Radio Etiquette and the lack thereof...

[Rangiroo]

It never fails to astound me how incredibly ignorant boaters are generally of some decent radio etiquette and basic procedure....We had occasion to be in Charleston Harbor three weekends ago in the middle of some drama with a boat that had hit an obstacle at speed and injured one person on board. The USCG was trying to co-ordinate rescue with land-based emergency services and people kept butting in with nonsense like "Sharee....are you out there?" and so forth. The lack of considereation and basic radio knowledge was jeopordising this rescue and you could hear the exasperation in the USCG operator's voice on several occasions.

I found this simple and clearly written guide today for those that need to know.....

Communicating on the water: A guide to marine radio etiquette

We all need to memorise the information on that page and use it EVERY time we use the VHF or SSB.

It is also very useful to know and memorise the Alpha Codes (Alpha, Beta, Charlie, Delta, etc etc) used by the USCG and about any other organisation involved in radio communication...it greatly simplifies relaying of information in a form that everyone can understand.....you can find those here....

Morse Code and Phonetic Alphabet Page

All of this stuff is easily findable via Google so have a look if you aren't up to speed with it or need some further training.