VHF channel 21 on Saturday 6th June

[lethal098]

how many other people were annoyed at the amount of chatter on 21 on saturday, now i know these guys need to train/exercise but you would think that they would have a dedicated channel in which to do it. It made life very difficult for anyone trying to contact in between boats or trying to get coastguard. Does anyone else feel this way or is it just me???

[finga]

Did they have the minute silence every so often??..what is it 30 minutes

[lethal098]

nah i think the minute silence is only observed on emergency channels, it was non stop chatter from about 5am in the morning, i was woken to the chatter about a life raft in the water and debris in the water out from pt cartwright, as far as i knew something had happened, this was like this until abgout 8am when they said over the radio it was a exercise through coastguard,vmr and water police.

[GBC]

Don't reckon too many people are going to have a bitch at the emergency services training for a SAR exercise on an open channel.

[SatNav]

1. The VMR or Coastgurad would own and operate that particular repeater/channel and hence "allow" the public the use of the service on that channel.

2. For a similar reason there is no legal requirement for silence periods to be observed or enforceable.

[death_ship]

if you put across a mayday or pan pan you would have been heard and aknowledged, it was a training exercise for your safety

[lethal098]

yeah i can completely understand that yes they were doing it for a reason but similar to police radio,what would happen if there was an emergency and they had boaties talking over the top during the period of search, i would have thought they would have had a dedicated channel not accesible to civilian population. cheers Lee

[TheRealAndy]

2009 Sarex, run by QLD Police. Dont the police always use channel 21?

I am sure that if there was an emergency and you needed to use the repeater then the SAREX would have most likely focused on you. I doubt it would have been an issue!

[White Pointer]

G'day,

Wasn't an issue. Just called up contacts and we all moved to another channel.

White Pointer

[captain rednut]

i left bribie and fished wide caloundra for the day and i couldnt raise the vmr on any other channel which is not uncommen in this area as channel 21 is the main channel to contact them on, i thought is was dangerous at the time especially when coast gaurd redcliffe and bribie vmr didnt hear my repeated calls on channel 16 to let them know i was going to be late, so 2hrs overdue when they ceased the training i finally got through,thank god! it was just like main roads doing road works in the peak hour traffic on the road. cheers jim

[sleepygreg]

I reckon if you could pick your days to get into trouble on or near the bay...saturday and sunday would have been the days to do it. I have never seen so many coastguard/police boats in the area. They have procedures in place for real emergencies to take precedence over their training excercises. Thats why they train in the first place. No complaints from me over the training excercise. I was more peed off when the Yanks scrambled the satellites a couple of years ago when their aircraft carrier was in the bay.....rendered our GPS virtually useless..(read dangerous)....and threatening fishing boats that came withinn their 'exclusion zone)..even though the fishing boats werent moving but the carrier was moving towards them. Would like to know what damage a 5.5m tinny armed with half a dozen fishing rods could do to a floating city with 100 strike aircraft and no doubt many fixed weapons bristling from all sides.

Greg

[trueblue]

they have to use 21 to be able to communicate with the shore bases when out wide.

live with it.

from the other point of view: just think how bloody frustrating it is during a real situation when trying to communicate critical messages back to base and ignorant fishos talk over the top about absolute crap.

cheers

Mick

[Chamelion]

At least you know someone would have been listening had you needed help... Some time back I heard a bloke trying to contact the coast guard/VMR for over an hour on multiple channels with not a single bloody reply.

[tinman42]

Qld Water Police have a dedicated channel VHF63. I am surprised they did not conduct their SAR on this channel.
The fact that a SAR was planned was advertised by means of a Notice to Mariners around a wek or more ago.
They always have a 'code word' that indicates the following message is NOT part of the exercise, but a real or perceived emergency. In my experience they have used 'NO DUFF' repeated 3 times on a number of SAR's but this may have changed in the last few years.
IMHO it is better to ocasionally put up with it and have the rescue groups trained properly. Who know's it may be me who needs them!
cheers

[Jabba_]

lethal098... Is this something you really need to whinge about..... Surely there are greater issue's in your life then a bit of chit chat on a VHF channel....

[Taroona]

On Good friday I was bringing my boat down to Brisbane from Maroochy and when I arrived at Tangalooma there was some goon on channel 16 wanting to know how big a particular fish had to be so that he could keep it.

[Fishbait]

VHF Channels for your info that i know:

12 - Brisbane Harbour
63 - VKR Water Police
21 - Repeater Base (Cape Moreton)
81 - Repeater Base (Bay Traffic)
67 - Secondary Distress Channel
16 - Distress Channel and Calling
73 - Working and Calling Channel
72 and 77 - Training Channels for VMR

Cheers, Darren

[captain rednut]

lethal098... Is this something you really need to whinge about..... Surely there are greater issue's in your life then a bit of chit chat on a VHF channel....hi jabba if you dont fish the northern end of moreton island you dont relize how important it is to communicate on 21?? also there were three boats overdue and one broken down that repeatly attempted to call on 21 but due to the channel being blocked! couldnt get through?? it was obvious not many fishos new about the excersise! i support the excersise but reckon a silence period would have been a great start and maybe a general broadcast informing the general traffic what was happening through out the day. i found out that channel 16 is useless in that area just try it one day and wonder why lethal and i are bringing it to your attention.
thanks jim

[Mrs Ronnie H]

Hi All
When i first turned the radio on I wondered what was going on. We thought there had been some kind of accident but as we kept listening realised it was some sort of exercise.
I was abit annoyed with the constant chatter and it was difficult at times to contact someone but they need to train in certain circumstances and we should remember even though it was a little annoying at times those people were out there doing what they were doing to possibly one day help one of us.

Cheers
Ronnie

[White Pointer]

At least you know someone would have been listening had you needed help... Some time back I heard a bloke trying to contact the coast guard/VMR for over an hour on multiple channels with not a single bloody reply.

G'day,

That's poor. Sometimes comms get broken because the relay station isn't working. It happens.

I suggest that if you keep hearing a call that isn't being answered, respond to that call and ask for a position and a message and, if you are closer to the station being called, offer to relay it.

If that doesn't work switch to channel 16 and send a "securite" message asking if radio comms are down. If you get a reply, pass on the message and ask them to respond to the caller or to use you as relay. If you don't get a reply - comms are indeed down so you need to tell the initial caller he is on his own and ask if he needs assistance.

We are not alone if we work together.

White Pointer

[QF3 MROCP]

Hi All
When i first turned the radio on I wondered what was going on. We thought there had been some kind of accident but as we kept listening realised it was some sort of exercise.
I was abit annoyed with the constant chatter and it was difficult at times to contact someone but they need to train in certain circumstances and we should remember even though it was a little annoying at times those people were out there doing what they were doing to possibly one day help one of us.

Cheers
Ronnie


AND MOST OF THEM WERE V O L U N T E E R S TAKING TIME OFF FROM WORK AND A LONG WEEKEND FAMILY LIFE TO TRAIN FOR THAT "HOPE WE NEVER HAVE TOO" DAY.

Channel 21 over on the island is a repeater station , hence why it was being used to contact a land base station.

Thanks to all the postive comments supporting the VMRs & Coast Guard. Having the channels occupied as they were also tests your understanding and ability to communicate a Distress, Urgency or Safety call in bad weather conditions or in remote regions.

Start asking yourselves if you couldn't get through on channel 21, what other channels were available in the locality? Oh, what if if you were the skipper in the distress situation who was injured - could your crew or other passengers handle the radio call?

You may have thought you were not in the SAREX, but look how easily you could have been a real life one...

Some of the VOLUNTEERS spent over 13 hours on the water, purely on a standby mode in the local Moreton Island area... Others started at 0230 on Saturday and finished at 1800 and back again on Sunday at 0500 - 1900.

Any more complaints - call channel 63 and ask for the Senior Officer on watch - I'm sure they'll be happy to take your details...

Not often I get upset because of the threads at Ausfish, but this one heads up the pack...

Regards
Peter..

Oh, by the way - we have another radio course on June 19th for those wanting an improved education on marine radio use and safety..

[lethal098]

jabba, not whinging at all, i just would have thought that they would have dedicated channel thats all. Cheers Lee

[lethal098]

peter, i think you may have misunderstood what i was trying to get across, maybe i was not clear enough, but i would have thought that emergency services ie Police, VMR and Coastguard, which is what they are would have a dedicated channel to use in emergency or training drills. Imagine if Police Ambulance and Firies used repeater 7 on UHF this would also make communication hard.I had a friend broken down off caloundra and could not contact coastguard for approx 30-40minutes. Its just my opinion thats all. was not having a whinge/b@#$h. i appreciate all of the volunteers that give of their own time to these resources that are there to help us in the unfortunate time that we need it. cheers Lee

[captain rednut]

hi QF3 for some reason you think we are against the exercise and fail to recognise what volunteers do? this is very much the opposite and the point was a safety concern of mine and as i read it and most other peoples, i hope you keep up your good work in your part of this. cheers cr

[-spiro-]

Mick you should hear them from around 9pm at night there swearring and carring on like idiots...8-)...even admitting there getting smashed[pissed] and moving around..






they have to use 21 to be able to communicate with the shore bases when out wide.

live with it.

from the other point of view: just think how bloody frustrating it is during a real situation when trying to communicate critical messages back to base and ignorant fishos talk over the top about absolute crap.

cheers

Mick

[Razgo-]

Mick you should hear them from around 9pm at night there swearring and carring on like idiots...8-)...even admitting there getting smashed[pissed] and moving around..

this sort of thing goes on out there? and at night time?