suspect antenna or coax joints. Again no need to trouble the CG on 16 because if you can hear/receive the CG at a reasonable expected range then your antenna and coax is ok. As for checking transmitted power either get the radio checked with a RF power meter by an engineer or buy a meter and do it yourself.
Yes turning the volume down I suppose is a good idea because the dsc will be listening out for anything important. But I carry a portable VHF on my jacket when sailing solo in case of MOB, so I will be hoping someone is listening on 16 if I called from the water! Hence it would be better if 16 was only used for what it meant for, and monitored by all those on the water.
Occasionally you might have a concern that your radio does not have the range it should do e.g. suspect antenna or coax joints. Again no need to trouble the CG on 16 because if you can hear/receive the CG at a reasonable expected range then your antenna and coax is ok. As for checking transmitted power either get the radio checked with a RF power meter by an engineer or buy a meter and do it yourself.
Yes turning the volume down I suppose is a good idea because the dsc will be listening out for anything important. But I carry a portable VHF on my jacket when sailing solo in case of MOB, so I will be hoping someone is listening on 16 if I called from the water! Hence it would be better if 16 was only used for what it meant for, and monitored by all those on the water.
bedouin
Well-Known Member
That is dangerous nonsense. The receiving part of the radio is not sensitive to coax problems. Water in the coax won't significantly damage reception but can greatly reduce the transmitted power.
The only way to know if your set can transmit 15 miles is to call up a station 15 miles away
prv
Well-Known Member
For which the NCI are a better choice than the Coastguard in most areas, because you know exactly where they're receiving you from. The Coastguard have numerous aerial sites, most of us don't know where they all are, and you don't know which one they're using for any given call.
Pete
bedouin
Well-Known Member
That's a good idea - I presume NCI are happy to be used for Radio Checks like that?
They also seem to ask for direct call on 65 rather than 16 so that will satisfy the OP too
BTW on occasion I have heard CG reply to radio checks with details of the antenna they are using.
prv
Well-Known Member
Yes, they said so specifically when channel 65 was given to them a couple of years ago. I also get the impression that getting to use the radio is still somewhat exciting for some of their watchkeepers
They also seem to ask for direct call on 65 rather than 16 so that will satisfy the OP too
They are only licensed to transmit on ch65, so if you called them on 16 they wouldn't be able to reply, even to direct you to the proper channel.
Pete
ip485
Well-Known Member
I guess there is some similarity with aviation. When you fly an aircraft one of the earlier things you do is to establish radio contact with someone, although in fact from some airports and in some airspace there is no legal requirement to do so, and you migt not even carry a radio. However, the point is, if you have a radio I guess it is not unreasonable to check it works. You usually check it works with the tower, akin to your marina or local harbour authority, which seems to make sense and only check on the equivalent of CH-16 if no other service is available. I think boats should apply the same approach, only using CH-16 if no other service provider is available.