December 16, 2019 - 1583 views
A keen contingent of dedicated local volunteers who help to preserve people's lives along our coast, have recently attended a "fascinating and essential" course in the use of VHF marine radio at Coleg Llandrillo's Marine Engineering department,
The short course, which is nationally invigilated by the Royal Yachting Association (RYA), provides a key skill for those involved within the search and rescue service, of which the National Coastwatch Institution's (NCI) Great Orme station plays an active part, reporting to HM Coastguard in Holyhead.
Initially, all volunteers receive full training on how to watch and listen for people in difficulty around the coast, and they monitor marine VHF radio frequencies 016 (the marine calling channel), 65 (the NCI channel) and 0 (the search and rescue channel).
When necessary, they liaise with HM Coastguard, so being licensed to use the radio is of vital importance.
Tony Morris, the deputy station manager, stated that as the volunteers have now graduated from the 'Short Range VHF Radio' course taught by Coleg Llandrillo staff, they are now able to transmit on one of the VHF radios integrated into the station on the Great Orme.
This enables timely notification to the coastguard station in Holyhead of any situation that needs its involvement. The coastguard would then decide the relevant course of action.
Course tutor Jim Lehane stated that it was an "absolute pleasure" to teach the assembled personnel from the NCI. He was ably assisted by Andy White, course coordinator for Marine Engineering at Coleg Llandrillo.
Deputy manager of the Great Orme station, Tony Morris, said; " I would like to thank the tutors and the college on behalf of the NCI personnel who attended.
"We all thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the teaching methods used. It must be have been quite an experience with our age range: we totalled a combined age in the region of 460 years!
"We cordially invite any students who have an interest to come and visit us on the Great Orme".
The Great Orme station has only been operational (on Saturdays and Sundays) since August of this year and already has a crew of over 12 watchkeepers, but more are needed to enable opening on additional days.
Tim Day, the station secretary, said that anyone who is interested in finding out more information on becoming a watchkeeper should email him at greatorme.secretary@nci.org.uk
