Coastguard

[Jeff]

I'm not certain if this has been on here before - or if everyone but me was up to date
Useful info for those of us that were not

Location MMSI Tel No

NMOC Fareham 002320011 023 9255 2100

Dover Coastguard 002320010 01304 210008

London Coastguard 002320063 020 8312 7380

Humber Coastguard 002320007 01262 672317

Aberdeen Coastguard 002320004 01224 592334

Shetland Coastguard 002320001 01595 692976

Stornoway Coastguard 002320024 01851 702013

Belfast Coastguard 002320021 028 9146 3933

Holyhead Coastguard 002320018 01407 762051

Milford Haven Coastguard 002320017 01646 690909

Falmouth Coastguard 002320014 01326 317575

From the RYA
http://www.rya.org.uk/newsevents/new...apr16-cruising

[John Kennett]

It looks like we'll all end up just calling "UK Coastguard" before long. It's pretty pointless trying to work out which centre you're calling when all the traffic might be diverted somewhere else anyway.

[Daniel]

In the South east they've been calling themselves "Dover and Thanes CG" recently

[lakelandterrier]

Round us, we seem to oscillate between Falmouth and Fareham- I think depending who's more awake / less busy. The latter still terms itself "Solent CG"

[leehebs]

Had a diving incident on the Clyde and we were controlled by Belfast

[ShinyShoe]

Belfast has been the (lower) West of Scotland for some time. With Stornoway doing the northern part of the West.

[Pikey Dave]

We had a chat to the Coasties at Seaworks. The upshot is, that when you call the coastguard you can end up talking to anyone anywhere. They did an exercise where they shut down every station except Falmouth for several hours. All the UK traffic was handled by Falmouth without any problems. Each station can only handle so many calls, when they are at capacity, additional calls are automatically routed to a quieter station. The system automatically shares the load evenly throughout the country. The conclusion was, calling a specific coastguard, Humber, Solent, Belfast etc is pointless, as you might end up talking to someone hundreds of miles away. Just call "Coastguard"


Lions led by donkeys

[John Kennett]

We had a very interesting visit to MRCC Solent a few years ago. Maybe we should arrange a trip to NMOC Fareham and see how things have changed.

[Nos4r2]

Originally Posted by John Kennett

We had a very interesting visit to MRCC Solent a few years ago. Maybe we should arrange a trip to NMOC Fareham and see how things have changed.

Yes, IIRC that was immediately before the changes that took place. It'd be very interesting to see now.

[Nick Hearne]

Few years back saw a rib turn over on the bar at Salcombe, just called 999 and asked for the coastguard your put strait through no bother and having to have numbers stored!

[ShinyShoe]

Nick those numbers are DSC MMSI numbers **not** telephone numbers. They are for VHF use. In that situation on VHF you would do much the same as dialling 999, you would place a DSC urgency call (to all stations so no number needed), with a Mayday Relay as the accompanying voice message.

The MMSI is for the routine traffic stuff. Things like giving a passage plan, confirmation of arrival, perhaps reporting concerns that are not a Mayday. . Perhaps you come across some debris in the water that you don't think is recent but want to check it out. That kind of stuff. Things you probably don't call 999 for, then if you use DSC you can call them direct without blocking 16 at all.

[Nick Hearne]

Originally Posted by ShinyShoe

Nick those numbers are DSC MMSI numbers **not** telephone numbers. They are for VHF use. In that situation on VHF you would do much the same as dialling 999, you would place a DSC urgency call (to all stations so no number needed), with a Mayday Relay as the accompanying voice message.

The MMSI is for the routine traffic stuff. Things like giving a passage plan, confirmation of arrival, perhaps reporting concerns that are not a Mayday. . Perhaps you come across some debris in the water that you don't think is recent but want to check it out. That kind of stuff. Things you probably don't call 999 for, then if you use DSC you can call them direct without blocking 16 at all.

Yep point taken but he has also listed all the phone numbers along side too!

[ShinyShoe]

Ah - well same thing - you can give a passage plan by phone! Don't dial 999 to do it!