Coastguard, rescue helicopter, police and maritime radio worked for over five hours to find the source of a disruption to a VHF radio distress channel on Saturday. Photo / NZME
Coastguard, rescue helicopter, police and maritime radio worked for over five hours to find the source of a disruption to a VHF radio distress channel on Saturday. Photo / NZME
Coastguard, rescue helicopter, police and maritime radio joined forces in a five-hour search for the source of a VHF radio distress channel disruption on Saturday.
Coastguard Hawke's Bay have reminded people to take care when using VHF radios after a boat accidentally left its radio transmitting on distress channel 16 from about 7am to 12.30pm on Saturday.
Coastguard Hawke's Bay skipper Henry van Tuel said it's the first time he has encountered this situation.
"The problem is that if you had a weak signal you got drowned out by this person who had left their transmitter on".
He said he had checked if it was possible to send a tone down the line similar to 111 calls but it was not possible with a radio set-up.
"Because their radio is on transmit, even if you were able to call them they wouldn't even hear it because the radio can only either transmit or receive."
Hawke's Bay Coastguard skipper Henry van Tuel said it was likely an accident and people should take care when using VHF radios. Photo / NZME
He said despite the efforts of the coastguard, police, rescue helicopter and Maritime radio, they were not able to locate or contact the source of the disruption.
"What we heard at around half past 12 was an anchor winch start and then an anchor coming up on deck. Then we heard an engine start up."
"We thought "ah, they're on their way home." and literally five or 10 minutes later the interference stopped. They'd obviously come back home and turned the boat off."
He said multiple boats were seen returning at that time and nobody admitted being the source to a local radio expert who visited the boat ramp.
He said it was clearly an accident.
"My best guess is somebody has put their handpiece into a shelf or a cubby hole and something else has knocked against the transmit button."
He said VHF channel 16 is internationally recognised as the distress channel.
"Any boat coming in from overseas or anything like that automatically would use 16."
He said if people are in a situation where distress channel 16 is not available then they could also try reaching Hawke's Bay Coastguard on VHF channel 01, which is monitored at all times, or VHF channel 62, which is typically a chat channel.
