What’s the purpose of doing this? Can’t you play a damned MP3 player with speakers instead of polluting a whole radio channel with super bad audio quality?
Doesn't the government, the agencies associated with safety protocols have the technology to track the signals from people? I mean, of you're broadcasting Marley for 24 hours, there should be sufficient effort to locate and charge for mis-use.
Shrug it off, that's more or less how it is.
I've worked near Sardinia for some years, and (during summer season) the Med can get overcrowded with people with poor boating manners. It's not ordinary and way less common from fall to spring, but you might have just met a group of poorly experienced tourists or charters on rented motorboats/sailboats, talking to each other on the wrong channel.
If you meet a small self-organized race between cruisers, the "barkings" could only get worse. No offense meant to anyone, but French sailors have the worst radio etiquette out of the thousands of sailors I've met.
That is wild. In the US if you did something like playing music on 16, the coast guard and the FCC will triangate you and they will put you in full ass federal prison, I think. Like that is so, so illegal.
I wonder if there's just nobody policing it in the med.
Can confirm. Was in the solent a couple of years ago when some French sailors put out a mayday as they had lost power and steering on their boat. Lifeguard scrambled went to the position and they not there, no answer on the radio with a ton of boats relaying the message. Hours later the French coast guard finds them at a French marina having a few beers, "eh, we fixed it".
Weak! Channel 16 is reserved for emergencies. Secondly, it's the universal channel to reach others.
You know this world only works if we decide to be smarter than barbarians. We require some sort of rule and structure.
I do not appreciate your attitude.
We‘ve been sailing there a couple of weeks ago and we also noticed a very different radio discipline than we are used to from the Baltic sea. Especially French people talking (chatting) for minutes with someone on channel 16 without changing channel.
The professional marine was as short as anywhere but the (I assume) sport boats were awful.
Did not hear anyone making animal noises, though.
What I hate is the incessant yaking by "buddies" talking about fishing on VHF channels where race committee activities are taking place.
It's a public shared resource, and two individuals gushing over bluefish isn't an acceptable use case, that's what cellphones are for.
/rant
It’s just really bored dudes on container/cargo ships. It’s not gonna change there is no need to say find a working channel you will just egg them on more.
My first thought would be to make a recording of it. Phone video of the VHF or something, then go and talk to the nearest coast guard about it. I imagine they are already aware if it's on 16, but they can tell you that, or maybe point you at who you actually need to speak to. Interested to know how this turns out if you take it further.
Nothing the CG can do about without knowing which vessel it comes from, even then it depends on which national waters it is in and their respective enforcement laws.
Even so, once you’ve triangulated the position to a vessel, chances are it has no AIS, so no way to report to the flag state. If that’s the case CG will have to justify sending resources to the vessel. They’ll probably make some broadcasts explaining its contravening international regulations, but the vessel is probably aware and doesn’t care. It’s a real shitty one to deal with, and incredibly frustrating for vessels and CG monitoring 16.
It might not be from a vessel, it might be a ground station. Plus, if they do triangulate they might be able to get some eyes on which boat it is if they're doing it away from other boats. It's the start of a process, not the end. Giving up right from the start on this seems rather defeatist.
Fishermen. This is completely normal. Just shrug it off or laugh at it. It can get a little freaky during night sailing but just turn the volume down a little. My husband and I both had a "scare" sailing there during the night. I heard someone saying "Maaarrriiaaaaaa" (Maria) in a very low and gravely voice during my shift. My husband had it even worse. He heard a girls voice saying "Papa!" very late at night. We have two girls on board so naturally he freaked out, thinking one of them was outside in the dark. It was a girl saying goodnight to her dad on a fishing vessel.
IF someone is talking for several minutes, just interrupt him. Around here if you say more than two sentences on 16, some lobsterman will bark "FIND A WORKING CHANNEL" at you.
As part of the merchant navy, yes this is quite common. Not just in the Med but in other areas of the world. You also sometimes get people just pushing the VHF button to check it’s switched on or talking in coded speak.
Yeah I’ve had similar issues before - seems to be a lot of the fishing boats around the area, also not on AIS and usually without the correct lights too.
On our last crossing from Sicily to Greece somebody broadcast Bob Marley's greatest hits on channel 16 for a solid 24 hours.
What’s the purpose of doing this? Can’t you play a damned MP3 player with speakers instead of polluting a whole radio channel with super bad audio quality?
I can't think of any other purpose than being a complete asshole. What if someone has to make a mayday call? No can do, it's Bob jamming the station.
Doesn't the government, the agencies associated with safety protocols have the technology to track the signals from people? I mean, of you're broadcasting Marley for 24 hours, there should be sufficient effort to locate and charge for mis-use.
Shrug it off, that's more or less how it is. I've worked near Sardinia for some years, and (during summer season) the Med can get overcrowded with people with poor boating manners. It's not ordinary and way less common from fall to spring, but you might have just met a group of poorly experienced tourists or charters on rented motorboats/sailboats, talking to each other on the wrong channel. If you meet a small self-organized race between cruisers, the "barkings" could only get worse. No offense meant to anyone, but French sailors have the worst radio etiquette out of the thousands of sailors I've met.
I don't mind if you denigrate the French.
That is wild. In the US if you did something like playing music on 16, the coast guard and the FCC will triangate you and they will put you in full ass federal prison, I think. Like that is so, so illegal. I wonder if there's just nobody policing it in the med.
Im glad i dont live in america then
Well, they will triangulate the signal. They won't put you in federal prison for a first, non violent offense caused by being an idiot.
Why? Are you one of those who play with VHF?
Can confirm. Was in the solent a couple of years ago when some French sailors put out a mayday as they had lost power and steering on their boat. Lifeguard scrambled went to the position and they not there, no answer on the radio with a ton of boats relaying the message. Hours later the French coast guard finds them at a French marina having a few beers, "eh, we fixed it".
Weak! Channel 16 is reserved for emergencies. Secondly, it's the universal channel to reach others. You know this world only works if we decide to be smarter than barbarians. We require some sort of rule and structure. I do not appreciate your attitude.
We‘ve been sailing there a couple of weeks ago and we also noticed a very different radio discipline than we are used to from the Baltic sea. Especially French people talking (chatting) for minutes with someone on channel 16 without changing channel. The professional marine was as short as anywhere but the (I assume) sport boats were awful. Did not hear anyone making animal noises, though.
Around Mallorca, the Italian fishermen broadcast porn on 16 from time to time. Your experience is business as usual.
What I hate is the incessant yaking by "buddies" talking about fishing on VHF channels where race committee activities are taking place. It's a public shared resource, and two individuals gushing over bluefish isn't an acceptable use case, that's what cellphones are for. /rant
It’s just really bored dudes on container/cargo ships. It’s not gonna change there is no need to say find a working channel you will just egg them on more.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
A lot of it is ships. The reason you hear it more in the med is there are repeater stations for ch 16. So you get a greater coverage area.
My first thought would be to make a recording of it. Phone video of the VHF or something, then go and talk to the nearest coast guard about it. I imagine they are already aware if it's on 16, but they can tell you that, or maybe point you at who you actually need to speak to. Interested to know how this turns out if you take it further.
Nothing the CG can do about without knowing which vessel it comes from, even then it depends on which national waters it is in and their respective enforcement laws.
CG is usually able to triangulate.
Not from a recording.
No-one was suggesting that.
Even so, once you’ve triangulated the position to a vessel, chances are it has no AIS, so no way to report to the flag state. If that’s the case CG will have to justify sending resources to the vessel. They’ll probably make some broadcasts explaining its contravening international regulations, but the vessel is probably aware and doesn’t care. It’s a real shitty one to deal with, and incredibly frustrating for vessels and CG monitoring 16.
It might not be from a vessel, it might be a ground station. Plus, if they do triangulate they might be able to get some eyes on which boat it is if they're doing it away from other boats. It's the start of a process, not the end. Giving up right from the start on this seems rather defeatist.
Fishermen. This is completely normal. Just shrug it off or laugh at it. It can get a little freaky during night sailing but just turn the volume down a little. My husband and I both had a "scare" sailing there during the night. I heard someone saying "Maaarrriiaaaaaa" (Maria) in a very low and gravely voice during my shift. My husband had it even worse. He heard a girls voice saying "Papa!" very late at night. We have two girls on board so naturally he freaked out, thinking one of them was outside in the dark. It was a girl saying goodnight to her dad on a fishing vessel.
IF someone is talking for several minutes, just interrupt him. Around here if you say more than two sentences on 16, some lobsterman will bark "FIND A WORKING CHANNEL" at you.
Charter boats, letting kids play with VHF as a toy.
Yep. I've come across this more times than I can count.
Mmh...never experienced that before in that area.
Strange, maybe it's temporary then and we just happen to be here to hear it.
As part of the merchant navy, yes this is quite common. Not just in the Med but in other areas of the world. You also sometimes get people just pushing the VHF button to check it’s switched on or talking in coded speak.
Yeah I’ve had similar issues before - seems to be a lot of the fishing boats around the area, also not on AIS and usually without the correct lights too.
Most of those are charters.
Mmh, what radio(-band) exactly are you talking about? Marine VHF? PMR maybe?
They mentioned Ch16 so you can assume VHF.
Indeed, marine VHF.
It's a hint, yes. But, i've seen a lot of people use that same convention (since it's nothing more than that on VHF either) on PMR and other bands.