communication on board
March 5th 2007 22:44
.Communications on board;
What is your communication like on board your vessel? I guess most of you have something or another on board to use. Mobile phones of course are popular but there are more phones down there with the fish than there are on the boats. They seem to have a habit of falling out of your top pocket as you bend over to retrieve the anchor or wriggle out of your pocket as you climb on board or get soaked as a big green wave or spray sloshes over the deck. Costly isn’t it?
Most boats come with a UHF or 27meg radio. This doesn’t require a licence to use and it is just a matter of turn it on and talk. Or is it? How many times have you turned it on a got nothing in reply? Then days later your pals on the water tell you they could hear you but you could not hear them. This is usually a simple case of tuning the squelch. Assuming that the kids that have been playing with your radio have not undone the microphone and that it is still properly attached, turn the squelch knob till you can hear the crackling in the speaker. Now turn it the other way until the crackling has just disappeared. That should fix the problem. Also check that the aerial is still properly attached. If it has been working fine it should not be more than a tuning job.
Next we have the VHF set. Now you do have to be licensed to use this. But who is going to police this? It is funny that it is harder to get a license to run your VHF which is a safety device on your vessel, than it is to get a license to drive your vessel.
It is a two day course with and instructor and a special invigilator to take the exam class. You need to supply a photo for your license and pay for your radio log. You have to log each call you make and receive.
Then there is the HF set which is for boaters that need communication over thousands of miles of ocean. The two former sets work line of site from five to twenty miles depending on atmospheric conditions. The HF set is not for the faint hearted and you will be licensed before you want to use it as nobody will talk to you if you are not.
There are then radios that are geared to only send and receive messages that the sender and receiver can hear, but both can and have to be able to hear and send distress messages to and from all other vessels. Messages can also be coded and sent similar to an SMS.
Internal speakers on your boat can mean you can relay messages from the bridge to any part of your boat. Not always a good idea as people could be trying to hide from you if you have a touch of Captain Bligh about you. A tannoy is still good to send messages to other boats in close proximity. Just yelling across the water doesn’t always work as you can’t be heard over engine and roaring winds.
Flashing Morse code messages and using signal flags I have already discussed in a previous blog. These can be quite critical if you are down to only this type of messaging and you just prey that the receiver has some idea as to what you are about.
Some very simple radio protocol. Call up coast guard or coastal patrol to let them know you are on the water, what type of vessel you are and roughly what your plans for the day are. Also call to sign off for the day. This is a good opportunity to test if your radio is working correctly. Don’t use your radio like a mobile phone. Others are listening in and they also may want to make a call and can’t while you are hogging radio time. (Just because everyone else does it doesn’t mean you have to be a dipstick) Three minutes before and after the hour and half hour is radio silence time. No calls are to made during this time. It is there for the opportunity of vessels that are far out of reach to try and get through without stronger signals blocking them out. Respect this! Before calling up on the radio listen in. Don’t interrupt another call and remember there may also be other callers waiting in cue to talk. Give them the opportunity to get their message out.
On UHF channel 88 and on VHF channel 16 are the call up or emergency channels. This means you make initial contact on that channel with your friends on other boats then arrange to talk at more length on another free channel. This leaves the call up or emergency channel free for more calls. Just listen to coast guard or coastal patrol and follow what they do. Once a caller has made contact they ask them to change to another channel. This is their chat channel. Do the same. Don’t do like a lot of fisherman do and chat away on the call up channel. It is rude and apart from their swearing they are showing that they have no idea whatsoever of radio protocol. Remember I said people will not talk to you if you sound like an amateur. However, if you are making an emergency call everybody will be all ears and helpful, running out of beer, petrol or food is not an emergency!
What is your communication like on board your vessel? I guess most of you have something or another on board to use. Mobile phones of course are popular but there are more phones down there with the fish than there are on the boats. They seem to have a habit of falling out of your top pocket as you bend over to retrieve the anchor or wriggle out of your pocket as you climb on board or get soaked as a big green wave or spray sloshes over the deck. Costly isn’t it?
Most boats come with a UHF or 27meg radio. This doesn’t require a licence to use and it is just a matter of turn it on and talk. Or is it? How many times have you turned it on a got nothing in reply? Then days later your pals on the water tell you they could hear you but you could not hear them. This is usually a simple case of tuning the squelch. Assuming that the kids that have been playing with your radio have not undone the microphone and that it is still properly attached, turn the squelch knob till you can hear the crackling in the speaker. Now turn it the other way until the crackling has just disappeared. That should fix the problem. Also check that the aerial is still properly attached. If it has been working fine it should not be more than a tuning job.
Next we have the VHF set. Now you do have to be licensed to use this. But who is going to police this? It is funny that it is harder to get a license to run your VHF which is a safety device on your vessel, than it is to get a license to drive your vessel.
It is a two day course with and instructor and a special invigilator to take the exam class. You need to supply a photo for your license and pay for your radio log. You have to log each call you make and receive.
Then there is the HF set which is for boaters that need communication over thousands of miles of ocean. The two former sets work line of site from five to twenty miles depending on atmospheric conditions. The HF set is not for the faint hearted and you will be licensed before you want to use it as nobody will talk to you if you are not.
There are then radios that are geared to only send and receive messages that the sender and receiver can hear, but both can and have to be able to hear and send distress messages to and from all other vessels. Messages can also be coded and sent similar to an SMS.
Internal speakers on your boat can mean you can relay messages from the bridge to any part of your boat. Not always a good idea as people could be trying to hide from you if you have a touch of Captain Bligh about you. A tannoy is still good to send messages to other boats in close proximity. Just yelling across the water doesn’t always work as you can’t be heard over engine and roaring winds.
Flashing Morse code messages and using signal flags I have already discussed in a previous blog. These can be quite critical if you are down to only this type of messaging and you just prey that the receiver has some idea as to what you are about.
Some very simple radio protocol. Call up coast guard or coastal patrol to let them know you are on the water, what type of vessel you are and roughly what your plans for the day are. Also call to sign off for the day. This is a good opportunity to test if your radio is working correctly. Don’t use your radio like a mobile phone. Others are listening in and they also may want to make a call and can’t while you are hogging radio time. (Just because everyone else does it doesn’t mean you have to be a dipstick) Three minutes before and after the hour and half hour is radio silence time. No calls are to made during this time. It is there for the opportunity of vessels that are far out of reach to try and get through without stronger signals blocking them out. Respect this! Before calling up on the radio listen in. Don’t interrupt another call and remember there may also be other callers waiting in cue to talk. Give them the opportunity to get their message out.
On UHF channel 88 and on VHF channel 16 are the call up or emergency channels. This means you make initial contact on that channel with your friends on other boats then arrange to talk at more length on another free channel. This leaves the call up or emergency channel free for more calls. Just listen to coast guard or coastal patrol and follow what they do. Once a caller has made contact they ask them to change to another channel. This is their chat channel. Do the same. Don’t do like a lot of fisherman do and chat away on the call up channel. It is rude and apart from their swearing they are showing that they have no idea whatsoever of radio protocol. Remember I said people will not talk to you if you sound like an amateur. However, if you are making an emergency call everybody will be all ears and helpful, running out of beer, petrol or food is not an emergency!
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