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From: ahmet erkan (no email)
Date: Fri Jun 09 2006 - 21:18:08 EDT
> >We are all just waiting for the price of
> >the transmitter to come down some more...
>
>Hi Eric,
>
>I think neither the price nor the reliability of AIS will ever come close
>to
>a VHF marine radio with a latching relay and a egg timer. It boggles my
>mind
>that intelligent people we have on this list oppose simple, cheap,
>effective
>products and prefer complicated expensive machines that a small percentage
>of mariners will buy.
>Ahmet,
>It isn't a matter of resisting, preferring, or
>anything like that. It is a matter of what IS
>GOING TO BE USED by the big ships. What good does
>it do to say "Gee, you are right Ahmet!".
>So what? We do have to go with what is out there
>NOW, don't we?
>
>Eric Thompson
>S/V Procrastinator
>South San Francisco
>
Eric, Eric, Eric, calm down buddy,
I disagree with you, and I feel sorry for you because you are so intolerant,
of free speech.
Cruisers do not have to be dependent on "what IS GOING TO BE USED by the big
ships." At least I am not going to be dependent on it.
It is quite possible to upgrade a radio such that it becomes an electronic
lookout for a single handed sailor. The only requirement is for the majority
of vessels to monitor channel 16 whenever they are underway. According to
Susan Meckley, when sailing the high seas, if a big ship is within the radio
horizon, it is very likely to get a reply to a transmission on Channel 16.
I am waiting for Susan or anyone else on the list to respond to a couple of
my posts, which were solely intended to reduce the probability of a sailboat
colliding with a big ship. I don't have a desire to be recognized by anyone
as being right. Frankly, I don't care. Upon retirement in a few years, I
plan to make many ocean crossings, probably by myself, and I don't want to
wake up every 25 minutes to scan the horizon. Especially in a gale at night
when I can't see a damn thing, why bother looking anyway ?
I also do not want to be dependent on the picowatts of energy reflected at
random from a nearby ship to wake me up. My radio is going to transmit the
words "any station" modulated on a 156.8MHz carrier once every five minutes
as I sleep peacefully, and it is going to monitor the same frequency to
detect any incoming signal. If there are any ships in my radio horizon and
if they reply as Susan said they would, my radio is going to detect their
signal and latch a relay, which will activate an alarm to wake me up.
So far nobody on the list responded to my posts other than Arild
condescending about the merits of AIS and that none of my ideas are new and
you yelling at me with your upper case letters.(in private but never the
less)
Well guess what......... I DON'T CARE what neither one of you guys think.
If the cruising community can ignore the opposition from a few cantankerous
members and demand that the future VHF marine radios have "electronic look
out" capability it would be nice, because the big ship's radio would
transmit a short "audibly undetectable" burst automatically every 5 minutes
whether the watch officer is on the bridge replying to my "any station" call
or not, and my radio will detect the strong VHF signal to wake me up. The
short voice transmission "any station-any station" from a single handers
boat would be a redundant capability for ships who have older radios. (The
periodic voice transmission would be activated by a switch when sailing high
seas)
Look buddy, I have not met anyone who was so dumb that I could not learn
something from them, if you think none of my thoughts or experience are
worth anything, ask me to teach you how to block my posts. However, since
this is my third post about the subject, if nobody responds with some
interest, I will not say another word. You can all continue to wake up every
25 minutes and scan the horizon, while I sleep. As soon as you see my boat,
or hear my automatic "any station-any station" call and radiate on Channel
16, my radio will wake me up and I will reply, and give you my position,
heading and speed.
You have a nice day Eric, and I hope you don't mind me posting your private
communication without asking your permission. I just think this is a really
important subject for cruisers, and we should not let the big ships or coast
guard impose rules without our vote.
If big ships do respond to Channel 16, it is wonderful, let's use it to our
advantage and enhance it, lets not screw things up.
Fair winds buddy,
Ahmet
SV8827
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