Warm glows come in threes

[tome]

Had my ensign and staff nicked from the boat in Cherbourg on Friday night. The little s**t snapped it off at the base. There was some sort of music festival going on and a lot of French oiks with mohican hairdos hanging around drinking beer out of paper bags. Bugger all security, I thought.

Coming back yesterday we were intercepted off St Catherines by a RIB from HMS Trident who was looking for the source of a blocked carrier on ch16. I checked our radio, which was showing the RX so not us. Could we call 'Warship Trident' for a radio check please, no problem. Then the warship called Solent CG who said that the carrier had stopped, leaving the finger of suspicion pointing at us! They hung around for a while glaring and I wondered if this was the new role of HM Navy.

To top it all, I was stopped by a Police motorcyclist coming down the A3 this morning. He told me that they had checked my vehicle with DVLA and it had shown that I didn't have a current tax disk. A quick look at my windscreen confirmed that all was well but he took my passports away (wondering why I had two) and jibbered away on his radio for 15 minutes. I was getting distinctly cheesed off by the time he returned and asked him why he had really stopped me. His explanation (letting me into a secret) that they had an experimental van which could read number plates and had the DVLA database. So why did you stop me?

The database is sometimes 24 hours out of date, he says. Hang on though, I taxed my car on 16th April for 12 months! He lets me into another secret - the DVLA database sucks! By now we're like brothers, having shared all these secrets. Now, which Police station would you like to produce your documents at?

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[BarryH]

I've had experience of those camera things. Not only is the DVLA data base a waste of time, so are the cameras. 3rd digit on my plate is a zero. Mr Henry in his wisdom put a screw right in the middle of it. The camera reads it as an 8. Mr plod had great fun telling me I had false plates etc etc etc.

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[Twister_Ken]

We were on the other end of the blocked carrier business, drifting along in the Solent. Solent CG was getting v. hot under the pelmet about it, and when the RN offered to join in they jumped at the chance. Mind you, in the Solent the carrier wasn't getting through so all and sundry were wittering on about radio checks, as per normal.

Mind you, this is the 3rd weekend in a row that CH16 has had a open carrier problem.



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[tome]

Glad to know I'm not the only one.

The van was an unmarked white transit with red and yellow diagonal stripes across the rear doors, and strange looking rear perspex windows (presumably for some optical effect). There was a Honda generator alongside so the gear must be mains powered. I've seen it many times parked in the same layby at Hilltop on the A3 Southbound between Petersfield and Horndean. Wondered what it was, now I know!

What got me was that they had obviously made a mistake but still insisted on detaining me for 15 minutes and made me produce my documents.

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[tome]

Ken

Agree that there's frequently a problem with open carriers on ch16. We could hear it going and had reduced VHF volume so it couldn't have been us. Two thoughts occur:

1 CG would have us believe that they can triangulate on our transmissions in the event of an emergency (this is given as one of the reasons for VHF v cell phone). If this were the case, why couldn't they isolate a continuous transmission clear of land?

2 In this age of technology it wouldn't take much to produce an alarm if your RF carrier is on continuously for more than say 30 secs.

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[Twister_Ken]

>What got me was that they had obviously made a mistake but still insisted on detaining me<

The word sorry does not exist in constabulary vocabulary.

Just think yourself lucky you've still got your health and beauty.

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[Twister_Ken]

2. Dunno. Would seem simple, but would upset the world's fishermen.

1. They said to Jolly Jack they could only get one line of bearing on it because it was south of the IOW.

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[tome]

2 Could have 2 modes: normal (30 secs), fisherman (30 mins)

1 Hope I never come to grief south of IOW

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[peterb]

There was a court case some 20 years ago resulting from a motorist being stopped and detained for a traffic survey, thus missing his ferry. He sued the police and got damages. A few years later I was also stopped and detained for a traffic survey when on my way to evening school (first night of a Day Skipper course). After the course I stopped at the local police station and complained, quoting the Kent case. "Oh, are you a solicitor, sir?" "You mean that solicitors get privileged treatment at this station? Do you have a complaint form?" I complained not that I had been stopped, but that the PC doing the stopping had not been made aware of the law because of the apparent ignorance of the local inspector. Result was two apologies, one from the inspector and the other from the Chief Constable. Yes, "Sorry" is in their vocabulary.

Incidentally, they can detain you if they are checking on a possible offence, but not for a survey.

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