VHF very high frequency - listen before transmitting
VHF licencing is no longer on our sylabus due to difficulties in local licencing. Many of our lifeguards, senior volunteers and Beach TA hold this qualification. If you are interested in qualifying speak to any beach TA who will go through your options.
Why VHF ?
Why VHF and not CB or mobile phones? well the answer is simple - they are more effective and allow you direct connectivity with emergency services such as coastguard and the RNLI. Members without licences are unable to use the equipment.
Would you believe .......
We register our rescue boats as ships to obtain radio licences.
Channel 16
The international maritime radiotelephony VHF channel for all Distress, Urgency and Safety calls is Channel 16 (156.800 MHz).
- When vessels are at sea, the VHF Transceiver should be set to Ch16 at all times.
- If it is necessary for a vessel to monitor a VHF Channel other than CH16, use should be made of the Dual Watch facility on the Transceiver, thus ensuring that a watch is being maintained on VHF CH16 in addition to the second VHF Channel, our radios allow us to do this
A |
Alpha | B |
Bravo | C |
Charlie | D |
Delta |
E |
Echo | F |
Foxtrot | G |
Golf | H |
Hotel |
I |
India | J |
Juliet | K |
Kilo | L |
Lima |
M |
Mike | N |
November | O |
Oscar | P |
Papa |
Q |
Quebec | R |
Romeo | S |
Sierra | T |
Tango |
U |
Uniform | V |
Victor | W |
Whiskey | X |
X-Ray |
Y |
Yankee | Z |
Zulu |
and phoenitic numbers
1 |
Wun | 2 |
Too | 3 |
Tree | 4 |
Fow-er |
5 |
Fife | 6 |
Six | 7 |
Sev-en | 8 |
Ait |
9 |
Nin-er | 0 |
Zero | ·
|
Decimal |
Protocol
Using the correct protocol and knowing about channel usage is very important especially as we are based beside a busy working harbour close to a number of marinas, in a pleasure boat haven near the largest port in the country. The VHF course is excellent and deals with all sorts of cool and exciting stuff that we will not deal with here but there are a number of things you should be aware of ..............
> Mayday - grave and imminent danger to life or to the vessel, requiring immediate assistance
> PanPan- emergency on board but no immediate danger to anyone's life or to the vessel itself
> PanPan Medico - a medical emergncy normally where the vessel is looking for advice or guidance
> Sécurité - announcement of important safety information
> Seelonce Mayday or Seelonce Distress - an instruction restricting the channel for use only in the emergency. This may be ended by the announcement of Seelonce Feenee to end the instruction or Prudonce to partially restrict the use of the channell
in all circumstances where these are used they follow a strict protocol
Weather
(announced on CH 16) 0103, 0403, 0703, 1003, 1303, 1603, 1903, 2203 GMT
Channel 12
The use of the International Marine VHF Channel 12 (156.600 MHz) is reserved, exclusively, for Port Operations and Ship Movement for the purpose of safe navigation within ports and harbours. The use of this channel for inter-ship purposes is strictly forbidden. The illegal use of Channel 12 may have grave consequences for the safe movement of vessels.
The following International Marine VHF Channels are defined for use as inter-ship channels in ascending order of priority:
Channel 6 (156.300 MHz); Channel 8 (156.400 MHz); Channel 10 (156.500 MHz)*; Channel 13 (156.650 MHz); Channel 9 (156.450 MHz); Channel 72 (156.625 MHz); Channel 73 (156.675 MHz); Channel 69 (156.475 MHz); Channel 67 (156.375 MHz); and Channel 77 (156.875 MHz)
*This channel is used by Fingal Lifeguards
and finally
The VHF radios are treated like gold around sthoee, when you see us using radios on land they are digital CB and that, as they say, is a whole different story.