Dick Locke wrote:
On 22 Aug 2003 10:12:36 -0700, (Jim Hollenback)
wrote:
Dick Locke ) wrote:
: On Fri, 22 Aug 2003 10:19:50 -0400, "JAD"
: wrote:
: VHF has become a joke here on the upper Chesapeake
: I was boatless for three years and when I returned to sailing on SF
: Bay the first thing I heard was "This is ____. Can I get a copy?" on
: CH 16. What's up with that? Is that CB lingo? Should I have suggested
: Kinkos?
: I say bring back licensing but drop the price to something reasonable.
and this will solve the problem how? Back to you, good buddy :-)
Wellll, it won't solve it but it will help. First of all, let me back
off on complaining about CB lingo, so I dont get an Old Fart award.
More serious problems are conversing on hailing channels.
I figure the offenders are in three groups: The willfully ignorant,
the just plain ignorant because they haven't been exposed to the right
way, and the malicious. The malicious I think are rare and it's
usually kids on 16.
With licensing, the practice was that all communications had to
identify the call sign. If that requirement was brought back, the
Coast Guard and the FCC on slow days could remind people to use call
signs when they hear unidentified communications. Except for the
malicious, those would become rare.
Didn't work for the CB channels (I got my first in '67, when all that
was required.). We did our share of sticking pins in coax of the truly
clueless.
On VHF, call signs (when used) slow things down. Truth be told, the boat
names serve better than call signs. If "Abalone Crusher" is a PITA, I
can remember that better more easily than KCR930548 and it's probably as
easy to look up.
In addition, with the license, there could be a radio etiquette
handbook that would explain a few things. That would take care of the
simply ignorant.
You didn't get one? I've got the basic rules pasted right on the radio.
The current one was from the CG Aux boat check, but it wasn't my first copy.
Not a perfect solution, but like drivers licenses, requiring a license
improves things.
Where do YOU drive? ;-) A lot of drivers around here seem to have gotten
the license from Pep Boys and drive like Moe, Larry and (whomever).
--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages:
http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
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http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/