Radio Poll

[ChrisParish]

Hi folks,

As Paul B said in another thread, it would be interesting to see how many people have radios and how many have operator’s certificates

For example, I have a radio but I don’t have a certificate so I only use it for listening to traffic and weather announcements and for emergency purposes.

[chris moody]

Don’t forget all VHF radios, both fixed and handheld, need a licence from OFCOM. The licence is free, and you do not need a SRC operators certificate to get the radio licence. The radio licence will give you a call sign (or T number for a handheld) and a MMSI number for a DSC radio.

[ChrisParish]

So far it looks like most of us have a radio for safety reasons but no operator’s certificate.
I am aiming to do mine over the winter.

[chris moody]

Is there anything training centres can do to encourage people to take the course? Is it just a cost issue or is there another limiting factor?

In our experience often factors have been:
- cost - the cost of the course is negotiable with centre but unfortunately nothing we can do about the 'license' fee as that is set by the RYA. Why not get a few friends together and negotiate a group rate?
- encouraging people into the classroom - I promise its not school people are free to leave, get a coffee, go to the loo, take a break - just let us know if you're not coming back -(not happened yet!)
- thought of an assessment - seriously if you just want to attend the course and put off the assessment to a later date that's fine -just tell your training centre what you want/need. The assessment should be a low key fair approach - if you've been there for the day you'll be fine As an assessor I can tell those who are just nervous vs those who haven't listened/cared all day! If an assessment takes longer to help settle nerves that's no issue with us. If you want assessing on your own away from others that's also fine.
- dyslexia - We come across this regularly -its not an issue, your instructor should have strategies to help - just let them know in advance what helps you as an individual
- lack of awareness of the online course option? Many centres offer this -just be aware that to complete the course you need to attend a centre for the final assessment - at our centre we will be quite flexible with these and run them at the end of a day if you've been boating or similar.
- fear of speaking out loud on radio? This is THE opportunity to see a training radio -identical to 'real' radios but not transmitting outside the classroom. A good instructor will make life easy for you, encourage you to play with all the different controls and allow you in your own time to make calls - why not choose a centre that limits course participant to low numbers rather than the max of 12
- time? Are you aware of the online option?
- fear it will be too technical? No need - do the pre-course reading you are sent and the main focus of the day at our centre anyway is using the radio, how to set it up, make calls -not the exact detail of how the electronics work (hope that makes sense)
- feeling that some of the course isn't relevant - if you have a non DSC handheld it is true that a lot of the course does focus on DSC - nothing we can do about this as there is a syllabus to follow but we've not yet had anyone get bored - the most frequent comment is that students expected it to be a dull day but were surprised to enjoy it!


Are there any other questions we can answer? I'd love to know what is holding people back, thanks.

[digitalman]

I did my course earlier this year at Shoreham mainly because I was going out to Croatia with my SIB during the summer when the mobile would not have been an option.
There were 8 in the class, all of us total beginners and it was a very good well taught day with no rushing through topics and no question was too silly, and trust me I can ask some silly questions. Lots of breaks either for fresh air or just to play on the training radios.
For the exam we were all sat down for the written part but very relaxed and there was nothing on the paper that hadn't been covered during the lesson. We were then split into 2 groups for the practical and given different types of calls and messages to give and take on the practice radios, yes we made mistakes, yes we got things wrong, but we were allowed to correct ourselves without any judgement from the instructor.
Yes I know its not the cheapest course going round but personally I think well worth the cost and it is valid forever (or until someone moves the goal posts )

[Sarah]

Thanks Digitalman - I would hope your experience is generally the case but good to hear and hopefully it will reassure people.

[digitalman]

Hi Sarah and everyone else, I like to be a bit law abiding and the hefty possible fine or prison sentence for improper use of the radio is another good reason for getting the training, or at least reading the RYA training books. A few weeks ago channel 16 was completely blasted out by someone in my local area who had probably accidentally left the transmit button pressed or sat on it for about 30 minutes. Now I'm not saying any amount of training will prevent all mishaps, but it should impress on people how important a radio is and when it is misused bad things can happen.

[chris moody]

I'm curious. Do those that have a VHF for safety reasons, but no operators SRC certificate, ever do a radio check with National Coastwatch Institution, or a marina, or a harbourmaster, or another vessel, or the Coastguard? I use lots of different boats with lots of different VHFs on them, fixed and handheld. When doing my radio check it's quite a frequent occurrence to find the VHF being tested isn't transmitting correctly, and I then have to do a second radio check with a backup VHF.

So far it looks like most of us have a radio for safety reasons but no operator’s certificate.
I am aiming to do mine over the winter.

[Sarah]

I have an op cert but yes I do a check - usually with the marina were in or other boats we're out with. Had an issue last year with safety boat cover at a club whereby was unable to communicate with other boat - apparently someone had incorrectly adjusted the squelch.

[digitalman]

I'll let everyone into a little secret. Many years ago when I was working for HM Elizabeth I was ground testing the engines on a large transport aircraft and part of the procedure was to radio the tower and then have them on standby, just incase it all went wrong. So I did all the bits and pieces required and then forgot to reset the radio and proceeded to broadcast over most of the tower radio frequencies the procedure for the test we were doing until a very any man turned up in a landrover and shouted at me. Ever since then I have been very careful with radios