Regarding the now ancient thread ( December 3) about the petition circulated
by MMSN, the Maritime Mobile Service Net i e. the "14300.0" police:
N6ZFO, Bill, wrote:
>Over the next day or two I will check informally with a couple friends in
the international sailing community to get a perspective on their viewpoint
and a sense of the amount of support that actually exists [for MMSN]
Well, it took longer than a few days. Sorry. At our pre-Christmas
crab-feast I had the chance to discuss MMSN with a friend who is a former
director of the America's Cup race. In addition to giving his own opinion,
he sent three emails to people with wide influence in yachting. They are
yachtsmen who hold national or world records in sailing competitions, are
quite famliar with the sport of open ocean sailing, both individually and in
competitions, and have extensive contacts at all levels of the sport.
Again, I note that yachts-men and women generally a high opinion ham radio
because of it's (historic) role in open ocean sailing. We have a lot in
common with this wonderful group, both having passionate interest in
competitions, technology, and setting records.
Result:
- Two of four had never heard of MMSN.
- One gave support to MMSN for providing general communication, noting
that progress on the difficult northwest passage, navigate d by sailboats
for the first time in 2007, was reported over MMSN extensively.
- The fourth had heard of MMSN but had no significant comment. He is the
inventor/founder of "sailmail", the current de-facto standard for sailboat
communication at sea, emergency and otherwise. VHF ship-to-ship
communication also has high importance. An aside . . , this fourth fellow
also invented/developed that wonderful moving 10-yard line seen on the
football broadcasts.
Significantly, there was not a single mention of any role whatsoever for
MMSN in emergency message handling. When you think about it , there just
can't be much of a role, as a miniscule number of sailors have general
licenses and the net is operational only a percentage of the time.
My friend noted that MMSN was probaby a bunch of guys defending a nitch that
gives them satisfaction and an apparent, but not real, sense of power and
accomplishment. I noted to my friend that any boat with HF radio and an
emergency has only to broadcast "mayday" or "SOS" on an open amateur band
and he/she will have a world of help at his service, 24 hours a day, but
especially during radiosport competitions when many hams are listening
carefully on all bands.
So, I reverse by 180 degrees my former rather supportive stance toward MMSN.
VHF boat-to-boat communication and sailmail have replaced HF radio virtually
completely for emergency calls.
73 and season's greetings to all.
Bill N6ZFO
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