Decided it was time to get a VHF for the kayak, (been relying on my mobile till now).

With a VHF it's important to know how to use it and also to have a licence, this is now even more important with DSC radios, so I started searching for courses...what a difference in price £50-£130 for exactly the same thing!

If your looking to do the course, which is worth it even if you only go on Charter Boats, check your local and not so local colleges first. Did mine at Havant College, £30 for the course, £20 for the exam, if you fail the exam a retake is free .

Something I had not thought about when relying on my mobile is:

999 goes to one contact, if I'm out of range I'm buggered, a MayDay goes to every ship and shore station in range, this message if not responded to by a shore station should be relayed by one of the nearby ships, these ships also have to respond by law. Nice to know when paddling alone. Even better a DSC radio will sound an alarm in every ship and shore station in range, this cannot be ignored, if connected to your GPS it will give your position, your MMIS number (who you are) and what the problem is.

If you have a radio and havn't been on a course, give it a go, one day £50 could save your life, or someone elses

It was really nice to see that out of 18 people in the class, 6 were fishermen.

SM.

i have always wondered why you need to pay to save your life ,how complicated is radio yet your forced to pay before you can use and the more you pay the further you can speak,take misuse i bet 99% of misuse is done by people who payed to use it ,just as 99% of car accidents happen to people that have paid to get lessons and buy a licence :confused:
if i bought a boat and it had a radio i will be buggered if i had to pay someone to use it just as i didnt when cb radio was in its heyday going from AM to FM (or whatever)

Chester,

It's all about procedure and correct use, knowing how to use the radio correctly and on which channel to make that call and how to do it correctly and what information is needed by search and rescue. Other subjects were the use of EPIRB's I thought that there is only one type, but due to false alarms there is now a second type of unit using a different frequency, this is all stuff you should know about if you put to sea. Else where on the forum is a thread about a young lad who nearly died, he hadn't been told how to use the radio...nuff said

some people cannot program a vhs cant see any difference to useing a radio some cant some can ,if i went on an airplane would i need a pilots licence,instructions show you what buttons do on the radio ,a list on the wall shows you what to do after why the money aspect :confused:
if the young person did use the radio would he have been prosecuted for not being licenced to use it ,NO therefore why prosecute people full stop ,maybe its money and money talks loudest

[ 28. February 2005, 07:05 PM: Message edited by: chesters1 ]

Sorry but I thought it was money well spent, I didn't know how to use it properly, had no idea which channels I can use other than 16, was shocked to find that you are only meant to use 5 of the 30 channels the others being for commercial use. If I hadn't been on the course I would have probably used it like a CB radio, calling up on 16 and finding the first free channel...I was arrested for using a CB radio in 79!

What was your call sign Chester?

all the information for almost everything is available without the money factor its called library or nowadays the internet :confused: i was never caught either using AM or 140 channel AM on FM ,an address in the country stopped neighbours getting peed of at interference on their tv and a rotating arial and a burner ensured it was hard to get a position ,i didnt have one in a car thats for sad people

I was sad, wasn't allowed one in the house, my dad would have done his nut if he had known I had one in the car, he found out when I was arrested...bugger.

difficult to talk to america in a car
its all a bit like my tongue in cheek post elsewhere where money buy's respectability ,refuse to pay and your scum ,cough up and you ok ,no-one cares what you do after you pay up and the non payer may have far more experience than the payer but without that payment and its respectability your scum all the same
i hope you dont think i'm having a go you do what you want ,my objection is to a "group" setting up "qualifications" that only they can supply (a monopoly in any other respect"
you cant use a radio properly unless you pay us money ,bullshine i have
you cant dive properly unless you pay us money ,bullshine i have
the list is endless as is the qualifications your foced to get to do something you may have done faultlessly for years

from the 1st of january its illegal to do anything connected with mains electric in your house or garden unless your "qualified",will i stop i think not

[ 28. February 2005, 07:55 PM: Message edited by: chesters1 ]

Good thread Starvin very useful advice. As a solo kayaker I will have to pay perhaps even more attention to safety than if I were in a group.

Unfortunately not everyone has previous radio experience such as Chester, and for those who dont (like me) a course like this is a good way to get up to speed. I can't see the licence as a revenue gathering exercise.. surely the VHF radio licence came about for safety reasons!

Had already looked around at private courses (about £100) so will check my local college out.

Starvin I'm inadvertently following in your footsteps.

[ 28. February 2005, 07:55 PM: Message edited by: Tony Wan ]

quote:

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I can't see the licence as a revenue gathering exercise.. surely the VHF radio licence came about for safety reasons!

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untill just a few years ago you needed a dog licence before that a pipe finders licence to own a metal detector both didnt even need a test just the money your telly is a revinue you own one you pay tax whether or not you use it or know how to ,even if the government dont get the actuall fee from using your radio they will get the tax from the company who does ,everything is revinue ,the first 2 "licencies" cost more to collect than they made ,your company can put the price up the government always gets its money or stops trying,if a test was for safety reasons then the driving test would have failed as 99.9% of car crashes involve fully tested and certified drivers ,its a tax as all fees are.
take for example a council car park ,its made using your tax and you then pay a fee (tax) to use it ,more tax repairs it and to make sure you pay the parking tax a chap is employed using your tax to make sure if you havent payed the parking tax a higher tax is enforced for the cost of a parking ticket ,strangly the ticked is made using your tax and enforced by some council dweeb also payed from your tax to tax you even more .

[ 28. February 2005, 08:42 PM: Message edited by: chesters1 ]