T&T: USCG Radio Procedure

[Mark Richter]

<<...many boats cannot even hear the VHF while underway, and tend to
desregard USCG annoucements anyway)">>

Has anyone else noticed that the Coast Guard VHF radio announcements are
poorly formatted and usually unintelligible as well?   I have 4 specific
suggestions for improvement.

1.  Instead of repeating the "This is United States Coast Guard group
Charleston" part three times (twice at the beginning and once at the end of
the message), reduce this staytement to twice.

2.  Use the time saved to repeat the "heart" of the message a second time.
After all, this is what the CG supposedly wants us to hear. Perhaps this
repitition would help the poor radio reader have a chance to understand what
he/she is saying and to say it in a way that we can understand over the
radio static and engine noise.

3.  Give the radio operators a few minutes instruction in diction and
speaking more slowly before letting them get behind the mic of a radio with
several hundred watts of power that will blanket the airwaves for 50-100
miles around.  It sounds to me like radio operator is the job of choice for
newbys in the Guard.  That's fine, but a tiny bit of training would go a
long way here.

4.  When the "heart " of the message is "For marine safety broadcast, tune
to channel 22 alpha", give the listeners a clue as to what the announcement
will be about, and what area it applies to.  Then we'd know whether to
change over and listen, or ignore the message as we often do now.  When the
message is about changes in the buoy in the port of Savanah, And I'm
passsing through on the ICW 15 miles away from Savanah, I can safely choose
to not listen.

I'd like to hear other cruisers' views on this issue.  If we can come to
some consensus on it, perhaps we could present our ideas to the appropriate
authority in the Coast Guard in a constructive manner.

Mark Richter, m/v Winnie the Pooh, Ortona, FL
presently tied up in Stuart, FL waiting out the gale
Bound for home on Monday after 7 months and 4900 miles to Canada and back.