Club VHF radio usage guidelines

Both Topknot and Mariana have in-built VHF radios for communicating with other vessels and shore stations.

• Only people who have done a VHF radio course should use the radios
• Always keep the radio on when at sea
• Use the radios on 'dual watch' mode (channel 16 + another channel):
  Use the coastguard working channel or an agreed ship-to-ship channel as one channel, whilst monitoring channel 16
• Know the local coastguard working channel
• Keep on low power setting if transmitting to nearby boats

Working channels

For talking to other club boats, you should use channel 72, the primary channel for non-commercial ship-to-ship communication. If you get no response, call on channel 16 and tell the other boat to switch to channel 72. Note that ship-to-ship channel 8 is intended for communication between commercial craft.

To talk to the coastguard or listen to coastguard notices, you need to know the correct working channel. Dublin Coastguard use channel 83 as a working channel for traffic reports and safety and weather information. For other Irish coastguard stations, see the map below.

Working VHF channels for coastguard stations in Ireland

The international calling and distress channel 16 and digital selective calling (DSC) channel 70 are operational nationwide. Channel 67 is also used by coastguard stations throughout Ireland. In addition, local channels are used as shown on this map (data from the Irish Dept of Transport, here, updated Dec 2006 and current at 23rd Aug 2011).

Stations from Carlingford to Mine Head come under the control of Dublin MRCC, stations from Cork to Galway under Valentia MRSC, and stations from Clifden to Malin under Malin MRSC.