Publisher: 15.00
This is a valuable new book from the UK Hydrographer and likely to be the first of a series specially for yachtsmen and other small craft. It is likely to become a 'must buy' for all yachtsmen on passages to the Atlantic Islands or to the Mediterranean from the UK. It is in the 'should buy' category for yachtsmen cruising within the Mediterranean and most useful for those cruising UK, Ireland or the coast of Europe from France southwards. Other volumes are planned to cover passages UK to the Baltic and UK to the Caribbean.
Little or nothing in it is entirely new. Its advantage is that it extracts all information which is of relevance to small craft from the eight or more volumes of the standard Admiralty List of Radio Signals and presents it in one 401-page volume with much value-added information. It contains everything you might want to know about radio communication and presents the information in a far better and more complete way than do the various yachting almanacs covering the area. It does so in a manner which can be kept up to date easily from Notices to Mariners or (when they get the system working properly) from the Hydrographer's web-site.
NP 289 makes good use of colour, photographs and diagrams and is attractively presented in the now-familiar Admiralty A4 soft-cover format. Parts are a little difficult to read in the poor light of a yacht's chart-table at night but a little prior preparation and use of book-marks will get over this.
The volume starts with the name, phone number and e-mail address of the Head of ALRS responsible for the publication. An invitation to contact him with any new or amended information you may come across follows: a good honest start and an indication of the intention to make this a really useful publication for yachtsmen.
There is an excellent glossary which both expands and explains the technical abbreviations so common in radio matters although sometimes the explanations themselves need further explanation. It could be improved by removing some of the obvious entries, such as the explanation that Jan = January or Fri = Friday.
Particular care, and a most useful touch, is taken over station names where both the official location name and the name used over the air by the station are given. This is especially helpful for Greek stations where the names of stations are often different from their locations but also for France and Italy.
Each main section begins with a detailed, but readable, explanation of how systems work, what their limitations are and gives practical instructions usable by beginners if necessary. Thus VHF, Navtex. Radio-Fax, GMDSS, Satcoms, even the very new SMS system, all have very full treatments with much use made of beautiful clear simple diagrams in colour. Whilst simply written, those of us with a good grasp of the subject will still benefit from these introductory sections.
Detailed chartlets covering all named sea areas - SAR, weather, exercise, gunfacts, subfacts. etc. - are given. No longer need we be mystified when Navtex in the English channel comes up with 'sea area Romeo'. The comprehensive SAR area chartlets are especially good since they show not only the country responsible for each piece of sea but where VHF is to be used and where MF is to be used in emergency situations. The Navtex chartlets will be found most useful by those pushing into new areas for the first time, for example a passage UK-Turkey which requires many changes of station to ensure full coverage of weather is received.
All local-radio stations which give weather-at-sea forecasts are listed in order along the various coasts, together with the relevant times, frequencies, type of forecast and the detailed area covered. In most cases the approximate location of the transmitter is also listed but this is not altogether satisfactory since these locations are not always noted on charts and are occasionally omitted altogether. Where, for example, is 'The Wave, 96.4FM' in the Bristol Channel area ?
The bulk of the book (more than 200 pages) is devoted to very full coverage of radio services from marinas and ports with particular emphasis being given to that increasing number of harbours where VTS (ie compulsory listening for yachts) applies. There is no question of long and boring lists to wade through: it is illustrated by coloured diagrams showing locations and port areas covered and, most delightfully, by many aerial photogaphs showing the marinas and associated areas. The latter, however, cover only harbours around UK and down to Northern Spain.
Plenty of space is given to all entries: name, call-sign, lat & long, telephone & fax numbers, frequencies, hours of operation and, very usefully, access hours where these are limited by tides and detailed location of harbour office where not otherwise obvious. Where special rules for access apply these are given even if little to do with radio matters: the new Skye Bridge signals for example or the Thames Barrier signals. Inevitably there must be errors in such a wealth of detailed information - such as the opening hours of our own Limehouse basin being given as HW 1-1.5 hours instead of these being the only hours around LW when we cannot have access. A minor beef might also be that no indication is given of size of marina: number of berths provided would be most useful.
GMDSS, of course, gets very full and detailed coverage (45 pages), including recommendations for small craft equipment in the different areas which might be covered in a long passage. Mobile phones using land stations are not covered since these are intended for land use only (although the telephone numbers of marinas are very useful) but mobiles which use satellites are well covered with many beautiful diagrams. Global weather systems and routeing data where these may be useful in the area covered are included although this is hardly small-ship stuff. DGPS stations are also listed, together with their message types.
The volume is completed with those very useful space-fillers which are always worth their place is such publications: the Beaufort scale in full detail, phonetic alphabet, signals table, international code flags and, of course, it has a very good index. This book is a delight to handle as well as being a necessity for many. It is a highly recommended purchase and most excellent value at only £15. -TO
Page prepared 31 October 2000